Issue Rising care costs and pressure on informal carers

Summary

The report expects ageing to raise care costs and increase the pressure on family carers. In the shorter term both societal costs and health care costs rise, and societal costs such as lower labour productivity and reduced income far exceed the care costs themselves. Prevention has great societal value for health, well-being and productivity, but that value is hard to translate into forecasts of savings on care spending. Labour shortages already affect the care sector, where nurses and carers increasingly have to decide whom they help and whom they do not. The report also stresses that pensions, the state pension (AOW) and care costs form a large expense borne by a shrinking group of workers.