Addressing Needs of Workers who Care for Elderly Parents and Young Children and Proposal for "Sandwich Generation Leave"

87 Ms Valerie Lee asked the Minister for Manpower (a) whether focus studies have been done to assess the specific needs of workers who care for elderly parents and young children; (b) if so, what were the outcomes of such studies; and (c) whether the Ministry will consider a distinct "Sandwich Generation Leave" to take into account families with more than one child and/or have elderly parents to tend to.

Dr Tan See Leng: The Government commissions several studies that collect data on caregivers, including the Quality of Life Study and the National Population Health Survey. These studies cover caregivers in general, and do not specifically look at working sandwiched caregivers who care for both elderly parents and young children.

Given the diversity of caregiving needs, it is impractical to introduce various leave types to cater to every need. However, the Government has been progressively enhancing parental leave provisions over the years to support parents in caring for young children. Some employers have also voluntarily provided additional caregiving leave.

We have also implemented the Tripartite Guidelines on Flexible Work Arrangement Requests to help employers and employees to navigate discussions about flexible work arrangements and arrive at mutually beneficial arrangements. This can help working caregivers to manage work and caregiving responsibilities.