Are Many Retirees With Dementia Lacking Help?

The brief’s key findings are:

• Retirees with dementia need help managing their money to prevent mistakes, fraud, and abuse.
• One source of help is Social Security’s Representative Payee Program, which allows a designated person to receive and manage a retiree’s benefit check.
• Among people over age 70 with dementia, only 9 percent have a payee.
• However, the vast majority of those without a payee have other potential sources of help, often a family member.
• Those without any help are more likely to be isolated from family, less educated, and non-white.