Informal care finally seems to be gaining a more prominent place in public discourse and social policy in Cyprus. Recent developments represent important steps in the right direction. At the same time, however, they raise a fundamental question: Will we limit ourselves to recognizing the contributions of informal caregivers, or will we move toward recognizing and protecting their own needs and rights?
The new Law of 2026 on Social Participation, Inclusion, and Independent Living of Persons with Disabilities represents a significant reform. It strengthens independent living, personal assistance, and in-home care, creating a new framework that directly impacts many families who provide daily care. The phased implementation of the new Personal Assistance and Home Care Allowance is part of this new approach.
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At the same time, the government’s intention—as part of the proposed pension reform—to strengthen pension protection for informal caregivers through the social security system is particularly significant. “Thalpo” welcomes this direction. The recognition that providing unpaid care can limit or interrupt participation in the workforce and, consequently, affect future pension benefits is a significant development. This issue is all the more critical because the burden of informal care continues to fall disproportionately on women, with consequences for their income, career advancement, and pension adequacy. Caring for an older person, a child, or an adult with a disability, a person with a chronic illness, or another person with long-term care needs can lead someone to reduce their working hours or even leave the workforce entirely. The cost is not just the immediate loss of income. It also includes lost contributions, a lower future pension, limited career prospects, and an increased risk of financial insecurity later in life. That is why pension protection for informal caregivers is a matter of social justice.
Which informal caregivers will be recognized?
Just as important as the introduction of a new measure is the question of who will ultimately be recognized as informal caregivers and who will have access to the proposed pension credits or contributions. The exact eligibility criteria will determine whether the reform is truly inclusive.
If recognition for pension protection purposes is linked exclusively to eligibility or recognition of informal care under the new legislation for people with disabilities, there is a risk of creating a restrictive framework that would exclude significant groups of caregivers.
Informal care is not limited to supporting people with disabilities. It is provided daily to older adults with increased care needs, people with dementia, cancer, chronic or degenerative diseases, people who have suffered a stroke, and other conditions that result in long-term dependence. In these cases as well, a spouse, parent, child, relative, or even another person in the immediate social circle may significantly reduce their work hours or leave the labor market entirely to provide care.
Social protection for caregivers should not, therefore, depend exclusively on the diagnosis or administrative category of the person receiving care. The new disability legislation can be an important step toward recognizing informal caregivers and the importance of their role, but it is not the only one. The range of situations that give rise to the need for informal care is much broader.
A broader and independent framework for recognizing informal caregivers is needed, with criteria that take into account the actual intensity and duration of care, the needs of the person receiving care, and the impact that care has on the caregiver’s ability to work and pay social security contributions. Recognition must be based on the reality of caregiving and not solely on the recipient’s category.
The caregiver is also a citizen with needs and rights
. A fundamental shift is also needed in the way we perceive informal care. An informal caregiver is not merely a means through which care is provided to someone else. They are a person with their own needs, limits, social life, work, family, and rights. The care they provide constitutes a substantial social and economic contribution, and this must be reflected not only in the recognition of their role but also in their social protection.
To date, much of the policy has focused, understandably, on the person in need of support. However, a one-sided approach can render the person who provides daily care virtually invisible. Policy must, therefore, systematically address the needs of the caregiver as well.
Along with the assessment of the needs of the person requiring care, there must be an opportunity for a separate assessment of the caregiver’s needs. How intensive is the care they provide, and for how long? Can they continue to work at the same time? What is their physical and psychosocial burden? Do they need training, guidance, counseling, or temporary respite from caregiving? Access to at least appropriate information, training, and guidance must be considered a fundamental element of any policy for caregivers.
From Recognition to a Comprehensive Support
Framework Pension protection must be part of a much broader framework. A central element must be the development of respite care (respite care). No family can provide care 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for years on end, without support.
Equally important is ensuring that caregivers can participate in the labor market through flexible arrangements, adequate care leave, and policies that allow those who are able and willing to continue working. Leaving the workforce should not be the only practical option when a family member needs care. Pension protection should serve as a supplement, not as an incentive to leave the workforce.
Access to information, training, and psychosocial support is also needed. Many people become caregivers overnight, following a stroke, a diagnosis of dementia or cancer, an accident, or the worsening of a chronic illness, without any preparation for the role they are called upon to assume.
And, of course, adequate social protection is needed. This may include pension credits for periods of unpaid caregiving, government-subsidized contributions when a caregiver is forced to leave their job, as well as consideration of appropriate financial or contractual forms of support. Caregiving is a form of socially necessary work, and the state has a duty to recognize this contribution in practice. At the same time, any benefits provided to the caregiver should not result in a reduction of the benefits or rights of the person receiving care.
Informal Care and the Gap in Long-Term Care
We cannot examine informal care in isolation from the broader long-term care system in Cyprus. The country continues to face significant challenges in organizing, funding, and delivery of long-term care, with limited home-based and community care services and significant staffing needs. As long as the formal system cannot adequately meet these needs, a large part of the responsibility inevitably falls on families.
Informal care thus functions as an invisible pillar of the health and social care system, yet the people who sustain it do not receive commensurate recognition, support, or protection. Support for informal caregivers, however, cannot be used as a substitute for the development of adequate formal long-term care services. Families must have real choices and support; they should not have to take on caregiving simply because no other solution is available.
The European Approach and the Care Deal
This discussion is not limited to Cyprus. The European Strategy on Care and the European policy on access to affordable and high-quality long-term care have already recognized that the sustainability of care systemsrequires support for both those receiving care and those providing it.
At the same time, the European debate is evolving toward a more comprehensive approach, a European Care Deal, which treats care not as a marginal social issue but as a central theme of social policy, employment, gender equality, demographic change, and social protection.
This development is particularly important for Cyprus. It gives us the opportunity to avoid creating separate and fragmented systems for people with disabilities, older adults, or specific illnesses, but rather to develop an inclusive approach to care throughout the life course. Such a framework must recognize the informal caregiver based on the care they actually provide and the impact of that care on their life. Recognition cannot be limited solely to the category or diagnosis of the person being cared for.
Caregivers at the Decision-Making
Table Representing the people receiving care and representing the people providing it are not the same thing. Their needs are closely linked, but they are not always the same. Issues such as loss of income, pension protection, the ability to remain in the workforce, the need for respite, psychosocial strain, the disproportionate reliance on women to meet care needs, and a person’s very ability to continue providing care in the long term directly concern the caregiver.
That is why informal and family caregivers themselves, as well as the organizations that represent them, must have direct and institutional involvement in the consultation and decision-making processes that affect them. This is a fundamental principle of sound social policy: no decisions about caregivers should be made without the caregivers themselves at the table.
From Individual Measures to a National Policy
The new disability legislation, the proposed pension reform, the debate on long-term care reform, and developments at the European level present a significant window of opportunity.
A structured social dialogue is needed that will lead to a National Policy for Informal and Family Caregivers, embedded within the broader framework of long-term care and aligned with the new European care agenda.
Such a policy must be based on clear principles: broad and inclusive recognition of caregivers based on the intensity and duration of the care they actually provide; an independent assessment of their own needs; pension credits and, where necessary, government-subsidized contributions; protection from poverty and the gender-based pension gap; the ability to balance work and care through leave and flexible arrangements; respite care; information, training, and psychosocial support; consideration of appropriate allowances or voluntary contractual forms of support with insurance coverage; ensuring that support for the caregiver does not reduce the benefits of the care recipient; and meaningful participation of caregivers themselves in policy-making.
“Thalpo” is ready to contribute to this dialogue by conveying the voices, experiences, and real needs of informal and family caregivers. As Europe moves forward with the discussion on a new Care Deal, Cyprus has the opportunity to shape its own new social contract for care: a system that supports the person in need of care, without rendering the person providing it invisible.
*Ph.D. in Health Policy and President of “Thalpo” – Network for the Empowerment of Informal Caregivers in Cyprus
