Care credits in the British pension system

The paper is a brief outline of the first stage of a comparative research project in therole and adequacy of care credits in the British and German pension systems. Theprovision of care credits has been an essential part of pension reforms around Europe,which significantly changes the prospects of carers to accumulate adequate pensioncontributions through their life course. But although the policy significance of carecredits is due to rise in line with an increasing demand for eldercare, ourunderstanding of this measure in the context of welfare protection more broadlyremains limited. Care credits in pension systems, whether they are provided for childcare or for the care of adult dependants, can operate, firstly, as a compensatorymechanism for those who devote significant amounts of time to caring for dependants;and secondly, as a vehicle for promoting greater gender equality in pension protection,given that the majority of caring is still undertaken by women. This paper discussesthe function and adequacy of care credits in the British pension system in three parts.First, the paper considers the concept of care credits as a compensatory mechanismand its contribution to the promotion of greater gender equality in welfare provision.The second part of the paper turns to the British context, discussing the emergence ofcare credits in the pension system and the importance of the concept in the Britishsystem of welfare protection. The third and final part of the paper considers the recentreforms in the pension entitlement structure, including the abolition of the HomeResponsibilities Protection and the conversion of existing contributions intoqualifying credits towards a Basic state pensio