Much of the identified risk of poverty relates to how successfully families reconcile the tension between participation in the labour market and caring responsibilities for children and older relatives. Current UK social policies stress the former but do little to support the latter, instead reinforcing the gendered division between paid employment and childcare which can lead women into poverty. Inequality in parental leave, an assumption that mothers look after children while fathers earn money, and a shortage of affordable childcare conspire over time to depress the income of many mothers. Grandmothers play a vital role in providing free and flexible childcare, allowing less well-off, and especially single, mothers to (re-)enter the labour market. But the ability of these parents to take up paid employment can come at the expense of the grandmothers who themselves often have little money, thus effectively distributing the disadvantage of low income across the generations.
