This year, when we celebrate Grandparents Day on Sunday, October 26th, let’s remember the incredible diversity of grandparent roles. Grandparents are often recognised as much-loved helpers who are vital to Australian families with nearly two in five Australian grandparents providing regular care.
But for a smaller, often overlooked group, the Grandparent role is profoundly different – they are recognised as ‘Grandparent Carers’.
What sets a grandparent carer apart from a grandparent who cares? It’s the sheer scope of responsibility. Unlike regular grandparenting, these individuals take on the primary responsibility for their grandchildren, making day-to-day decisions about schooling, health, and routines, often on a 24/7 basis. For them, this is a full-time parenting role.
Grandparent carers fall under the umbrella of kinship care (family-network caring), and they are increasingly common. As of June 2024, 39.5% of children in out-of-home care (OOHC) nationally were placed with a grandparent.
However, many of these crucial arrangements happen informally without child protection orders or formal allowances or legal considerations. The 2021 Census identified 60,785 grandparent families raising grandchildren without a parent present, capturing many of these informal carers. Sadly, this lack of formal recognition can lead to marginalisation and systemic neglect.
Grandparent carers face immense systemic challenges that hinder their ability to provide stable care and/or also impact their health and wellbeing (including financial health).
The transition to becoming a Grandparent Carer often involves significant financial burden. Many carers are on fixed incomes and report having to sell their homes or access their superannuation early just to afford the cost of raising children. This financial strain is a primary contributor to overall stress.
Informal grandparent carers are often excluded from vital government safety nets. Take the Family Tax Benefit (FTB), designed to help with living costs like food and school expenses. To be eligible, the carer must prove they are the primary carer, a legal status many informal carers simply cannot obtain without going through a long and expensive court process. This financial insecurity undermines their well-being.
Imagine not being able to consent to your grandchild’s necessary medical treatment. Without formal guardianship, many grandparents cannot register children for Medicare, access repeat prescriptions, or provide legal consent for crucial mental health services. This lack of legal authority creates immense emotional strain.
Our systems must match the resilience of these families. The evidence is clear that we need targeted policy changes to ensure Grandparent Carers receive dignity and respect for the care they provide families.
We need to establish a nationally consistent legal definition for both informal and formal grandparent carers.
We must amend the eligibility criteria for financial support to explicitly include informal carers, bridging the unfair gap in payments.
Grandparents often face fragmented services. Implementing care coordination services would provide a central point of contact, helping them navigate health, legal, and community supports.
This Grandparents Day, let’s celebrate, recognise and commit to supporting the Grandparent Carers who are doing one of the most important roles – raising the next generation.
Council on the Ageing Queensland often collaborates with universities and researchers on diverse challenges and opportunities for ageing well in Queensland. Through a Work Integrated Learning task, Queensland University of Technology (QUT) students undertook research on Grandparent Carers. Council on the Ageing Queensland acknowledges their research and we thank the QUT student team for their insights and time in generating the report:
Fullinfaw, P., Mulley, C., Hynes, R., & Sitsky, S. (2025). Recognition and support for grandparent carers. [Consultancy report prepared by Queensland University of Technology (QUT) students for Council on the Ageing Queensland].
You can read their report on recognition and support for grandparent carers here:
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Blog written by:
Slawka Bell, Grandparent and Grandparent Carer Advocate
Stephanie Power, Senior Policy and Research Officer, COTA QLD