LA Times: For the elderly, poverty level doesn't cut it

[marmar]

For the elderly, poverty level doesn't cut it
UCLA study tells a much different story of what it costs California seniors to get by: twice as much as the federal government's estimate, which is based on 1950s spending patterns.

By Alexandra Zavis, Los Angeles Times
October 17, 2010


At the age of 80, Exaltacion Divinagracia thought that life would be easier.

The petite widow still works part time at a nursery school. To keep the house she rented with her late husband, she has taken six roommates, all over 75. After church on Saturdays and Sundays, she drags a beat-up suitcase from one food pantry to the next in search of enough to eat for the coming week.

Divinagracia takes home less than $13,000 a year, including public benefits. But according to the government's income standards, she is not impoverished. To get that designation a single person must live on $10,830 a year or less.

Experts say the standard — which is used nationwide to assess need, determine eligibility for aid and measure the effectiveness of public programs — has little to do with reality, particularly in places like Los Angeles, where housing costs are high.

A recent UCLA study found that most older Californians, those 65 or older, need at least twice the income calculated by the federal government to make ends meet — $21,763 a year on average for a single person renting a one-bedroom apartment, or $30,634 for a couple. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-elderly-poverty-20101017,0,2492753.story

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. 6 roommates over 75. She's helping keep others out of poverty

[old mark]

2. The "poverty level" is a bad joke in most states...A friend on disability recently had his

medical insurance canceled because he had too much money in the bank. In the last 25 years, he had managed to save nearly $10,000...the state freaked out and told him he had too much money to qualify for disability insurance, even though he has a seizure disorder so severe he breaks bones when he has seizures.

My former social worker wife helped him get insurance again and to get the agencies to leave him alone...turns out he was disqualified by a state worker who doesn't like gays.

IIRC, poverty level in PA for a single person is under $12,000 per year.

mark

ADDED: Looked it up - the poverty level in PA for a family of 4 is $18,850...try THAT some time.

[Scruffy1]

3. Welcome to America-version 3.0

Those massive wall street profits come from somewhere.