In Review: Connecting Older Adults to Essential Benefits After Incarceration, Increasing Access to Justice for Older Adults, and

Celebrating the Introduction of the SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act

As a result of advocacy by Justice in Aging and partners, in September, the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Savings Penalty Elimination Act was introduced in the Senate and the House. SSI is an anti-poverty program that provides modest financial assistance to older adults and people with disabilities who can no longer work enough to meet their basic needs. But SSI has not kept up with current economic realities: to qualify, individuals cannot have more than $2,000 in savings, while married couples are limited to $3,000. As a result, the program discourages recipients from building any savings for expenses such as home repairs, rent, or emergencies, because they will risk losing the benefits they rely on. The bipartisan legislation would raise SSI asset limits to $10,000 for individuals and $20,000 for married couples, and index asset limits to inflation. Read more.

CMS Health Equity Conference Releases Report Featuring Justice in Aging Recommendations

Justice in Aging’s Framework for Evaluating and Improving Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) found a larger audience last month when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released its report from the agency’s inaugural Health Equity Conference. During the conference, which took place in June, Amber Christ, our Managing Director of Health Advocacy, and Teresa Nguyen, the Director of the Community Living Equity Center at Brandeis University presented a plenary sharing how we are incorporating the lived experience of people with disabilities and using our innovative framework to identify inequities and policy solutions in HCBS access and delivery. StoryCorps later featured Amber and Teresa in conversation where they shared their personal paths to aging and disability advocacy.

Helping Advocates Connect Older Adults to Essential Benefits After Incarceration

As part of Justice in Aging’s reentry project, launched under our Strategic Initiative to Advance Equity in Aging, Justice in Aging is authoring a series of briefs to ensure older adults can reenter our communities with the resources they need to meet their basic needs. The series is supported by the AARP Public Policy Institute. The second brief in the series describes Social Security policies on Connecting Formerly Incarcerated Individuals to Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Benefits. SSI and Social Security benefits protect the economic well-being of older adults and people with disabilities. Timely access to these benefits is critical to securing housing and paying for other basic needs. Supporting older adults after incarceration—who, as a result of structural racism are disproportionately older adults of color—is key to advancing equity for older adults. Read the issue brief. The first brief in the series, Medicare Special Enrollment Period for Formerly Incarcerated Individuals: What Advocates Need to Know, is available.

Helping Legal Services Programs Better Serve Low-Income Older Adults

A recent Legal Services Corporation (LSC) Justice Gap Report revealed that 70% of low-income older adult households had at least one civil legal problem in the past year, but older adults did not receive any or enough legal help for 91% of substantial problems. To support legal aid attorneys, staff, and partners in building capacity and expertise to address this gap, the National Center on Law & Elder (NCLER) rights hosted a training series in collaboration with LSC and the Administration for Community Living. The training series, “Closing the Justice Gap for Older Adults,” includes four trainings addressing key topic areas, including representing residents of nursing facilities threatened with improper evictions, representing older individuals with a range of decisional capabilities, how civil legal aid can collaborate with Adult Protective Services to address elder abuse and neglect, and how to represent older adults with a guardian to ensure their independence and civil rights.

Watch the recorded trainings and access slides on the NCLER website.

Fighting Illegal Collection Attempts by Nursing Facilities

Nursing facilities often try to force a facility resident’s family members or friends to become responsible for the resident’s bills after a family member or friend signs an admission agreement, often in haste and on behalf of a resident who is unable to sign for themselves. These collection attempts are almost always illegal. To support advocates and consumers in fighting back against these illegal collection attempts, Justice in Aging, in partnership with the National Consumer Law Center, authored an FAQ, Can a Nursing Home Force a Resident’s Family and Friends to Pay the Bill? The FAQ provides answers to key questions that arise in these situations and outlines what to look for when reading admission agreements to avoid such collection attempts. Read the FAQ.