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Center for Retirement Research at Boston College
Center for Retirement Research at Boston College
The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College has released a new Issue in Brief:
“Could Social Security Child Benefits Help Grandparent Caregivers?”
by Siyan Liu and Laura D. Quinby

The brief's key findings are:
  • Grandparents raising grandchildren are often under financial stress but – without legal custody – tend to get little formal support.   

  • Importantly, Social Security child benefits are only available to those who are legal dependents of Social Security beneficiaries.

  • In contrast, the IRS does not require legal custody to claim a child as a dependent for tax purposes.

  • The analysis estimates the impact of aligning Social Security’s rules with the IRS criteria on grandparent caregivers.

  • The results show that this change would substantially boost the incomes of half of all grandparent caregiver households.

This brief is available here.
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Center for Retirement Research at Boston College
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