Half of CA Seniors "Struggle to Survive"

A recent article by the Mercury News profiles the financial plight of senior citizens in the new economy (see article here). What is interesting about this article is that it highlights the inadequacy of the official poverty line. Instead, a much higher threshold is needed to provide economic stability for senior citizens. According to these new measures of "survivability" 47 percent of senior citizens lack enough resources; in contrast, the official poverty line says that this rate is only 9 to 10 percent. Clearly this highlights the need for a new anti-poverty agenda to take into account cost-of-living indices.

The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research report measured economic stability by the real costs to eat, travel and pay for medical costs and housing in each of California's 58 counties.
Its findings reveal 47 percent of state residents 65 and older are unable to pay for their basic needs. That's 864,000 seniors, more than half of whom struggle at home alone.
The new data reveal far deeper poverty rates among seniors than was previously known. According to the decades-old standard of measuring poverty, only 9 to 10 percent of California seniors were considered poor, that is, earning less than $10,000 a year. Researchers note that amount is peanuts in high-cost California, failing to reflect the true cost of survival.