The rest of the story

about seniors & poverty level

By John Olesky (BJ 1969-96)

Fifty years after President Lyndon Johnson declared the War on Poverty, the percentage of seniors nationwide living below the poverty line has plummeted from 27 percent to 9 percent, according to a BJ analysis by BJ reporter Rick Armon.

Not so, says the Kaiser Family Foundation. When you deduct health expenses from income, which affects seniors more than younger citizens, Kaiser says, the rate is 15 percent. 

The census defines the poverty threshold for those 65 or older as $11,173 a year for a single individual and $14,095 for a two-person household. Since the average annual Social Security payment is about $15,000, then everyone getting average or better SS checks can't be in poverty.

And that doesn't include pensions, IRAs and other sources of income.

The median seniors household income is about $35,000, which puts half the seniors at more than double the poverty level. By the way, when comparing seniors income to their junior counterparts, those in Nevada and Hawaii do the best and those in New Jersey, Rhode Island, North Dakota and Massachusetts do the worst.

A fairer assessment would be comparing after-tax incomes of retirees to current workers. My taxes -- federal and state income and Social Security bites -- dropped $15,000 after my retirement. That means my spending power was equal to a worker making $15,000 more than me. 

Then elderly medical costs kick in to bite into the tax savings for seniors. Obviously, it's a complex issue, and using only one set of numbers doesn't paint a true picture.

To read Armon's BJ article, click on http://www.ohio.com/news/local/an-american-success-story-fewer-seniors-living-in-poverty-1.465187