Seniors Who Cannot Make Ends Meet — UCLA Documents “The Hidden Poor”
UCLA’s Center for Health Policy Research has issued its August 2015 report on “The Hidden Poor,” using county-by-county data to demonstrate that “federal” definitions of poverty are not a sufficient measure of true poverty for seniors. What are the “hidden poor?” The UCLA report explains: “The Hidden Poor are defined as those who have incomes above 100 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), but who do not have enough income to make ends meet as calculated by the Elder Index.”
A recent article in the Sacramento Bee highlights key components of the analysis:
More than 300,000 elderly Californians are officially poor, as measured by the federal government, but their numbers triple to more than 1 million when the “hidden poor” are counted, according to a new study from UCLA’s Center for Health Policy Research.
National poverty guidelines say that for a single elderly adult living alone, the poverty line is $10,890 a year, but UCLA’s “elder index” puts it at $23,364 in California.
Those “hidden poor” Californians over 65 tend to be Latino or black. Their greatest concentrations are found in rural counties with overall low income levels, topped by Imperial County, where more than 40 percent of the elderly are the hidden poor….
The study said population groups with especially large proportions of the hidden poor include grandparents raising grandchildren, elderly with adult children living at home, and single elders.
Accurate measurements of poverty are core to planning of resources for any age group, including seniors. How does your state account for needy seniors?