That's the main finding of a report released by Carers Australia which says close to three million Australians provide some type of unpaid care, mainly to family and friends.
The report adds changing demographics is one of the key factors behind the predicted increase.
Australia's ageing population is seeing demand for unpaid carers outstripping supply.
That's the main finding in the report "The economic value of informal care in Australia in 2015", released by Carers Australia.
It says Australians will provide $60.3 billion in unpaid care this year alone.
The Chief Executive of Carers Australia Ara Cresswell says Australia must come up with innovative ways to meet the demand.
"We have reached that tipping point where more people are requiring care than there are unpaid family and friend carers and we have to find ways to make sure people can combine working care, can combine study and care and can find emerging technologies that might assist them with their caring role."
The report says 2.86 million Australians act as informal carers, and around 825,000 people are primary providers of unpaid care.
Approximately 78,000 children under the age of 15 are also delivering informal care to family members due to a lack of outside support.
By 2025, only 42 per cent of people over the age of 65 with a severe disability not living in residential care will have access to an unpaid family or friend carer.
The report suggests more flexibility in workplace arrangements are key to supporting carers to stay in the workforce.
"What we're trying to do is create a workforce that understands that currently one in eight Australians is a carer. That is only set to rise as our population ages and certainly with fewer children. And as that rises we need to make sure that one in eight people don't leave the workforce. Because as a country will can ill afford to have people often at the height of their experience and skill, 44-64 when people are very skill walk out to take on a caring role.
The odds are that during their lifetime, every Australian is highly likely to be a carer, know a carer or need one.
Helen Johnson started caring for her son, Ben, over 21 years ago and was concerned that she would have to leave a career that she loved to take care of him.
Ben is one of only 600 people worldwide with Rubinstein-Taybi Syndrome and he was also diagnosed with severe Autism in 1997.
His disability is categorised as severe and he is completely dependent on Helen Johnson and her husband.
Despite the challenges in caring for her son, Helen has been able to continue working because of ongoing support from her employer.
"I was devastated when obviously I had future plans once I had my children to return to work. And my son was so severe, in the early years and it got worse as time went on. And in the early years I didn't think I would be able to go to work, because I was working full-time I was working in a management position. However they offered for me to come back casual, flexible. And that was a few years down the track and it's been that way ever since. I am permanent part-time and it's been that way ever since. I have so much flexibility and I am so fortunate. It gives me an ability to have an income, and ability to have my life and my time and earn money for my superannuation and it helps me support Ben as well."
Along with greater work flexibility, the report has put forward a number of policy options to assist carers.
These include improved access to carer support services, such as respite care, more research into encouraging an good mix of formal and informal care provision and adapting the formal care sector so that it better meets the needs of migrant Australians.
Share
