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How to protect your parents if they never paid Social Security?
I am unsympathetic.  His mother made a conscious choice to evade taxes that would have provided her with at least a minimal security when she was too old to work.  First while as business owner she should have been paying self employment tax on the income they made through the restaurant and his other merchant activities.  Second while working in her own career selling Mary Kay and side work she should have paid her taxes on her income from that.   There is a part of me that says good on you for getting by with out getting caught.  But her ultimate failure was to plan for her future.  She should have known she would be ineligible for SSI and saved for her retirement.  Instead she choose to spend her money while benefiting from the government services that the rest of us pay taxes for.  Now we will provide her with medicaid as well as welfare benefits.  She has placed her son in the unenviable situation of having to either provide for his mother because she failed to do the minimum planning for herself or turn his back on her. He might be able to find a sympathetic prosecutor who would prosecute her for tax evasion.  The government would take care of her needs(food and housing) and she would get her medical care taken care of.  He could also move to Alaska.  The oil industry provide residents of Alaska with a stipend, there is lots of work for people willing to work hard, and the compensation for that work is pretty good and would likely put him in a position where he is able to provide care for his mother.