My 71-year-old grandma gets $17,000 in Social Security – will that increase after her mother dies?

In a meteoric gymnastics career filled with Olympic and World Champion triumphs, Simone Biles has rapidly shattered records to become the indisputable best female gymnast of all time. In addition to her unprecedented domination in a sport historically associated with Eastern European or Chinese dominance, Biles also has the distinction of overcoming another obstacle: being raised in a skip generation family, also described in some circles as “grandfamily”.

Many Grandfamiles Are Often Barely Hanging On

Once rare, but now unfortunately proliferating in increasing numbers, grandfamilies – known academically as skip generation families – are defined as families where one or more minors in a household are being raised by grandparents and possibly great-grandparents. This situation is usually due to the biological parents being deceased, incapacitated, or otherwise uninvolved. In Simone Biles’ case, she and her siblings were raised by her maternal grandparents, Ronald and Nellie Biles, due to her mother’s substance abuse issues.

Luckily for Simone Biles, her grandparents provided a sufficiently stable home environment for her to prosper and develop her incredible gymnastic skills.  Unfortunately, many more skip generation families are dependent on government programs for subsistence.

When the oldest members of a grandfamily start to succumb to the ravages of age and illness, the unexpected financial strain and lifestyle impact stress can leave skip generation family survivors unprepared for handling future necessities, such as food, rent, medicines, and other basics.

One teenager in a grandfamily took to Reddit for advice on how to handle a looming disastrous situation: 

• She is 18, finishing high school, and planning to attend Texas A&M to get a good job to support herself and her grandmother.
• The poster’s grandfamily consists of herself, her 71 year old grandmother, and her 94 year old great-grandmother. 
• The great-grandmother has entered hospice, as her health is failing, and her condition is considered terminal. 
• The family presently lives solely off the combined annual social security benefits of $26,000 from the great-grandmother and $17,000 from the grandmother. 
• The poster is worried that once her great-grandmother passes, she and her grandmother will not be eligible for survivor’s benefits, and will be in financially dire straits.

As her grandmother’s likelihood of employment at age 71 was negligible, the poster was considering forgoing college to work but wanted to know if there were any other options.

Obscure Federal Programs and Private Sector Aid

Sympathetic responders provided limited options to suggest, based on conventional experience:

• A few noted that the grandmother is probably eligible for SNAP (food stamps), Medicaid, Housing Assistance, and Heating Assistance (HEAP – Home Energy Assistance Program) programs, and those should be explored.
• Texas A&M’s large size would likely allow for the provision of part time work, or a work study program that the poster could access with a hardship justification.
• One respondent cautioned that depositing any checks in the great-grandmother’s name post-mortem could potentially trigger a fraud violation, noting that the Social Security Administration will inevitably claw them back. 

None of the respondents mentioned the following additional resource options, probably due to their obscurity and low-profile:

• Temporary Assistance For Needy Families (TANF): This federal program is designed to help families with little to no income that can augment other assistance, especially if the poster is doing some kind of part-time work.
• Community Service Block Grant: This is a program that provides funds to states to administer to families through local community organizations to combat poverty. 
• National Family Caregiver Support Program: NFCSP provides grants to states based on their share of the population age 70 and over. It funds a range of supports that assist family and caregivers in caring for their loved ones at home for as long as possible.

Additionally, The Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network GKSNetwork.org is a non-profit that provides numerous resources and assistance specifically for grandfamilies. 

This article is solely intended for informational purposes. Qualified financial advisors and social workers may provide more comprehensive details to address specific queries. 

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