Caregivers and Retirement: Findings From the 2026 Retirement Confidence Survey

Issue Brief

By Craig Copeland, Employee Benefit Research, and Lisa Greenwald, Greenwald Research

Summary:

The Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS) was conducted for its 36th year in 2026 to measure attitudes toward, preparations for, and understanding of the various issues surrounding retirement of American workers and retirees. The RCS found that working Americans’ confidence in having enough money to live comfortably throughout retirement dropped in 2026 to its lowest level since 2017. Confidence in other aspects of retirement also declined, as debt and cost-of-living challenges have impacted many Americans.

In this Issue Brief, the retirement prospects, knowledge, preparations for retirement, and experiences in retirement are examined for those who are unpaid caregivers vs. those who do not provide this care. This builds on the 2023 publication that also focused on caregivers in the RCS. Caregivers in this survey are defined as those who provided unpaid care for an adult and/or child within the last 12 months in a noninstitutional setting and helped their care recipient with at least one activity of daily living or instrumental activity of daily living. A description of these caregivers, those to whom they provide the care, and actions they have taken in response to being a caregiver are enumerated before comparing caregivers vs. non-caregivers on many dimensions of financial attitudes, financial activities, and retirement preparations.

Key findings are:

Caregivers were less likely to say that their health status is excellent or very good, less likely to have a household income of $75,000 or more, and more likely to be female. The share of caregivers who said that their health status is excellent or very good was 36 percent, compared with 45 percent among non-caregivers. Fifty-three percent of caregivers had household incomes of $75,000 or more vs. 62 percent of non-caregivers, while 61 percent of caregivers were female compared with 47 percent of non-caregivers.

Caregivers were more likely to have lower levels of financial assets and more likely to have a problem with debt than non-caregivers. Thirty-four percent of caregivers had less than $10,000 in savings and investments compared with 25 percent of non-caregivers. At the same time, caregivers were more likely to say that debt is a problem — 69 percent compared with 57 percent among non-caregivers.

Thirty-four percent of caregiving workers and 20 percent of caregiving retirees reported that they provide financial support to their caregiving recipient. Furthermore, 20 percent of caregiving workers and 15 percent of caregiving retirees had taken on new or additional debt as result of being a caregiver.

The role and responsibilities of being an unpaid caregiver are more likely to have a negative impact on the caregivers’ mental health than on the performance of specific financial tasks, but a number of financial tasks are still impacted. Among caregiving workers, 64 percent said their mental health is negatively impacted by the caregiving, and 52 percent of caregiving retirees said their mental health is negatively impacted. The most impacted financial tasks among caregiving workers were saving for emergencies (56 percent) and working the hours they want or need to work (54 percent).