Reported by NPR Health
Cookie Jones, left, quit her job to provide care to her mother who has Alzheimer's disease. Caregivers often earn less as they take time off work to help aging family members. Tyler Russell/Connecticut Public via Getty Images hide caption
As prices have ticked up in recent years, the cost to caregivers has skyrocketed. A study, released Wednesday by AARP and shared first with NPR, finds that family caregivers — people helping out disabled, chronically ill or elderly adults — now spend an average $11,508 out of pocket each year. That's roughly 60% more than just five years ago, and adds up to 31% of a caregiver's income, on average.
The increase during those years is more than twice the overall rate of inflation of 24%, as measured by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index.
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What's driving the ramp-up? Food, housing and medical expenses are the biggest chunk, finds the study, which queried 2,538 family caregivers.
The bump in costs comes as family caregivers take on more care and more complicated medical responsibilities at home, says Megan O'Reilly, vice president of governmental affairs at AARP. "The more care that's needed, the more it costs."
And increased spending is only part of the story. The demands of caregiving often require people to reduce their working hours or quit work entirely, the survey finds. It's a double whammy: increased costs on top of lost income.
Meghan Maher has seen that first-hand. Just seven weeks after the birth of her first baby, her mother was diagnosed with advanced cancer. Suddenly, Maher was a "sandwich" caregiver — parent and child needing her at the same time.
Meghan Maher and her mom Connie Cadwell. In order to help her mother through cancer treatment and care for her young children, Maher had to leave her career. Maher family hide caption
At first, she tried to manage it all. She returned to her career in cancer research after maternity leave, but keeping up with the demands of work, her mom and her newborn son was too much.
She shrank her hours to part time. But…