My great-grandmother is in hospice and my grandma depends on her – will she receive her mother’s Social Security?

Skip generation families are an unfortunately growing trend. They are defined as families where one or more minors are in a household with grandparents and possibly great grandparents, but the parents are deceased or otherwise incapacitated and uninvolved. Causes for this trend are overwhelmingly socioeconomic. They can include:

• Substance abuse
• Teen pregnancy
• Incarceration
• Evasion from law enforcement
• Abandonment

Skip generation family scenarios also crop up suddenly and with few warnings.  The additional unexpected financial strain and other lifestyle stress can leave skip generation families unprepared for when the oldest members start to succumb to the ravages of age and illness. 

When The End is Near

Skip-generation families have proliferated over the past few decades due to socioeconomic factors, including drug abuse, incarceration, abandonment, teen pregnancies, and other issues.

Father Time is inescapable. Most people, at some point in their lives, will reach a point where they can anticipate the end is near, and will elect to enter hospice. If the skip generation family depends on the Social Security benefits income of an elder member who is nearing their demise, the impending loss can have serious financial repercussions.

An 18-year-old Reddit poster in a similar situation was seeking advice for her own skip family situation. Her details were as follows:

• Poster is finishing high school and was planning to start college full-time at Texas A&M  after graduation. 
• The poster’s skip generation family consists of herself, her 71-year-old grandmother, and a 94-year-old great-grandmother. 
• The great-grandmother has entered hospice, as her health is deteriorating, and her condition is considered terminal. 
• The family lives entirely off the combined annual social security benefits of $26,000 from the great-grandmother and $17,000 from the grandmother. 
• The poster is concerned that once the great-grandmother passes, she and her grandmother will not be eligible for survivor’s benefits and will be in financially dire straits.

The poster was asking if her grandmother would have any recourse through which she could continue to receive the great-grandmother’s benefits in order to make ends meet. At age 71, she could not return to work, so the poster might have to forgo college to get a job that can earn enough to make up the shortfall. 

The Safety Net

Medicaid is just one aspect of the social safety net that the government has in place for its citizens.

Despite the constant criticisms from those decrying the government safety net and demanding more Socialist policies, the US system has ancillary support systems in its umbrella that can provide relief for skip generation families such as the poster’s.  Several respondents made a number of suggestions, comments, and observations. 

• Unfortunately, the only way that the poster could qualify for a death benefit is if she was diagnosed to be on a long-term disability. 
• The grandmother is likely 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 is a big enough school that would likely allow for the provision of part time work or a work-study program.
• One respondent cautioned that any checks received for the great-grandmother’s postmortem should NOT be deposited, as the Social Security Administration will inevitably claw them back. Depositing the checks could potentially trigger a fraud violation. 

This article is written solely for informational purposes. Anyone seeking more comprehensive information should speak to a financial professional or the Social Security Administration.