Federal Poverty Level outdated, inadequate
By Daily Bruin Staff
Oct. 28, 2010 11:41 p.m.
BY Steven P. Wallace
Correction: The original version of this article published on Oct. 29 contained an error. The federal government requires a retired older adult to earn less than $903 a month to qualify for many public programs.
A student at UCLA needs about $1,800 per month to cover living expenses. Yet the federal government requires that a retired older adult earn less than $903 a month to qualify for help from many public programs.
That’s the monthly equivalent of the Federal Poverty Level ““ $10,830 a year for single adults. Besides being used to determine eligibility for many public assistance programs, it is the basis for assessing effectiveness of anti-poverty programs and distributing public money to high-need areas.
And while student financial aid at UCLA is based on the cost of living in Los Angeles, the FPL is the same across the whole country, from rural Texas to San Francisco. This one-size-fits-all standard has been in use for about 50 years, adjusted only for national inflation, and today, it’s rendering many California seniors ““ including many of our grandparents ““ destitute.
It’s easy to see that the FPL doesn’t come close to measuring what it costs to live even poorly in America, especially in California, where housing costs far outpace most of the rest of the country.
The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research has used the California Elder Economic Security Standard Index to calculate a far more realistic measure of basic needs for older adults. It shows how much it actually costs older adults to cover their most basic needs (e.g., food, housing, health care and transportation) and allows them to live independently.
It calculates that an older adult renting a one-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles needs an annual income of $23,101 just to cover essentials.
That’s nearly double what most seniors earn from Social Security and more than twice the “official” poverty level set by the federal government. On an annual basis, it is about the same amount that UCLA calculates it costs to “live like a student.” It would be hard to argue that this is a generous amount!
Even in the county with the lowest Elder Index ““ Kern County ““ real costs per year add up to $6,447 more than the national poverty level. And in most of the state’s counties, it takes twice the FPL for seniors to maintain a basic standard of living.
Assistance from public programs to meet basic needs will remain out of reach for many of the state’s economically struggling older adults as long as the FPL continues to be used as the standard for who qualifies for needed programs and services.
The increasing use of more realistic measures of poverty, including the Elder Index, by many local governments and organizations is helping to bring much-needed resources to California’s vulnerable elderly population.
For example, 60 percent of the state’s Area Agencies on Aging now use it to plan how to help older adults age independently at home.
A variety of organizations also use the Elder Index, including St. Barnabas Senior Center in Los Angeles, which sets rates for home-care programs. And a national demonstration project in Los Angeles uses it to assess the full array of economic challenges older adults face.
So there’s movement in the right direction, but it’s not enough.
Students expect that struggling to make ends meet will pay off in a few short years after graduation. But is it just to expect our seniors ““ our parents and grandparents ““ to survive on less than half of a starving student’s income before they can get help?
With 20 percent of the region’s population expected to be age 60 or more just 10 years from now, it is past time to throw out the inadequate FPL in favor of a more realistic standard that would allow California’s older adults to get the help they need to maintain a basic, dignified standard of living that’s at least equivalent to a UCLA student’s.
Our grandparents deserve no less.
Steven P. Wallace is a professor at the UCLA School of Public Health and the associate director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. He is also the senior author of the policy brief “Older Adults Need Twice the Federal Poverty Level to Make Ends Meet in California.”
