Caring for Mom and Dad
Parent Dependency and American Social Policy

Explores the programs and policies dependent parents navigated when their own financial resources did not provide adequate support.

Susan Stein-Roggenbuck (Author)

9781009203289, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 5 October 2023

264 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2 cm, 0.5 kg

'Public policy researchers will benefit from this thorough research and its ample examples … Recommended.' N. Zmora, CHOICE

Throughout the twentieth-century, the United States implemented social policies targeting the needs of dependent parents – parents who were no longer able to work but lacked sufficient financial resources to support themselves. These parent dependency policies either encouraged or required family members, particularly adult children, to provide support as an alternative to government benefits. Debates over how best to support aging parents centered on conceptualizations of dependency and the moral obligations family owed their parents. Measures of dependency often inhibited aging Americans' access to benefits they needed, focusing instead on ensuring that they were, in fact, dependent and that other family resources were not available. Susan Stein-Roggenbuck highlights this understudied aspect of the modern US welfare state, highlighting the limited support provided to aging parents and the hardship they and their adult children endured in the efforts to minimize public expenditures.

Introduction
1. Resisting a right to relief: states, responsible relative laws and old age assistance
2. 'This responsible relative racket': contesting family support obligations
3. Aging parents and survivor benefits: the challenge of proving dependency
4. Taxing rewards: parent dependency and American tax policy
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: History of the Americas [HBJK]