New caregiver tax credit was axed from Biden’s budget plan

WASHINGTON » I was just 21 when I became the caregiver for my brother, who was three years my junior.

I understood why my grandmother, Big Mama, transferred his care to me after I graduated from college. The cost to care for my brother in her retirement would have been too much. And she had been caring for us all — five grandchildren — for nearly two decades.

Mitchell had epilepsy, and his grand mal seizures couldn’t be controlled with medication. His frequent seizures prevented him from keeping a job, even though he was determined to maintain full-time work. Over my objections, my brother took a job that required him to take two buses and then walk a mile from the bus stop to get to work. He didn’t want to be a financial burden, he said. He wanted to try to make it on his own.

He lost that job as a caregiver at a nursing home within a few months, after a particularly bad seizure at work sent him to the hospital. It was the last time he held a paid position. (He would later volunteer regularly for the American Red Cross.)

I knew just about every hospital emergency room in Baltimore because of my brother’s seizures. After a few group homes, he eventually came to live with me. I covered what his Social Security disability payments didn’t. When I got married and moved for my job, my husband and I paid my brother’s monthly housing costs, including utilities.

After 14 years of caring for my sweet-tempered brother, he died at 32 from a massive seizure. My husband and I had budgeted to care for him until his old age.

I don’t regret the money I spent caring for my brother or that it meant less going to my own savings and retirement. I was OK financially. But so many others are not. Unpaid caregivers struggle under the economic burden of caregiving, sometimes having to quit their jobs, risking their own retirement security.

There was hope that a new tax credit for caregivers would be part of President Joe Biden’s

budget plan. It would have provided a tax credit of up to $2,000 for eligible caregivers. At one point, the credit was as much as $5,000. But in fierce negotiations to get something through Congress, the credit was cut from Biden’s budget plan. It could have offered some relief for the millions of unpaid caregivers in the United States.

“It’s out as of right now, but maybe phoenix-like it will rise from the ashes before they vote,” said Nancy LeaMond, AARP’s executive vice president and chief advocacy and engagement officer. “The absence of anything on paid leave or credit for caring really concerns us. Family caregivers are probably the backbone of the health-care system.”

In the United States, about 48 million individuals provide unpaid care to an adult family member or friend.