Older Adults Face Declining Buying Power

Q. My 72-year-old mother seems to be short on cash and I am concerned. Perhaps it’s my imagination that her Social Security check doesn’t go as far as it once did. As much as I would like to, I am not in a position to help. Mom is in good health and I think would like to work, but she’s a retiree. What could she do? She has a caring and compassionate heart and lots of energy.

Seniors have lost almost one-quarter of their buying power since 2000, according to the Annual Survey of Senior Costs, released recently by The Senior Citizens League (TSCL), a senior advocacy group. So your mother’s financial concerns may, in fact, be reality.

In most years, seniors receive a small increase in their Social Security checks, intended to help them keep up with the costs of inflation. But since 2000, the Social Security Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) has increased average benefits just 31 percent while typical senior expenses have jumped almost 63 percent, more than twice as fast, according to the TSCL.

What’s more, seniors are receiving no COLA this year for the first time since the automatic COLA’s introduction in 1975, and are forecast to receive no COLA again next year.

A senior with the average Social Security benefit in 2000 received $816 per month, a figure that rose to $1072.30 by 2010. However, that senior would require a Social Security benefit of $1,328.40 per month in 2010 just to maintain his or her 2000 lifestyle.

A majority of the 37 million Americans ages 65 and over who receive a Social Security check depend on it for at least 50 percent of their total income, and one in three beneficiaries rely on it for 90 percent or more of their total income, the TSCL reports.

If your mother does want to go back to work, Home Instead Senior Care® values and regularly hires older adults. Home Instead Senior Care likes to employ seniors because they relate so well to others their age. If your mother is a good fit, she would be fully trained by Home Instead Senior Care. Encourage her to check it out. Work schedules are part-time and flexible.

For more information about Home Instead Senior Care of Frederick County, visit www.homeinstead.com/627. For more about the survey, visit http://www.seniorsleague.org/images/press_release_2010_loss_buying_power.pdf.