Grandparents providing childcare could soon be paid super for their unpaid work

Grandparents who step in to mind the grandkids so their own children can get to work often do it for love, not money – but that unpaid care may finally start counting towards their retirement.

A senior figure in Australia’s $4.4 trillion superannuation sector has flagged a reform push that would see people paid super contributions for unpaid caring work, including the kind of informal childcare grandparents provide every day across the country.

For decades, unpaid carers – grandparents, parents on leave and those looking after sick or ageing family members – have missed out on the compulsory contributions that build up a nest egg over a working life. The gap shows up decades later, when many of those same carers reach retirement with far less saved than people who stayed in paid work the whole time.

“It’s a structural gap,” the industry figure said, describing the reform as the next major shift the sector needs to tackle.

The comments suggest major players in the super industry are already working through how such a scheme might operate, though details of who would foot the bill and how contributions would be calculated are yet to be settled.

For older Australians who spent years raising children, then retirement years helping raise grandchildren, the idea lands close to home. Plenty of grandparents provide regular, sometimes daily, childcare that allows adult children to keep working, without ever seeing a cent of super for the hours they put in.

Recognising that work financially would mark a shift in how Australia values care that has traditionally gone unpaid and largely unnoticed by the retirement system.

It is early days, and any change would need to work through government and the super industry before it reaches pay packets or retirement accounts. But the fact that a leading figure in a $4.4 trillion industry is putting it on the table signals the conversation has moved from wish list to genuine reform agenda.

For the grandparents currently juggling school pickups and babysitting on top of their own retirement, it may be the first sign that their contribution is about to be counted, not just appreciated.