Grandparents Raising Grandkids Have Higher Poverty Rate

It isn't unusual for grandparents to care for their grandchildren -- and in many cases, the grandparents are the children's primary caregivers.

According to a new Census Bureau report of 2000 data, one-third of grandparent caregivers lived in "skipped generation" households, where neither parent of the grandchild was present. Advocacy groups say in many cases, grandparents are raising the children because the parents are either doing jail time or using drugs.

The Census report found that a significant number of these families are living in poverty. About 19 percent of grandparents caring for their grandkids lived below the poverty line in 1999, according to the report. That compares to 14 percent of all families living with children.

The highest proportion of grandparent caregivers in poverty was in the South -- 21 percent -- while 16 percent of grandparent caregivers in poverty lived in the West and 15 percent lived in the Midwest.

Advocacy groups are now urging Congress to do more to help. There are bills pending before the House and Senate aimed at helping grandparents with basic costs and housing. But so far, there's been no action.

Some ethnic differences also played a role in the data breakdown. Although the majority of grandparents living with grandchildren -- 27 million -- were white, they comprised only 2 percent of the total white population age 30 and over. By comparison, 6 to 10 percent of other racial and ethnic groups lived with their grandchildren.