Summary
In 2020, round two million grandparents have been answerable for the fundamental wants of their grandchildren, with grandparent care concentrated in traditionally deprived communities. Regardless of being significantly susceptible to monetary insecurity, most grandparents are ineligible for formal help – reminiscent of subsidies for foster mother and father, housing help, and Social Safety dependent baby advantages – as a result of they increase their grandchildren exterior of the foster care system. Utilizing the Well being and Retirement Examine and American Group Survey,this research paperwork how grandparent caregivers differ from typical grandparents by way of money and time spent on grandchildren, demographic traits, and financial sources. It then evaluates how their funds would enhance if eligibility for baby advantages have been aligned with the extra lenient tax standards for claiming a dependent grandchild.
The paper discovered that:
- Grandparent care is concentrated amongst single-female, Black, and Hispanic households.
- Though grandparent caregivers have extra duty than typical grandparents, they’ve nearly no private financial savings.
- Round half of grandparent caregivers have claimed Social Safety, and so would qualify for baby advantages if the coverage have been modified.
- For these households, alternative charges would enhance by 16 proportion factors on common, with Black and Hispanic caregivers experiencing the best enchancment.
The coverage implications are:
- Increasing eligibility for dependent baby advantages may very well be a useful gizmo for policymakers to cut back the monetary pressure of caregiving.
- Particularly, baby advantages would attain probably the most susceptible households who don’t file taxes.
