92.3 Assessment of global coverage and access deficits in LTC for older persons

28 Long term-care protection for older persons Figure 11. Informal LTC workers HC per 100 persons 65 years and over in selected countries, 2014 Source: OECD 2014. Thus, the quantity of the care work provided by informal LTC workers is by far exceeding those of the formal workforce – even if we consider that informal LTC worker numbers are head counts as compared to full-time equivalents of formal LTC workers. Paid informal LTC workers’ wages are usually far below those of formally employed LTC workers and working hours are often extreme, if specified at all, and usually not in line with national legislation. In some countries they include a high share of migrant workers, such as in the Canada, USA, UK and Ireland Spencer et al., 2010, often due to low payment and poor working conditions in their home countries. However, the majority of the informal care workers are unpaid family members, often also aged 65 or more: Even in Europe with its smaller family sizes than in other regions of the world, some 90 per cent of all informal care givers are relatives of the persons in need of LTC Leichsenring et al., 2013. In addition, informal care givers are often providing care to more than one person for example to both parents Department of Health, UK, 1999. Other than formal LTC workers, many of the informal care workers are not trained for giving care. In addition, they often spend as much time for giving informal care as working in a part time job, sometimes in addition to full-time work in the formal sector. As a result, many informal family care workers experience a high degree of work-family conflict:  For those who provide care and are additionally formally employed the risk of frequent absenteeism occurs: they are, due to ill health, more often absent from work as non-carers Zuba and Schneider, 2013 and are likely to experience signs of burn- out. 83.8 21.4 23.2 60.9 17.6 2.3 20.7 19 13.3 35.5 37.2 3.3 144.9 4.8 87.2 23.9 8.6 4.9 12.8 55.6 122.8 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 In for m al LTC wo rke rs p e r 100 p e rson s 65 +