From How Can Social Security Children's Benefits Help Grandparents Raise Grandchildren?, by Liu, Siyan, and Laura D. Quinby of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College:
In 2020, around two million grandparents were responsible for the basic needs of their grandchildren, with grandparent care concentrated in historically disadvantaged communities. Despite being particularly vulnerable to financial insecurity, most grandparents are ineligible for formal support -- such as subsidies for foster parents, housing assistance, and Social Security dependent child benefits -- because they raise their grandchildren outside of the foster care system. Using the Health and Retirement Study and American Community Survey, this study documents how grandparent caregivers differ from typical grandparents in terms of time and money spent on grandchildren, demographic characteristics, and economic resources. It then evaluates how their finances would improve if eligibility for child benefits were aligned with the more lenient tax criteria for claiming a dependent grandchild.
Being "outside of the foster care system" is definitely a problem but the Social Security aspect of it is that if you're on retirement benefits from Social Security, only your minor children and adult children who became disabled before age 22 can obtain child's benefits on your account. Your grandchildren are only eligible for these child benefits under very limited circumstances.
The children could get benefits if the grandparents adopted them but the grandparents are generally scared to try. The problem is that usually the children come to live with their grandparents because the parents have serious problems with substance abuse, other mental illness or are abusive. The grandparents are scared to rock the boat with an adoption petition. The parents may take the children back to a disordered, dangerous environment.
The Social Security Act could be altered to give children's benefits to grandchildren in the custody of their grandparents. A change along these lines would certainly be family friendly but at this point no Social Security legislation, whatever its merits, can pass Congress.
Children Being Raised By Their Grandparents Poorly Served By Their Parents
ReplyDeleteYeah the government does do a poor job of being a family.
ReplyDeleteResources for Grandparents raising Grandchildren are available through the state level. Specialty programs with designated funding are available. Best point of contact for this situation is your local Area Agency on Aging.
I work closely with our AAA. They have nothing for grandparents raising grandchildren, especially not money.
ReplyDeleteYep--husband of an adoptee here: our whole system of foster care and adoption is abhorrent. The little money that does flow goes only to foster care and adoption; they don't give a lick of similar money (or pay for treatment, etc.) to the struggling parents. Just take the kids away swiftly from their families, throw them in largely cruddy foster care, and maybe adopt them out to complete the cous de grace of erasing their identities.
DeleteSo much of that money, and a lot more money in general, should be spent on these families so we aren't ripping kids away from their families!
It is not the government's job to "be a family". It is the government's job to support families and SSA needs to improve its policies in this regard.
ReplyDeleteAnd almost by definition, these children are poorly served by their parents. Throwing away a million children is not good public policy. At least sometimes, it takes a village to raise a child.
Social Security can barely function as is and you want to expand it?
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
This sounds like a job for another agency, not Social Security. If you open up benefits for grandchildren, why not nieces and nephews or cousins?
10:02 what state are you in it is a mandate that they have those programs from the federal level to accept fed funding?
ReplyDeleteIt is not the job of the government to provide support to families. Nope. Sorry that is not the job of government.
ReplyDeleteHaving worked in the foster care system for several years, I always hated that saying: "It takes a village to raise a child." What it takes is a good mother and a good father (sometimes either one alone can do it but its tough). The truth is, in the absence of good parents, it is difficult for an entire village to raise a child. The foster care system often does a poor job of raising children but, it's all there is for too many of these children. Government rarely provides a good solution for such things. If a village does such a good job, why do so many foster kids have such bad outcomes?Grandparents who step up deserve all the praise.
ReplyDeleteHere's an observation for the crowd that thinks the answer to every problem must be found in the government. When I worked in the system I noticed how many residential treatment providers were formerly religious organizations: Texas Baptist Children's Home, Methodist Home for Children, Catholic Charities. Such organizations were started by churches and sometimes provided places for parents who were struggling to temporarily place children while they got back on their feet. At some point, the government took over and now these organizations are simply government contractors. What used to be funded by charitable donations is now funded by taxpayers. I have seen cases where struggling parents were looking for temporary placements for children. These are no longer available because the only way these organizations will take a child is if the state is paying. The only way the state will pay is if the child is removed from the parents due to abuse or neglect. The only way a parent who is struggling can turn a child over to the state is by abandoning the child which then makes them guilty of neglect. I think the same has happened with hospitals. There used to be hospitals supported by charitable religious organizations and if a patient did not have the ability to pay, they didn't. Now, many of these hospitals still exist but they receive copious amounts of taxpayer dollars. We've abandoned our duty to help others and instead turned to the government to do that for us. Maybe that's not such a bad thing. I don't know. But one only has to look at Social Security to see how bad the government can f.... things up.
Right now the grandkids have to be living with and receiving half support from the grandparents. Both of those are not terribly difficult to fake. The child's parents have to be disabled or dead. This requirement eliminates about 99% of grandchildren from being paid. Imprisoned or deadbeat parents aren't enough to pay the kids. Changing the law would help many who need it but would make it easy to file fraudulent claims.
ReplyDelete"It takes a village" doesn't mean you can do it without parents. It means parents cannot always do it alone.
ReplyDeleteCharles could do a GREAT service by suggesting that the grandparents ADOPT their grandchildren! And by providing FREE legal services for the adoption. The grandparents wold see up to a 50% RISE im their checks!
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