A Kelowna grandmother is helping lead a petition drive to support seniors receiving Canada Pension Plan (CPP) benefits to help off-set gaps in financial support for taking on the legal responsibility to raise their grandchildren.
Sharon Whiting, who has raised her now 17-year-old granddaughter since she was five, said she was shocked to discover the only CPP child benefits are extended to those receiving CPP disability or for children who have lost a parent under the Survivor’s Benefit.
Whiting, 67, says there is no support for Canadian seniors recipients who are raising grandchildren – even though these children would likely be in the provincial foster care system if not for their grandparents stepping in to take on legal parental responsibility.
She says that policy does not reflect a growing characteristic in our society – grandparents having to revisit a parenting role due to any variety of circumstances.
Whiting, who runs a home-based bookkeeping business, says her granddaughter was mired in a difficult drug abuse situation involving her parents, her mother being Whiting’s daughter, while living in northern Alberta, causing Whiting to seek an interim B.C. Supreme Court order to seeking custody of her grandchild.
Aside from the legal challenges, Whiting says she like most seniors don’t envision their potential retirement years raising another child.
But like her, an increasing number of grandparents are filling that role, with the financial implications, particularly for those relying on their CPP benefits, posing a potential challenge.
Whiting has connected with a group called Fairness for Children Raised by Relatives in B.C. to start a petition advocating for changes to the CPP benefits for parenting grandparents.
On the organization’s website, it posts: “We know that many grandparents and even great-grandparents are raising toddlers to teens while navigating retirement incomes that were never designed to support child-rearing. Without policy adjustments, these caregivers face significant and financial instability – as do the children they have committed to care for.”
Whiting says the petition that she initiated requires 500 signatures to be addressed by the House of Commons, and as of last weekend, the petition had had reached 502. B.C. represented the largest signature total at more than 270.
She noted that local Conservative MP Dan Albas has expressed his support for the measure.
Beyond financial issues, Whiting says raising kids as a grandparent presents other lifestyle challenges most like her never thought they would face in their retirement years.
“The last thing you think of is trucking around with a walker, or having other health issues, and having to raise a younger child,” she said.
She says groups like Fairness for Children Raised by Relatives can be a valuable resource, but ultimately you have to be involved in the lives of grandchildren you are raising.
“Your friends at your age are probably not in your situation as their kids are grown up and gone,” she said.
“So you have to communicate with other parents through being involved in schools, soccer or other activities and build connections with those parents. The last thing anyone probably thinks of is being a 73-year-old soccer mom, but you find if you push yourself in there you find there are other older parents as well so to a lesser extent you don’t feel out of place. But at the end of the day, none of us plan for this, so it is what it is. You do what you can. If anything, being involved in raising my granddaughter has helped keep me feeling younger.”
Her granddaughter, who is seeking to pursue a post-secondary education when she graduates high school, appreciates the commitment to her life provided by her grandmother, and Whiting wants the federal government to recognize that same commitment to those parenting seniors living on CPP benefits.
The petition can be signed electronically by entering Petition e-6646 on your browser and following the prompts.
Signing the petition requires your name, valid email address, postal code and telephone number. A followup email will be sent to each petition signer within three days, to verify their identity. For further information, go to www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Petition?Details?Petition=e-6646.