Most elderly folks do not have an income. The children's education cost a bomb and have injured their retirement funds.
In traditional Asian societies, it is a norm that children repay their parents after they start work. I am not sure if it is fine for parents to ask for allowance in other societies. Today, many Asian youngsters no longer practise it anymore and parents being parents will keep quiet about it.
This is a sensitive issue. How can parents ask for allowance from their children tactfully without embarrassing both parties?