The U.S. Census Bureau recently announced the creation of a supplemental measure to the federal poverty level. This supplemental poverty measure will use new data and methodologies to help the federal government better understand the economic state of American families and the effect of federal programs on Americans living in poverty.
It’s about time! It’s been almost 50 years since the original poverty level was first calculated by taking the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s economy food plan and multiplying it by a factor of three, since the average dollar value of food used accounted for about one third of income after taxes. The poverty level is adjusted yearly for inflation, but fails to capture the true number of Wisconsin elders and families struggling to meet their basic needs. This in part inspired the development of the Wisconsin Elder Economic Security Standard Index (Elder Index). The Elder Index, a geographically based measure of what elders need to age in place, is managed in Wisconsin by the Wisconsin Women’s Network and created by Wider Opportunities for Women and the Gerontology Institute at the University of Massachusetts-Boston.
Elders in Wisconsin are having a tough time making ends meet with one out of five living on Social Security alone. The average Social Security payment for Wisconsin’s elders is $15,034. This payment barely surpasses the original federal poverty line, and is not enough for these elders to be economically secure. According to the Elder Index, the average amount a single Wisconsin elder renter needs is $19,242 a year. In Dane County, it’s $20,777.
The proposed supplemental poverty measure is a good first step, because it will improve on how poverty is measured by providing new data including the cost components of food, housing and clothing. But the supplemental poverty measure alone is not enough.
Decision makers need tools that accurately reflect the real cost of aging in place, and the Elder Index offers just that: providing county-by-county data that look at the actual cost of aging in place by measuring costs such as housing, health care, food, transportation and miscellaneous essentials. For instance, the Elder Index demonstrates that seniors have high health costs, which may affect their ability to pay for other basic needs. In Wisconsin an elder in fair health pays $405 a month for health care while an elder in poor health pays $453. And if long-term care services are needed, these costs can double or even triple what an elder needs to make ends meet.
Additional data are necessary to better capture elders’ real costs and to determine the best way policymakers, administrators and service providers can target funds and strategies to promote economic security. We are pleased with the Census Bureau’s development of a supplemental poverty measure, and we look forward to its use in measuring the economic well-being of American families. Here in Wisconsin, the Elder Index is ready to be used at the local level to provide a more complete picture of economic security for our elders.
The supplemental measure should spur much needed discussion as we grapple with how best to define economic security in our state. We’ve already waited too long. Too many elders and their families live without enough to meet their basic needs. Now is the time to move past simply measuring what it means to be deprived to what it means to be secure.
Eve Galanter is the chair of the Wisconsin Women’s Network, a statewide coalition advancing the status of women in Wisconsin through communications, education and advocacy. For more information on the Wisconsin Elder Economic Security Standard Index, contact the Wisconsin Women’s Network at 255-9809 or go to the group’s website, www.wiwomensnetwork.org.
