Pexels Breaking the Cycle of Multigenerational Care.
In South Africa, every generation that comes of age seems to inherit the same heavy mantle: caring simultaneously for children, parents, and often unemployed siblings or extended family. Gen X is living it now, Millennials are entering their most financially pressured years, and Gen Z may soon be next in line – the newest sandwich generation.
The inherited challenge
Sanlam Corporate’s Age of Confidence research shows just how entrenched this cycle has become. Most South Africans will need to work until the age of 80 to retire comfortably – 15 years beyond the official retirement age. At the same time, the 2025 Sanlam Benchmark survey found 59% of people cannot afford or access healthcare in old age.
That shortfall cascades through families. Today’s younger workers are increasingly expected to cover medical or living costs for ageing parents, while also raising children and servicing debt. Meanwhile, day-to-day survival demands eat into savings: Benchmark research shows 44% of members have dipped into emergency savings just to make ends meet.
The result? A succession of sandwich generations, each squeezed between competing responsibilities and unable to focus fully on their own long-term financial security.
The growing weight of health and financial strain
Rising health costs exacerbate the problem. In 2025, average medical scheme premiums rose by 11%, ranging from R1 400 to R10 000 per month. Simultaneously, chronic illness is striking earlier, with 13% of people under 50 already living with a chronic disease.
Without intervention, the financial stress cycle repeats: parents underfund their own retirement and healthcare, children step in to carry costs, and the next generation inherits the same burden.
What employers and funds can do to break the cycle:
Sanlam Benchmark research points to concrete ways to disrupt this succession:
- Integrate health and retirement planning: Benefits should reflect the reality that financial and health outcomes are inseparable. Affordable cover and primary healthcare solutions across the care continuum can move the needle, along with holistic wellness programmes encouraging exercise and healthy habits.
- Address debt holistically: Tools like soon-to-launch Sanlam Optimise integrate debt management with employee benefits to help employees escape high-cost debt cycles through debt mediation and policy consolidation.
- The Day One approach: Encourage new joiners to up their contributions from Day One; it’s a lot harder to ask people to increase their contributions down the line. The other critical priority is to empower people to preserve their savings when leaving their jobs.
- Set up screenings: Early detection of lifestyle diseases and chronic conditions can make a massive difference in treatment and outcomes.
- Provide education early: While 90% of consumers value retirement benefit education, most only seek advice within nine years of retirement – far too late. Embedding literacy and access to advice earlier can change the trajectory.
- Support emergency savings: With 43% of members reporting no emergency fund, tools that help employees build buffers can prevent early withdrawals that erode long-term savings.
- Simplify benefits communication: Only 47% of members feel confident they understand their risk benefits. Clarity, counselling, and one-on-one sessions can close the knowledge gap, especially in preparation of big life shift moments.
- Offer caregiver-friendly policies: Flexibility, mental health support, and employee assistance programmes help lighten the multigenerational load.
- Shift to value-based healthcare: Preventive care, screenings, and wellness initiatives reduce long-term costs and keep employees healthier for longer.
From succession to solution
Every generation has faced the sandwich squeeze. But Gen Z, with its digital fluency and appetite for financial knowledge, may also be the one that helps break the cycle – but only if this generation is given the right support.
For employers, that means rethinking benefits and workplace policies to build real resilience, not just for today’s workforce but for the generations to come.
Because the succession of sandwich generations isn’t inevitable. With early planning, integrated support, and employer and fund commitment, it’s possible to turn the story from one of endless caregiving strain into one of dignity, independence, and retirement with confidence. DM
Author: Nzwa Shoniwa, Managing Executive: Sanlam Umbrella Solutions
