I'm the last of the Boomers, and my parents are in their 80s and I was a prom baby (meaning "young parents"). There's no way 17% of Boomers are sponging off Mom and Dad, because the overwhelming odds are: Mom and Dad are dead, and have been for a while now.

OTOH, I guess that doesn't mean someone isn't still cashing that retirement check.

Looks to me like the older generation amounts to roughly 30% of the boomer generation. A couple has 4 parents and half of people are bellow average.

Sure maybe its wrong and people are counting inheritance similarly to living parents, etc, but I'm not surprised at all if the lowest quartile is reaching retirement age broke getting money from any relatives that can help and that are inclined to help.