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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bill who wrote (159162)	7/9/2001 10:35:13 AM
From: ColtonGang	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

You are sadly mistaken........there are more poverty level elderly now than ever..........learn your facts.

To: Bill who wrote (159162)	7/9/2001 10:41:12 AM
From: ColtonGang	Respond to of 769670

Learn your facts........."But poorer retirees are almost completely dependent on their Social Security checks. Elderly poor families rely on Social Security for 64 percent of their income. Poor elderly people living alone rely on Social Security for 82 percent of their income. For these people, a 12.7 percent reduction in the size of their Social Security benefit is almost the exact same thing as a 12.7 percent reduction in their income. Since people already get poorer as they get older, this reduction in the size of annual cost of living adjustment will amplify this process. In particular, women retirees, who get lower benefits than men because they were paid less in their working lives, and on average live longer than men, will be hit particularly hard by the changes in the CPI. While only 11 percent of the people over 65 live below the poverty line, 20 percent of older woman living alone are below the poverty line.[3] Another 13 percent of these women are classified as near poor, with incomes that place them at less than 125 percent of the official poverty line. The oldest women are also the poorest. The median income for women age 65-69 was $11,630 in 1996. This drops to $9,417 for women over age 85. The lower benefits that will result from the changes in the CPI will hit this vulnerable segment of the population quite hard. If the new CPI had been in place five years ago, the income for a typical woman age 65-69 would be approximately $370 lower at present. If the new CPI had been in place twenty years ago, the income for a typical woman over age 85 would be approximately $1100 lower today. This a considerable cut for a group with a median income of $9,417. It would leave most of this group either below the poverty line of $7,525, or just slightly above it.