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You and Yours: Middle-aged carers, Pets at Home, Barge evictions

16/10/2019

Middle-aged carers, Pets at Home, Barge evictions

BBC Radio 4 - You and Yours, Middle-aged carers, Pets at Home, Barge evictions

Middle-aged carers giving up work. Experiments with families and pets. Barge evictions.

The people giving up work to look after elderly relatives.
Why dog washing stations, selfie spots and pet care classes are the future.
Staying afloat if you live on houseboat.

One in five middle-aged workers plan to stop work early to look after relatives who are sick or infirm. That's according to the pensions company, Aviva, which surveyed more than two thousand workers aged over 45. A fifth expect to have to stop working before they really want to, to keep care costs down. People questioned said they'd spent on average £5000 buying care equipment for people they love. Official figures from the Office for National Statistics show that the over 45s are the most likely to give up work to provide care. Nearly half a million people have done that in the past two years. We speak to two carers who quit work in their late forties to look after elderly parents. We also hear from Helen Walker, chief executive of Carers UK.

Big department stores are experimenting more and more with selling experiences rather than things. It's a way to try to stop all their customers drifting off to shop online. The bricks and mortar store has to be something different and special enough to be a destination in itself. Now Pets at Home, Britain's biggest pet shop chain, are joining in. They want to create special occasions for families and their pets. We speak to their Chief Executive, Peter Pritchard, about why he wants to move into providing more services.

We hear why some families living on houseboats are worried about being evicted following a clampdown by the Canal and River Trust, the charity looking after our waterways. Under the law, people living on boats can't stay in one place for more than two weeks without a permanent mooring. We ask Matthew Symonds, the national boating manager, to respond to the criticisms.

Presenter: Winifred Robinson
Producer: Tara Holmes.

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You and Yours

Middle-aged carers, Pets at Home, Barge evictions

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