Who cares, and for whom in Britain today?  That is the subject of the latest research commissioned by the Salvation Army from the Henley Centre.  There are several changes happening in society which affect our interest in, or ability to care.

Time and money

British people are overall wealthier and more mobile, but also busier than ever before:

• disposable incomes were on average 2˝ times greater in 2003 than they were in 1979

• the top 10% of the population accounted for 20% of the national income in 1979 but it is predicted to be 30% in 2010, while the bottom 10% accounted for 4.4% of the national income in 1979 dropping to 3% in 2010

• as a nation we travelled 720 billion passenger kilometres in 1999 compared with 218 billion in 1952

• nearly half the British population moved house during the 1990s

• British adults work the longest hours in Europe, 57% saying their workload has increased in the past year

• an increasing proportion of women are in employment, especially those in the age groups most likely to have dependent children, as this chart shows:

Women in employment by age group, 1971 and 2006

    People have more money, but less time.  They therefore have less time to care, but are more likely to be able to afford to buy care - if it is available.  They are more mobile and tend to choose the community they belong to according to their interests rather than belonging to the community where they live.  When asked about what they have in common with other people, the highest response was 69% for partner/spouse, but people with the same interests and hobbies came at 60% compared with only 23% for neighbours.

Changing priorities

If people marry (rather than cohabit) they do so later and the average age is now 31 for men and 29 for women.  Increasing divorce rates and couples having children at an older age all add up to changing patterns of family life and thus also of care provided within families.  People’s views of who is to blame for society’s ills have shifted.  When asked why people live in need 25% answered “Because of laziness of lack of will power” in 2000 compared with 16% in 1994 but the percentage who thought it was “Because of injustice in our society” dropped from 32% to 23% in the same period.

Caring

In 1999 63% of people thought people were less caring than 10 years previously.  When asked why, every option had increased considerably as this chart shows:

Why people are less caring

    Responsibility for the elderly is one key area.  One in five (21%) don’t want to care for elderly relatives, but a third (34%) are worried that there will be no one to look after them when they get old.  This is aggravated by the fact that the number of places in care homes for the elderly dropped by 6,700 between 1998 and 2001, the majority of these in the public sector.

    The increase in the number of women in employment means more child care places are needed.  For disadvantaged families there are only 43,000 subsidised child care places for 600,000 children under the age of three living in poverty.

    The number of people claiming disability allowance doubled in the 1990s from 1.7 million in 1991 to 3.5 million in 2000.  The number of people in England, Scotland and Wales seeking treatment for their drug use increased 7% from 1999 to 2000 and was 45% more than in 1995, while in 1997 10,000 people received help for alcohol misuse every day. 

Sources of care