Raising a grandchild full-time doesn’t automatically add them to a grandparent’s Social Security record – a specific legal dependency test decides it, and most grandparent caregivers have never heard of it.
When Diane Klein’s father got a letter warning his Medicare Advantage drug costs would jump to $1,860 next year, she found a free, federally funded counselor who would not try to sell him anything new.
Denise’s mother could still hold a conversation, but she couldn’t remember to move her Social Security deposit into the account her landlord accepted. Here’s how Denise became her payee, and what the job actually requires every year after.
Some states let an adult child become their Medicaid-eligible parent’s paid, trained caregiver – a different benefit entirely from the once-a-year caregiver tax credit.
A daughter working full-time still needs someone watching her father from 8 to 5. Adult day care can fill that gap, and several programs help cover the bill.
A growing list of states now pay wages, not just protect a job, when an employed adult child steps away to care for an aging parent. Here is what three of them actually pay.
Denise found out her Area Agency on Aging could fund respite care and counseling for free, through a federal program with no income test at all.
When Maria’s mother was hospitalized after a stroke, Maria learned her company’s 38 employees meant no FMLA protection at all. Here is who the law actually covers, and who it leaves out.
Maria assumed respite care meant giving up on caring for her mother herself. It doesn’t, and a federal program has been funding it for decades.
Maria spends $8,000 a year on her mother’s home care. She assumed her mother’s Social Security check made her ineligible to claim her as a dependent.