Labour

Gransnet's survey shows challenges faced by the stretched middle - Cooper

Yvette Cooper MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities, responding to Gransnet’s survey on the Stretched Generation, said:

“As the double dip recession made in Downing Street is putting families under pressure, Gransnet's survey shows this is not just a problem for the squeezed middle. It’s also about the stretched middle - a middle generation of women, who face financial and economic pressures but who are also stretched providing care and support for their families, both young and old.

“Gransnet research found that three quarters of grandmothers over 50 are caring for their grandchildren, over a third care for vulnerable or elderly relatives, almost 40 per cent do voluntary work, and more than 1 in 4 are still holding down a job. More than half of them have helped their children or grandchildren financially in the last year, even though they are being affected by Government policies themselves. We know that unemployment among women in their fifties and sixties has gone up by 40 per cent in the last two years. It’s little wonder that over a quarter of women in their fifties and sixties describe themselves as ‘stretched.’

“It is these women in the stretched middle who are picking up the pieces left in the wake of the Tory-led Government's economic policies and cuts in support for childcare and social care. Many are working really hard to hold families together across the generations and it’s time we recognised and valued the contribution they make.

"The Government is not listening to the stretched generation. Too often in politics people talk about families with young children or pensioners. These women are caught in the middle. That's why Labour's Policy Review will be considering how to give women in their fifties and sixties a stronger say and to look at how we respond to the challenges this middle generation of women face."