Merced ranks high in ‘unofficially poor’ elderly, report says

One in five elder adults in California are “unofficially poor,” according to a new report from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

They fall somewhere in the middle of not being able to afford basic needs and having too much income to be eligible for public assistance.

The report estimates that in Merced County, 35 percent of single elders who are the head of a household and about 25 percent of older couples live in an “economic no-man’s land.”

Merced County placed No. 11 on a list of counties with the highest percentage of “unofficially poor” individuals, 65 years and older.

According to the federal poverty guidelines, a single elderly adult should be able to live on $10,890 a year. But the federal poverty level, which is uniform across the U.S., doesn’t account for differences in costs of housing, medical care and food in different states, the report said.

The Elder Index, a poverty measure that is considered “a more accurate estimate of what it takes to have a decent standard of living,” calculates that a person in California requires an average of $23,364 a year.

Yet, because many public assistance programs are based on the FPL, hundreds of thousands of struggling adults are denied aid, the report said.

“Many of our adults are forced to choose between eating, taking their medications or paying rent,” said D. Imelda Padilla-Frausto, lead author of the study, in a news release. “The state might be emerging from a recession, but for many of our elder households, the downturn seems permanent.”

According to the study, about 772,000 elderly adults in California belong to this group of the “hidden poor.” That is more than double the number of older adults who do meet the federal poverty level guidelines.

Older adults raising grandchildren and those who rent are among the most affected, the report states. For example, in households where single older adults are the primary caregivers of their grandchildren, 35.3 percent of families had incomes below the FPL, the report showed. But 72.8 percent had incomes below the Elder Index, which means that 37.5 percent are left among this “hidden poor” group.

While there are several public assistance programs that do require income eligibility, such as CalFresh (the state’s supplemental nutrition program) and housing assistance services, there are some county-based programs that are more flexible.

Alexandra Pierce, the deputy director of adult and aging services in Merced County, said there are a number of programs through the Area Agency on Aging office that are available to most senior citizens regardless of their income.

Pierce said the office receives about 10,000 requests for information, or enrollment in its list of programs. She noted nutrition programs that deliver meals to the elderly and health insurance counseling services, for example, don’t have income requirements and can help these adults who are stuck in the middle save money.

“For the Area Agency on Aging, our charge is to serve clients age 60 and older, and in some cases, dependent adults,” Pierce said in an email Tuesday. “There are no income exclusions for any of the Area Agency on Aging programs.”

This story was originally published September 1, 2015 at 6:50 PM with the headline "Merced ranks high in ‘unofficially poor’ elderly, report says."