The Poverty Stricken Elderly and Disabled in the United States

An estimated 37 million Americans are living below the official poverty level of income. Of this, almost 4 million are elderly, over the age of 65. Those who are disabled and living in poverty comprise another approximately 7 million children and adults in the United States that are disabled and are not able to work on their own. A large percentage are elderly people over the age of 65. The sole means of income is often Supplemental Security Income (SSI), which pays a maximum of $579.00 a month. The majority of the elderly are women, who often receive very low payments from Social Security because of having lower incomes due to wage discrimination and lack of education. These payments per month may run as low as $200.00 and yet they are expected to cover all their expenses on that amount. Even with subsidized housing, these people cannot afford even the most basic of needs such as food, shelter, air-conditioning, or a vehicle.

Even so, the United States says that $579.00 is enough to pay for housing and food. With that amount totaling $5,139.00 a year, it is virtually impossible to survive. Making things worse, SSI is a means-tested benefit. Meeting SSI's standard of disability is not enough to get and keep benefits because the disabled recipient must always have limited outside income and assets- for example, never more than $2,000 in savings or cash. This means even having a part-time job can exclude someone from receiving any benefits. He or she has to be poor and stay poor and this standard provides no incentive for these people to try to improve their station in life. In fact, very few people receive the maximum of $579.00 and the only housing they can afford is often in the poorest areas with substandard housing units available. Absentee property owners or those who fail to do needed repairs on a regular basis or to handle problems with extermination services for pests and rodents often own many of these units.

For example, in 2006, the median income in the State of Maryland was $65,144, making it the richest state out of all 50. In 2008, Maryland's estimated median income for a four-person family is $89,608. Mississippi came in as the poorest state in the Union with a median income of $34,473. Compare that to the number of people who receive less than $10,000 a year from Social Security and Supplemental Security Income and with having no additional assets. The total may include any other government benefits such as energy assistance and still leaves these people far below the official poverty level.

A single 68-year-old woman in Maryland receives a total of $600.00 a month from Social Security Disability. Her household bills total approximately $540.00 each month. She does not receive food stamps and is on Medicare. She is constantly in fear that if she has a debilitating illness, she will not be able to take care of herself or buy the medications she will need. Living alone in a house built in 1860 with an outhouse, she is not able to work or to cover any catastrophic event. It is ironic that one question she is asked frequently is whether or not she owns any stocks or bonds. If she had enough money to own such things, she might not be considered "poor".

A disabled 67-year-old man with serious heart problems and with a family of five individuals receives $445.00 a month in SSI. His rent alone is $775.00, with a total of approximately $1450.00 going out in bills and utilities. Although his wife works full time at a minimum wage job, they are always behind in making payments because their bills seriously exceed than their income. Because he has three children under the age of 18 years old, he receives $200.00 a month in food stamps and is on Medicare. There is little money left over to buy clothes and they make regular trips to a local thrift store to get as used clothing as they can. They have not had a new set of clothes in many years except for clothing gifts to the children from relatives and friends.

A 44-year-old man that is 100% disabled receives $800.00 in disability payments to support him and his wife, a total of $9,600 a year and far below the current $14,000 that the government uses as the poverty level for a family of two. The wife does not work because she is the primary caretaker for her husband, who has serious health issues and requires constant care. Even so, she has health issues of her own that are often not covered at all and her current medical coverage does not cover emergencies or operations. They receive $125.00 in food stamps and energy assistance as the only other outside federal help. Their total outgoing payment for utilities and bills is $750.00. Due to this, they try to make every trip cover as much as they need to do in order to save on gas. New clothes or anything considered "recreational" cannot be done because there is no money for this type of "extras". On top of those issues, although she has been found to have a disabling condition, she is not eligible for Social Security Disability Income (SSDI) because she has only worked at a regular job for 3 years of the last ten due to being the caretaker for her disabled husband.

None of these people has income coming from assets, though each family does have a vehicle with a median age of 10 years old. Due to the rural area they reside in, having a vehicle is a necessity as there is no public transportation and the average one way trip to the neighboring town in 40 miles. There is no help for vehicle maintenance or for safety issues, such as new tires or minor repairs, so many of these vehicles are in bad shape overall. Having sufficient food is always a problem and all typically miss meals each week in order to stretch their food dollar. Co-payments for medications, even if a low amount of $20.00 a month often takes more from their food allowance. They do not go out to eat, see a movie, or anything that many Americans take for granted.

More has to be done to help people like the above families. Instead of using the current Federal Poverty Level guidelines (which was developed over 40 years ago through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) as the means to measure poverty, Basic Needs guidelines should be used instead. This would raise the level considered to be in "poverty" to $30,000 instead of the current $10,400 for a single person and $21,200 for a family of four (2008) for those living in a rural area and as high as $50,000 (family of four) for families living in an urban area such as New York City. Since the current methods seriously understate how much it actually costs to provide basic support for a family of four, the Basic Needs method would raise the level to twice that of the Federal Poverty guidelines.

Sources:

Median Income for 4-Person Families, by State

The richest (and poorest) places in the U.S

Measuring Income and Poverty in the United States, Nancy K. Cauthen and Sarah Fass, April 2007