The parent 'abandoners'
- By Guo Yiming
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E-mail China.org.cn, June 11, 2016
In 2014, Mrs. Chen, too old to care herself, was sent to a senior home by her oldest son, who visited her routinely and paid for her stay.
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Known as "parent abandoners," some offspring leave their elderly parents at retirement homes without paying for the bill. |
But when the son passed away last year, the responsibility of caring for the old lady fell to her youngest son. However, he never stopped coming back after a few visits.
With an almost 20,000 yuan bill, or US$ 3,038, left uncovered, the senior's home tried to get in touch with him, only to find that he had changed his phone number and moved from his former residence.
Such phenomena abound in China's major cities and are becoming increasingly common.
Parent abandoner
The retirement home, an alternative to stay-at-home care, is now being taken advantage of by some disloyal offspring who wish to avoid their familial responsibility.
Called a parent abandoner, they send parents to a nursing home, leave some money behind to cover the cost and then never come back.
Wang Fei, director of the Yihe retirement home in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, recalled that the most impressive "deserter" was a young man who claimed to be so preoccupied with business that he had to leave his parent at the retirement home for "better" care.
He was said to have left 1,400 yuan, almost US$ 212.7, and signed a service agreement with the senior's home. But he never came back.
"We later found out that his phone number and address were false," said Wang. Her firm has no choice but to cover the rest of the costs.
In an attempt to control parent abandoners, some retirement homes conduct reference checks for their potential customers and even make written guarantees for the minimum number of visits during a parent's stay.
However, such measures have mostly proved to be in vain.
"They just come and pay the money, then leave," said Wang who pointed out that even volunteers visit the elderly more often than the seniors' own children.
The "old" problem
The number of people aged 60 and above in China is expected to jump from the current figure of 185 million to 487 million by 2053, according to figures from the China National Committee On Aging.
As China's population ages, new problems will appear.
This January, three siblings were accused of criminal abandonment and sentenced to six months in prison with one-year probation on allegations of refusing to support their parent and delaying payment to a retirement home.
Most of the cases that occur in retirement homes can't constitute criminal abandonment, because they are not serious enough to be prosecuted, said Huang Wentao, a lawyer at Chunyi law firm in Henan Province.
Some experts suggest that China could draw lessons from overseas and set up a property trustee system for the seniors.
"There still needs to be a lot of legislation for this to work," said Huang. "But whether at home or the retirement home, the elderly have a lawful right to be taken care of."
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