Massachusetts Personal Injury Library
Grandparents Struggling With Recession
Massachusetts lawyer Thomas M. Kiley concentrates on legal issues regarding children’s health and child injuries. A recent article in The Wall Street Journal illustrates the difficulties grandparents caring for grandchildren are having because of the recession.
Today, more and more children are being raised by their grandparents. According to the article, the number of grandfamilies has grown from 3% in 1970 to 6.5% in 2007. There are 4.7 million kids under age 18 being raised by a grandparent. Many times these grandparents provide a safety net when the parents can’t provide for the children. Sometimes parents are affected by job loss, cancer, drug use, or AIDS and can’t raise the children themselves, and grandparents step in to prevent them from ending up as wards of the state. If one million children being raised by relatives were to enter foster care, it would cost taxpayers more than $6.5 billion each year, according to a 2005 report by Generations United.
The unemployment rate for older workers is lower than the overall rate. But once they become unemployed, older workers find it harder to land a job and they tend to remain out of work longer than younger workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The unemployment rate for those 55 and over has been climbing in recent months; in March, it rose to 6.2% — the highest it has been since September, 1949, according the bureau.
Many older workers who lose their jobs drop out of the work force. The number of people 55 and older classified by the federal government as “discouraged” — meaning they’ve given up looking for work because they don’t think there are any jobs for them — nearly tripled from December 2007 to December 2008, to 154,000 from 53,000, according to the AARP Public Policy Institute.
Grandparents caring for young children should be very careful to go through their homes and make sure it is a safe place for their grandkids. Children are easily injured and there are steps grandparents can take to prevent serious injury. According to the Consumer Products Safety Commission Neighborhood Safety Network, some of the things they can do to prevent injury includes:
- Don’t give grandchildren under 3 years old toys or other items with small parts.
- Don’t tie toys around their necks.
- Keep all medicines in containers with safety caps.
- Be sure medicines, cleaning products, and other household chemicals are out of reach and locked away from children.
- Make sure your crib is sturdy, with no loose or missing hardware; used cribs may not meet current safety standards.
- Be sure your grandchildren wear helmets when they ride tricycles or bicycles.
- Never leave your grandchildren alone for a moment near any water or in the bathtub, even with a bath seat; check bath water with your wrist or elbow to be sure it is not too hot.
Kiley Law Group located in Boston and Andover, Massachusetts takes time when speaking with you about your case and works with you on a contingent basis so there are NO FEES unless our trained Massachusetts child injury lawyers wins your case. Call now for a FREE evaluation of your case – 1-888-208-1695.
