This report notes that there is an incomplete picture of family life in Britain. The scale of the contribution that the UK's 14 million grandparents are making is not fully known. This interim report uses new British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey data to begin to build a more comprehensive picture of Britain's grandparent population; looking at how it has changed over the last decade, and what financial implications becoming a grandparent might involve.
The findings show that there are broadly two very different experiences of grand-parenting in Britain and this is determined by socio-economic and income status. They suggest that grandparents, particularly working age grandmothers on low incomes are under pressure to combine work and childcare. The results are discussed in some detail and the report concludes with implications for the next stage of the project.