[Maintenance payments to the elderly (author's transl)].

The question of the extent older people sustain their livelihood through financial contribution from their children is important sociopolitically inasmuch as claims for payments under the Federal Social Welfare Scheme (Bundessozialhilfegesetz) can only be made where no such private financial support can be given by those next of kin responsible in law. It has been established that in approximately every 14th household in the Federal Republic such maintenance payments are made to at least one member of the older generation (either parents and/or parents-in-law). Seen together with the findings of other inquiries it appears justifiable to assume that these payments are more often remunerations recompensed either materially or otherwise by the older generation rather than a genuine alternative to (necessary) public welfare support. It must therefore be assumed that onesided private financial support carries the odium of "private relief" for the recipients, in which case it would run contrary to the intentions of social legislation.