This week, the U.K.’s Financial Times covered an important and overlooked aspect of how the U.S. treats its elders: bankruptcy. Stories of seniors filing for bankruptcy are heartbreaking and uncomfortable, so I am not surprised that it took a correspondent paid by a foreign newspaper (Patti Waldmeir) to tell this American story from the lobbies of our bankruptcy courts.

Like every good story, there are complicated victims and more than one perpetrator. Everyone has a role in the “crime.”

Victims In Elder Bankruptcies

Bankruptcy in the United States has undergone a rapid “graying” over the past few decades. In 1991, elders made up 2% of the bankruptcy relief claims; now the share is 12%. Those stark numbers come from a recent Indiana Legal Studies research paper, “Graying of U.S. Bankruptcy: Fallout from Life in a Risk Society,” cowritten by professors Deborah Thorne of the University of Idaho, Pamela Foohey of Indiana University Bloomington, Robert M. Lawless of the University of Illinois, and Katherine M. Porter of the University of California, Irvine.

The leap in elder filers means about 98,000 families or about 133,000 elders out of 51 million people over 65 file for bankruptcy to get relief from all debt, excluding nondischargeable student debt (which is often incurred by co-signing the student loans of children or grandchildren). In most cases, those filing for bankruptcy come from the lower end of the income ladder. Of elder households that filed for bankruptcy in 2016, 78% made less than median total income.

Explaining Elder Bankruptcy

Several overlapping factors have contributed to the rise in elder financial distress.

Read More: @forbes