2025 UKARFF Early-career Researchers talks: Dr Jingwen Zhang – The means-tested public social care support and the use of formal and informal care among older people in England
07/02/2025
Dr. Jingwen Zhang, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), investigates the impact of means-tested social care funding on older adults’ utilisation of care services. Using data from The English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), she conducted an in-depth statistical analysis of over 5,000 adults aged 50 and above, all of whom had some level of support needs with daily activities. Her research sheds light on how financial factors influence access to and use of care, offering valuable insights into the challenges faced by older adults in navigating social care systems.
Dr Jingwen Zhang, University of Manchester, funded by the Economic Social Research Council (ESRC)
In England, not everyone is eligible to receive public funding to cover social care. Instead, access is means tested. Yet social care is expensive, with 1 in 7 facing social care costs of £100,000 over their lifetime. Dr Jingwen Zhang, Lecturer of Sociology at the University of Manchester, wants to know how means tested public social care affects the use of paid or unpaid care among older adults.
Using data from The English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), she undertook statistical analysis on over 5,000 adults aged 50 and above and who had some support needs when doing daily tasks. Jingwen found that those eligible for publicly funded social care support are 10% more likely to use paid formal care. She also found that use of paid formal care services does not influence whether someone also uses unpaid care. While a means tested approach helps those economically disadvantaged to access social care services, the cost threshold has not changed since 2010. Older adults who have assets just above the threshold are likely to underuse paid formal care and potentially experience unmet care needs, clearly benefitting from financial support for social care.
Watch the recording
If you cannot see the embedded video below, then you can watch the recording on YouTube at this link.
Meet the speakers
Dr Jingwen Zhang
Jingwen is a Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Manchester, with research interests spanning ageing, health and care inequalities, and the life course, with a particular emphasis on quantitative methods. She previously worked at the ESRC Centre for Care and remains an affiliate, where her work centers on care inequalities and the development of care data infrastructure. Additionally, Jingwen is a co-lead of the Quantitative Analysis and Research Network for Care (QAR-Net Care), where she contributes to advancing research on care-related disparities through the use of robust data analysis techniques.