At 60 I’m losing £500 a month caring for grandchildren. I wish I had a bigger pension

The love grandparents have for their grandchildren is unconditional, but it seems love is coming at a cost at a time when many people’s finances are feeling the squeeze.

Research by Creditspring found grandparents estimate they spend nearly £20 a day looking after grandchildren – with 70 per cent saying it feels more expensive now than it did 12 months ago.

In Donna Doidge’s case, the 60-year-old from Atherstone said she is losing out on £500 a month from caring for her two grandchildren.

Donna is a maternity healthcare worker and has had to cut back shifts at work to be able to help care for her daughter’s sons, who are autistic.

She said: “These little boys need a lot of care, so I have done a flexible working plan around my daughter’s working hours and on the days when I am not working, I look after the children.

She says this usually ends up taking around 30 hours a week, and adds: “It is tough at the moment, and things are quite difficult financially.”

Donna took a £10,000 pension tax-free lump sum when she was 55 to be able to help financially support her children, as well as buy herself a campervan which she hasn’t been able to use.

Most people can access their private pension savings from the age of 55 and do not have to retire. Donna took advantage of this, returning back to work straight away part-time, as quitting work entirely would not have been financially possible for her.

“I knew that I was still physically fit enough to go back to work and in the NHS you can also pick up extra shifts which would earn me a little extra,” she explains.

But she says as she has done more childcare, she has cut down on work, which has left her in a “financial strife”.

Donna earns about £1,600 a month, but her rent is £950, leaving her with only £650 afterwards.

She said: “I absolutely love looking after my grandchildren, they are the centre of my world, but I have four other grandchildren and my time with them is limited because I am just tired all of the time.

“I have two really dodgy shoulders that have got to be replaced but I am putting it off because if I have them done, I won’t be able to look after my grandchildren.”

Two-fifths of the country’s grandparents over the age of 50 have provided regular childcare for their grandchildren, according to previous YouGov polling for leading older people’s charity, Age UK.

One in 10 (12 per cent) said they looked after their grandchildren at least once a day and fifth (18 per cent) look after them four to six times a week.

For Donna, this is having financial implications and she regrets not being able to save more into her pension, which would mean she could afford to work less now.

But she said: “I have no savings whatsoever, I have never been able to save. I am just aiming for my state pension pot. I haven’t got massive workplace pension pots. Young people need to pay into a private pension. My parents told me this when I was a kid and I didn’t listen to them.”

Donna isn’t entirely sure how much she has in her pensions as she has small amounts in various different schemes and pots.

She does have some money in her NHS pension, which is more generous than a lot of private schemes as it provides guaranteed income for life in retirement, but Donna doesn’t know exactly how much is in there.

She has some credit card debt that she is paying off monthly and also has a small loan from subscription-based loan service Creditspring. This is worth £300, which she pays £50 towards each month.

Donna warned for people to “not be like her” and to put any extra money straight into a pension during their working lives.