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Club Sandwich

Club Sandwich

The first national count of Australia's 'sandwich generation' | Stand Up and Be Counted with Melissa Reader | Club Sandwich

Oct 14, 2026 · 36m

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About this episode

How many people are in the sandwich generation? Until today, nobody knew. The number: 2.43 million people aged 35–70 currently help or care for an ageing parent. This number is expected to rise to over 6 million within 10 years. In this episode, Sarah Macdonald is joined by Melissa Reader (CEO of Vera and Commissioning Editor of Club Sandwich) to discuss Vera's new, nationally representative research conducted in partnership with YouGov. They explain why this group has been missing from major reports, and explore knock-on effects for carers' work and finances. "People often aren't counting themselves," says Sarah. "They're not counting the labour of love they do as labour; they're…