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Cost of living too costly for seniors
Two out of three unable to meet necessary expenses, report says
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More from EldercareSACRAMENTO — The threshold for seniors to qualify for government assistance is so low that most Ventura County seniors who have incomes twice that high don't have enough money to pay for the necessities of living, a UCLA study released Tuesday shows.
The study finds that a single senior living in a one-bedroom apartment in Ventura County needs $23,910 a year to pay for rent, food, healthcare, transportation and other basic expenses. To qualify for most assistance programs, a senior must have an annual income near the federal poverty level, now at $10,200.
"How poor do you have to become to be eligible for assistance? Too poor," said Steven Wallace, associate director of the UCLA School of Public Health. "Elders cannot make ends meet with incomes at the poverty line."
The study shows that the nearly two out of three seniors in California who survive solely on Social Security benefits are unable to meet necessary expenses. The average Social Security benefit for a couple, for instance, is $21,569, but basic monthly expenses for a healthy couple who rent a one-bedroom apartment in Ventura County is nearly $10,000 more than that, or $31,259.
"It used to be that if you worked hard and raised your kids and contributed to the system, the system paid you back," said Susie Smith, director of Californians for Economic Security. "That system they paid into does not pay back enough."
The nonprofit agency hopes the UCLA study will help guide Congress and the Legislature in designing programs for seniors that better meet their needs. Smith said the data show, for instance, that more housing assistance programs for seniors would yield the most benefit because housing costs account for more than half of an average senior's monthly budget.
Among the state and federal assistance programs for which eligibility is tied to the federal poverty level are food stamps, prescription assistance under Medicare Part D, utility assistance, Supplemental Social Security and housing assistance programs administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Smith and Wallace presented the study to the Senate Subcommittee on Aging and Long-Term Care.
"It's not a surprise when I look at these figures," said Chairwoman Elaine Alquist, D-Santa Clara. "We have a lot of seniors in urban areas who really can't make it from day to day."
Smith said many seniors are too proud to publicly admit their incomes are insufficient and routinely make painful economic choices, such as deciding whether to turn up their thermostats to keep warm or conserve enough money to buy medications.
"Elders make silent sacrifices kept secret from their kids and other loved ones," she said.
The study details the incomes needed to maintain economic security in each of California's 58 counties. For a single senior who rents, the figures range from a high of $27,550 in San Mateo County to a low of $17,789 in Kern County.
The median income for retirees over 65 in California is $16,172.
A spokeswoman for the California Elder Economic Security Initiative said the group hopes to also use the data to help baby boomers calculate the level of retirement income they will need to be economically secure.
Posted by live_for_purpose on February 27, 2008 at 12:57 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Bleak numbers, for sure. My parents are both 74. Dad is retired--had 2 strokes. Mom is still working--a desk job thankfully. I wonder how they'll make it when she does put in for retirement. Pensions don't add up to all that much.
Plan for the future. Save NOW. Get out of debt. Pay off that house. Don't borrow against it. Spend less money. Plan on working until you're older, not younger.
If your head is in the sand, take it out. The future is coming and it is looking bleaker and bleaker. Social Security is withering. Medicare is dying much faster than that. Become self-sufficient now. Save and invest your own money in your own name. Help take care of the seniors in your family.
Posted by ssakoian on February 27, 2008 at 6:33 a.m. (Suggest removal)
live_for_purpose is right. Too many of us have borrowed, not saved, spent, not saved. As a baby boomer, I know my generation is going to suck up social security - but I also think we have earned it, and deserve it. We don't get anything else from our government, especially the current one, except lies and religious rhetoric, and the destruction of our country, decline in economic stabilty, and worthless wars. That aside, once the baby boomers die off, what will the country have? Fewer people? What will the gen-Xers get, the millenials, etc? What will their old age be like? We never read about that.
Posted by dcsfancy on February 27, 2008 at 6:54 a.m. (Suggest removal)
It all has to do with squeezing out the middle class. It will soon be the haves and the have nots. I have to support my mother after her husband died when all of a sudden 3m produced paperwork that showed her husband had crossed out her name on his retirement form. funny thing when they both went together to get it notarised their was no cross out of her name. After someone dies how do you fight something like this? I have heard it happening to others. 3m stole 40,000. Anyway back to the article she only gets 700. a month from her SS . We had to cancel her insurance from 3m as it was 456. a month. Luckily she is now old enough for medicare for seniors . Only problem is when the cap is spent on her prescriptions she has to pay out of pocket until the next cap is spent to be eligible for coverage again.
Posted by HateMachine on February 27, 2008 at 8:46 a.m. (Suggest removal)
dcsfancy that is why there is a government assitance program that helps with her prescriptions its the part D coverage. I am a disabled person who lives off my SSD, and I am raising my two teenage sons on it. It isnt that soon it will be the haves and have nots it IS the haves and have nots. In total I recieve approximately 1200 a month in SSD and SSI rent alone in the area for a 2 bdrm is between $950 and $1400, factor in utilities, food, car insurance, GAS, and what is left over? We dont go see movies, we dont go out to eat, and many nights we have sandwiches for dinner because we can afford meat. I became disabled 5 years ago, lived off my savings for 2 and then was approved for SSD. I worked for over 25 years, yet now I have to live in poverty. We recieve $175 in food stamps. You can get your utilities paid for ONCE a year, but that works for about 3 - 4 months then the rest of the year you are on your own. When I was working I made monthly donations to the United Way, Toys for Tots, the Salvation Army because I wanted to help. Now I need help, but I still feel there are those that need the help more than I do so instead I struggle. I have been fortunate enough to have family that has helped through the last few years but it is hard. Especially when you have a senior in high school that wants to go to the prom and you cant afford the extra $75 to buy the ticket, $75 to rent the tux, $25 for the pictures, not to mention they all want to go in a limo and out to dinner. There are many families out there that are having to make tough choices, and its sad that our senior citizens after having worked hard are now suffering. I dont want to get political but why are our senators and congressman, not aware of the struggles their constituants are going through. I think we should make it mandatory for our elected officials to have to live one month on the income of the average senior citizen, and see if they could make it, when they cant have thier cable tv, or fancy dinners, buy food from the 99 cent store then maybe they will truly understand what the needs of the community are not some bridge to nowhere.
Posted by Jacksprat on February 27, 2008 at 12:35 p.m. (Suggest removal)
When I retired I had a nice nest egg, it should have carried me for ever. Dean Witter talked me into a program that promised the world. Month income, extra money and so on. Well they stole the money, put in into thing that made them money and I lost. so all of a sudden I have to go back to work. No fun. But that is what the senior have happen to them all the time. If I knew then what I knew now things would have been differant, but I grew up trusting people and business like Dean Witter. This has happened to too many seniors I know, we now live a very careful life and have nothing for extras.
Posted by rebel123 on February 27, 2008 at 1:24 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Hatemachine: your son is a senior....time for him to get a job to pay for those extras. I was a single mom when my daughters were in high school and while I was not disabled and work at a reasonably decent job, I never had enough left over for those kinds of things. Both the girls worked part time jobs to pay for their "extras". They both also were scholarship students who went on to college. Your plight is shared by many.
live_for_purpose: easy to say "save now"....far too many of us have been living a hand to mouth existence through no fault of our own. I worked two jobs for five years to stay afloat. The tax bite out of that was crazy. Social security is dying on the vine. I'd love....LOVE...to have everything I've paid in over the last 40 years sent to me in one check so I could decide how best to invest it for my future. Retirement for me is a total pipe dream. There's no way I can retire on social security and my 401K was split in half with my divorce, along with all of our retirement investments. I lost not just half the value but significant value for compounded interest. Life ain't fair, that's for sure....but the government sure as heck isn't making it any fairer for those who are not wealthy. I'd be happy as heck to pay half again as much in taxes if I could get some of it back in the way of affordable health care, retirement benefits I could live on, prescription coverage and rent help. Right now I pay taxes through the nose and get pretty much zip in return.
Posted by Resolute_Yet_Ambivalent on February 27, 2008 at 1:38 p.m. (Suggest removal)
You mean there are still middle class around here?
Posted by galicea1 on March 31, 2008 at 1:07 p.m. (Suggest removal)
A little reality check on life's casualties...I'm 52 years old, female and permanently disabled since 10/2006. I worked for years in pain, because I wanted to continue working. I made lots of money during my professional career. It was eaten up by property losses, taking care of my sick mom, now deceased, and working, flying, driving relentlessly and moving around the country for a small firm that stole most of the future earnings I had a right to, plus assisting family members who've since disappeared.
When I arrived in L.A. in 2000, I was relatively healthy, and my pain was controlled. Unable to find work in my field, I took temp and tutoring jobs, even telemarketing and customer service, all things I'd never done before. I tried everything I could to continue earning a fair living. Little by little, I depleted my nest egg to live and pay expenses, ultimately surrendering stellar credit and declaring bankruptcy. The low-paying assignments and my health limitations had all come to a head.
Finally, I discovered I had been living in a mold-infested building for five years, which what was responsible for my deteriorating health, diagnosed with conditions I'd never had before. By this time, I had been on temp disability twice, my savings depleted. I received diagnoses for conditions caused by mold exposure and experienced things I wish on no one...with unspeakable treatment and action from my landlord and Kaiser doctors, I was on the verge of a total nervous and physical breakdown.
Today, I can barely survive on $1604 per month, but don't qualify for any other assistance. My insurance is through my boyfriend's employer, and I still can't afford my monthly prescription deductible of $225. I haven't had a vacation since 2001, am still driving my 91 BMW, (when it dies, I won't have a car for the first time since I was 20), I don't eat out and have given up everything I've been accustomed to for the majority of my life.
The moral of this story? Let those of us who are quick to prejudge, as I used to be, hope that the inconceivable never happens to you. For I never would've imagined, in a million years, that I'd be in this situation. It's a battle to stay positive and have a reason for waking up in the morning when the only future you can imagine is one of struggle. It's the hardest thing I've ever done.
So be careful, my friends. Take care. Be well. Be smart. Be kind. Gain understanding. I had to.
God bless.
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