Grandparents Plus' Doing it All? report, which is based on analysis of latest government figures, has found that 63 per cent of grandparents provide childcare to their grandchildren. The biggest age group involved are aged between 55 and 64.
The bulk of these are grandmothers who, the charity claims, will struggle to balance work, childcare commitments and perhaps looking after elderly relatives when the state pension age for women rises from 60 to 65 in 2018.
Grandparents Plus has warned that the situation is set to worsen as the state pension age for both men and women rises to 67 by 2026.
The charity is calling for grandparents to have access to flexible working conditions to take into account their childcare duties. Parents should also be given the option of transferring any unused parental leave to a grandparent who is in work.
This is on top of investment in affordable childcare so that parents do not have to rely so heavily on their own parents.
One in five grandmothers provides at least 10 hours a week of childcare and it is estimated that half of all mothers rely on their parents or their partner’s to look after their baby when they return from maternity leave.
Grandparents Plus interim chief executive Denise Murphy said: "As the UK’s population ages, there is growing pressure on grandparents to go out to work as well as provide care for their grandchildren and often elderly relatives as well.
"As older people remain longer in the workplace, there is a risk of a serious care gap emerging in the provision of informal care for children and older people."
The charity analysed government figures from British Social Attitudes Surveys from 1998 to 2009 for the report.
