Lifestyles

Site Helps Low-Income Seniors Find Benefits

Posted: 1/7/2012

A new website has been created where low-income seniors can learn if they qualify for state and federal programs designed to help them meet their basic needs.

(NAPSI)—There is helpful news for elderly Americans who may be in need of health care and social services but don’t know if they qualify for assistance.

There is a free, confidential, online program for the low-income elderly where they, or their children or caretakers, can learn whether they qualify for state and federal programs to help them meet their basic needs.

“It’s amazing how many older people are unaware that these benefits even exist,” said AARP Foundation staff member Marcy Gouge. “For example, two-thirds of the people 60+ who qualify for SNAP benefits—still known as food stamps in some states—aren’t getting them. It’s heartbreaking-no one should go hungry in America,” she says.

Linking Seniors and Benefits

Gouge described how she told a member of her church about the site—AARP Foundation’s Benefits QuickLINK. The fellow church member was an 87-year-old widow whose husband had died 20 years earlier.

“She had never worked outside the home and had little involvement in financial matters during her marriage; her husband had handled everything. But 20 years after his death, she literally had almost nothing left, and was paying over half of her disposable income for prescription drugs. The day we talked, two prescriptions were waiting for her at her pharmacy. They cost $150, and she had no money to pay for them,” recounted Gouge.

The elderly widow was indeed living on very little: $1,200 monthly from her husband’s Social Security and pension. She spent $700 of that on her trailer payments and space rental. By the time she’d paid her utilities, she had less than $300 to pay for food, medicine and everything else.

The good news is that by logging on to the Foundation’s website, Gouge was able to help the elderly woman complete an online survey, which uncovered several benefits programs the woman qualified for. The website also provided the necessary forms to begin the benefit application process.

A Family Resource as Well

Gouge noted that the Benefits QuickLINK website can be an excellent resource for family members of the low-income elderly as well.

“When an older parent suddenly needs help, his or her children want to do something but they don’t know where to start. One thing they can do is go to Benefits QuickLINK. It’s fast, and it gives you a real quick overview of what’s out there,” said Gouge.

To learn more, visit www.aarp.org/quicklink.