Generations sharing family homes

The older generation offers more support than the younger

Economic hardship is making more children, parents and grandparents share their homes, a report has said.

Some 500,000 homes in the UK host at least three generations of the same family, Lloyds TSB Insurance said.

A 7.6% rise in "multi-generational living" since 2005 "is the legacy of social and economic factors", it said.

Young people are staying at home longer to save money, while as the old live longer more of them are cared for by relatives, the report said.

"More and more middle-aged people are taking on the care of older family members and supporting children who are going through tough times," said Phil Loney of Lloyds TSB Insurance.

"Housing market conditions are probably the main reason for the sharp rise of multi-generational households seen in the UK over the last couple of years," the report said.

Carrying the burden

Lloyds TSB Insurance polled 500 people living in such "multi-generational" homes.

More than six in 10 said they lived with their relatives "at least partly by force of circumstances".

The report referred to "those who have both older and younger relatives living in the same household" as the "sandwich generation".

However, rather than carrying the burden of running the households on their own, they were "receiving strong support in all areas of domestic life from the older generation", whilst they were receiving "much less support from the younger generation".