More grandparents living with grandchildren in Canada and footing the bill

A growing number of Canadian grandparents live with their grandchildren and a significant number of them help pay the bills, says a new report.

Close to 600,000 of the seven million grandparents living in private homes in 2011 shared those homes with their grandchildren, according to the study by Statistics Canada.

Of those 12 per cent, or about 72,000, had no middle-generation person in the home, says Anne Milan, senior analyst for the federal statistics agency.

“That’s about 75,000 grandparents in Canada that are essentially raising their children’s children,” she says.

It may be a small portion of the overall number but Betty Cornelius, founder of Cangrands, a support group for grandparents in that situation, says she receives about 14 calls a week from seniors who find themselves the primary caregiver for their grandkids.

Cornelius, now 62, raised her own granddaughter from age 3 ½. She’s now 21.

In her experience as a grandmother and as an advocate, the situation is usually a tragic one.

“Our grandchildren have been neglected and abused. Very few of us have our grandchildren because the parent died naturally,” she says. “There is a lot of mental illness and a gazillion addictions.”

In addition to the stresses of raising a child at an advanced age, Cornelius says there is a lack of support for grandparents, financially or otherwise.

“We have a 72-year-old grandmother who needs new knees, raising an 18-month-old baby,” she tells Yahoo Canada News. “It’s hard.”

About half of those grandparents living in multi-generational homes had at least some financial responsibility for the household, according to the Statistics Canada survey, which was based on data from the National Household Survey.

“Grandparents in skip-generation households and those living with lone parents were more likely to make household payments than those living with couples,” says the study.

Milan says the number of co-residing grandparents increased from 2001 to 2011.

“If the trend continues, if we continue to have more grandparents, if we continue to have a more diverse population, there is potential for the number of co-residing grandparents to increase in the future,” she says.

The survey also found notable ethnic differences in multi-generational living.

Aboriginal people reported a higher proportion of grandparents living with their grandchildren, at 11 per cent, while 22 per cent of the Inuit population reported a multi-generational home.

Aboriginal grandparents were more likely to be living with their grandchildren without the child’s parents and to have more responsibility for household expenses, Milan says.

The rate was highest in Nunavut. While the study did not analyze the reasons for the ethnic differences, an earlier housing survey suggests housing availability might play a role.

“That does seem to be an issue in the North so we offer that as a possible explanation for why it might be higher among aboriginal population, particularly in Nunavut and the North,” Milan says.

Recent immigrants – those who migrated to Canada between 2006 and 2011 – were also more likely to be living with multiple generations.

The South Asian population, in particular, has a high number of multi-generational households, Milan says. For example, 44 per cent of grandparents over age 45 who spoke Punjabi at home lived with grandchildren.

That group was far less likely to contribute financially to the household, the study found.

The report does not delve into why grandparents are living in multi-generational homes.

“It could be cultural expectations, it could be financial benefits, health issues, housing shortages. There could be many reasons why grandparents are living with their grandchildren,” Milan says.