Summary

The current crisis within the European social care sector is driven by a confluence of demographic shifts and financial vulnerabilities that exacerbate overcrowding and inequality. As the aging population grows significantly, demand for long-term care services rises rapidly among the elderly, creating a severe shortage of qualified staff across many nations. Persistent structural challenges include high costs, limited access to care, and insufficient public funding to support these expanding needs. Furthermore, a critical failure lies in the recruitment and retention of essential personnel, particularly live-in care workers, who are often underpaid and marginalized due to low compensation and lack of protection in their private home placements. This is compounded by a deep concern over undeclared labor in EU member states, where migrant women face precarious employment conditions, while fears exist that care workers emigrating from Central and Eastern Europe could be displaced to Western countries for better wages. Beyond staffing issues, the report highlights the feminisation of poverty, noting that the vast majority of care workers are migrant women whose lives are being undermined by underfunding and an inability to valorize this specific sector. Ultimately, the lack of qualified personnel, combined with widespread informal care practices and inadequate investment in the care sector, has contributed to an unsustainable underfunding and crisis within Europe's social care landscape.

Title

Caritas Europe

Description

Caritas Europa is the network of 49 member organisations in 46 European countries. We are committed to promoting social justice and to fighting poverty and social exclusion.

Keywords

social, care, more, read, family, humanitarian, innocent, people, story, european, europe, action, there, years, workers, europa, young

NS Lookup

A 192.124.249.12

Dates

Created 2026-03-07

Updated 2026-04-22

Summarized 2026-04-24