Balancing your work and the duties of caregiving is a challenging job even under the best of conditions. If you realize that you cannot balance your work and elderly parent's care, and alternatives to flexible working hours, part-time work or home-based work are not accessible to you, you might opt to quit your job.

Quitting your job to care for aging parents may have certain serious implications on your personal and financial well-being. Family caregiving may lead to increased financial costs. You may wish to talk with loved ones, trusted work colleagues, or even unofficially with your manager to discuss the cost of quitting a job for caring your elderly parents.

The Costs of Quitting a Job for Caregiving

If you are quitting a job and will be caring for your elderly parents, it could mean a lower earning. In most of the states in the US, family leave is unpaid, making it difficult for many employed caregivers to ask for leave from their employers. According to NCBI, people aging 50 or older, who quit the job for caregiving their elderly parents lost an average of $303,880 from their wages and other income benefits.

What Are Your Challenges As a Working Family Caregiver?

You might be one of those carers who are glad to assume this duty, but haven’t factored the financial and emotional consequences of caring for an older parent. As per a recent survey which was undertaken by the National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC) and the AARP Public Policy Institute (2015b), 36 percent of the caregivers of older adults of more than 50 years of age accounted for mild to high levels of financial stress.

The overall pressure of working life becomes highly challenging, alternating between work and your elderly parent's care in the following ways:

• Personal Financial Load

  AARP research study has concluded that out of 4 family caregivers (78 percent), more than 3 reports bearing out-of-pocket costs due to caregiving. Besides this, as a family caregiver, your decision to reduce your work hours or quit your job, can cause a major impact on your present and future financial conditions like losing your income, Social Security, and benefits of retirement, health insurance, and career possibilities.

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