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7 Things You Need to Know about Help for Low Income Seniors - YouTube
Channel: Low Income Relief
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low-income seniors need help far more
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help than they're getting at low-income
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relief we serve a lot of seniors who are
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struggling with rising rents high
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inflation and low fixed incomes i'm
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nicole from low income relief where we
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help millions of people save money and
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get free stuff and today i want to talk
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to you about things you need to know
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about low-income seniors in this country
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first around 1 in 10 seniors lives in
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poverty
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the official poverty rate for seniors in
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the united states is actually around
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nine percent which is nine and a hundred
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but that's really close
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to one in ten and that doesn't even
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paint the whole picture most of our
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poverty statistics are based on this
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official poverty guideline which is
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based on old data it's based on food
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consumption in 1955 and food costs in
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1961 and indexed to inflation it doesn't
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really take into account any non-cash
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benefits taxes increased housing costs
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or medical expenses so it's really an
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incomplete picture of poverty in the
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first place if you use the supplemental
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poverty measure which does account for a
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lot of those things the actual poverty
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rate for low-income seniors is closer to
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13 which is more than one in ten and
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poverty gets worse as you get older
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maybe it's due to higher medical costs
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or depleted savings but the poverty rate
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gets worse with age in a 2021 study by
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the congressional research service it
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was discovered that people aged 80 and
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older experienced the highest poverty
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rates with over 11 percent of people
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living in poverty according to the
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typical guidelines the poverty rate was
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slightly lower for people between the
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ages of 75 and 79 and lower again for
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those between the ages of 70 and 74 and
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the worst poverty rates were among women
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ages 80 and older those who are single
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struggle the most
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women who had divorced were widowed or
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had never married had significantly
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higher poverty rates never married men
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also had significantly high poverty
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rates another thing you should know is
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that social security and ssi account for
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90
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of the total money received by
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low-income seniors 90
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it's no secret that seniors rely on
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social security but many people don't
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understand how important this lifeline
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is to low-income seniors you can't
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really overstate it the social security
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administration has said that 90 of
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people age 65 and older receive social
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security benefits and these benefits
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represent 30 of the income of the
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elderly and 90 of the income for
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low-income seniors in fact the
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congressional research service even said
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that the poverty rate for individuals
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over the age of 65 would increase by a
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shocking 32 percent if they excluded
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social security benefits from their
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calculations that would put the poverty
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rate at almost one in two so basically
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social security is critical for
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low-income seniors but it doesn't pay
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enough and even those yearly colas are
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offset by reductions and other benefits
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the average social security payment is
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just
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1
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657 per month as of january 2022. that's
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not a lot according to rent.com the
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average rent for a studio apartment in
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the united states is
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1691
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that's more than the average social
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security payment which means on average
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seniors don't have enough for rent let
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alone the other necessities of life but
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let's look at some more averages shall
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we the average cost for food for one
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person is
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342.11 cents a month but the average
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senior lives in a household with three
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people so they actually need around a
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thousand dollars a month for food and
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according to energy star the average
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monthly utility bill is 171 dollars oh
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and households led by someone age 65 or
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older spend an average of 555 in
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out-of-pocket healthcare costs per month
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as well so just between the average rent
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food utilities and medical expenses for
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one person you're gonna need close to
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three thousand dollars and that is a lot
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more than the average social security
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payment per month is it any wonder why
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so many seniors live in poverty but in
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all these reports the government thinks
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it's okay because food stamps help after
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researching this in depth i was amazed
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by how many times the government or
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reporters seemed to think that senior
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poverty was okay because they get food
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stamps
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what
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i hear from so many seniors who can't
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afford their housing or their medicine
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or their meals but they only get twenty
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dollars in food stamps that's not okay
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but do you know what's really not okay
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the national council on aging states
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that three out of every five seniors who
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are eligible for food stamps are not
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getting them that's five million seniors
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who are struggling with low income who
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don't even get any food stamps at all
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but the government and all these
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reporters keep saying oh it's fine it's
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fine because food stamps is there but
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it's not really
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of those who do get food stamps only 16
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are making the most of those benefits by
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utilizing the medical expense deduction
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it's expected that a lot of seniors
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could get a lot more food stamps if they
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used this so please check out our video
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on how to get more food stamps if you
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are a senior who gets those benefits and
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of course the congressional research
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service also found that medical expenses
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are a major factor in senior poverty
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surprise right they found specifically
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that medical expenses are one of the
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biggest impacts in expenses in senior
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budgets the bureau of labor statistics
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estimates that seniors pay an average of
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6
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hundred and sixty eight dollars per year
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on out of pocket health care which is
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about 555 dollars per month now there
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are some things that can help with this
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if it's something you're struggling with
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medicare obviously can offset a lot of
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medical expenses but many seniors don't
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know how to get the best plan for that i
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recommend contacting your local area
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agency on aging they often have someone
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available who specializes in medicare
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and can help you find the best plan for
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your specific situation low-income
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seniors may also be able to get dual
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enrollment in medicaid which offers free
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limited health care coverage and can
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fill in those gaps that medicare leaves
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behind i have another video about dual
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enrollment and how that works that can
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answer some of your questions and for
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prescriptions i recommend a tool like
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goodrx our family uses this to
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drastically reduce our out-of-pocket
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costs for meds it is amazing and again
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that is called goodrx
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so today we've covered a lot of things
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you need to know about low-income
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seniors but the biggest takeaway that i
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hope you take from this video is that
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social security is critical and it's
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just not enough
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we need more help for low-income seniors
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and it's something i truly hope our
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elected officials will act on so if you
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also support a social security increase
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please reach out to your elected
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officials and let them know
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in the meantime please subscribe to our
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channel for more ways to save money and
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get free stuff
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