Elderly

The California Poverty Measure (CPM) is released annually to document the overall poverty rate, demographic differences in poverty, county and regional differences in poverty, and the effects of government policies and programs on poverty. The CPM was first released with 2011 data by a team of researchers from the Public Policy Institute of California and the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality. It will continue to be released annually and with a reduced time lag as the CPM protocol comes to be regularized. (Author introduction)

The purpose of this report is to describe recent trends in poverty in California. Throughout this report, we will feature a measure that is inspired by the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), as it improves on the Official Poverty Measure (OPM) in important ways. (Author abstract)

Medicaid is a government program that provides health insurance to the old who are sick and have little assets and income compared to their medical needs. Thus, it explicitly tests for income, assets, and health or medical needs to determine eligibility. We ask how these rules map into the reality of Medicaid recipiency and what observable characteristics are important to determine who ends up on Medicaid. The data show that both singles and couples with high retirement income can end up on Medicaid at very advanced ages.

This study examined the relationships between unemployment experience and recurrent unemployment and the four types of material hardships faced by older adults ages 50 to 61 since the Great Recession. Older workers face severe financial conditions when they lose a job, because they are less likely than younger workers to be reemployed and lack various public supports during unemployment. However, little is known about older workers’ struggles to maintain economic well-being following job loss.

Survey data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) suggest that less than 60% of individuals age 65 and over who are eligible for Supplemental Security (SSI) receive the benefit. SSI is a Federal income supplement program, that is designed to help aged, blind, and disabled people, who have little or no income; and provides cash to meet basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter. The economic literature has identified at least three main barriers to SSI take-up among individuals age 65 and over.

In 2014, the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) selected AARP Foundation to receive a three-year grant under the Social Innovation Fund (SIF) to operate and evaluate the Women’s Economic Stability Initiative (WESI) in multiple locations.

To identify solutions to hunger, Congress created the bipartisan National Commission on Hunger “to provide policy recommendations to Congress and the USDA Secretary to more effectively use existing programs and funds of the Department of Agriculture to combat domestic hunger and food insecurity.”

Life cycle theory predicts that elderly households have higher levels of wealth than households with children, but these wealth gaps are likely dynamic, responding to changes in labor market conditions, patterns of debt accumulation, and the overall economic context. Using Survey of Consumer Finances data from 1989 through 2013, we compare wealth levels between and within the two groups that make up America’s dependents: the elderly and child households (households with a resident child aged 18 or younger).

In a time when social security is the talk of the most recent presidential election, its presence also is felt in the realm of family law. However, many states, including Wyoming, have yet to recognize the increased importance of social security retirement and social security disability dependent payments as they apply to child support. This article attempts to analyze the role of such social security payments in the calculation and modification of child support in Wyoming. (Excerpt from author introduction)

NCOA’s Senior SNAP Enrollment Initiative is designed to fight senior hunger by increasing the effectiveness of community-based organizations and agencies that help older adults enroll in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). With support from the Walmart Foundation, NCOA has distributed over $2 million in grants to more than 40 community-based organizations and agencies that conduct SNAP outreach and assist older adults with the application process. (Author abstract)