Carers

• Almost all older Australians had participated in social activities at home (97.4%) or outside their home (94.4%) in the previous three months.

Definition: Carer - a person who provides any informal assistance to people with a disability or older people (aged 65 years or older). Carers can be split into two groups:

• Primary carers - are those who provide the most assistance to a person with disability with one or more of the core activities of mobility, self-care or communication. Their lives are often significantly impacted by their caring role. • Other carer - a person of any age who provides unpaid care with one or more of the core activity tasks but is not the main provider of informal care; or a person who only provides assistance with non-core activities.

The 2018 SDAC showed that the number of carers has decreased to 2.65 million, down from 2.70 million in 2015. In 2018:

• Around one in nine (10.8%) Australians provided unpaid care to people with disability and older

Australians, down from 11.6% in 2015. • 3.5% (861,600 people) of all Australians aged 15 years and over were primary carers - the carer who provided the most assistance to a person with disability (similar to 3.7% or 855,900 people in 2015). • Around 1 in 11 carers (235,300 people) were under the age of 25, down from 274,700 in 2015.

Overall, females were more likely to be carers than males with 12.3% of all females providing care in 2018 (similar to 12.8% in 2015), and 9.3% of all males (down from 10.4% in 2015).

Disability Status of Primary carers - Primary carers provide care to someone with disability, but can also be living with disability themselves.

• Over one-third (37.4%) of primary carers had disability, twice the rate of non-carers (15.3%). • 44.3% of male primary carers had disability, compared with 35.0% of female primary carer

Income level

Undertaking a caring role can affect a person’s capacity to work and earn an income. In 2018, the median gross personal income of all carers was $800 per week, increasing from $700 in 2015. In comparison the median gross income for non-carers was $997 (up from $900 in 2015). Primary carers were more likely to live in households with a lower equivalised gross household income. Of primary carers who reported their income:

• half (50.2%) lived in a household in the lowest two quintiles, twice that of non-carers (25.6%) • 13.2% lived in a household in the highest quintile, compared with 25.8% of non-carers.

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