SACRAMENTO – State Sen. Patricia Wiggins (D-Santa Rosa) is co-author of legislation (Assembly Bill 324 and Assembly Joint Resolution 4) that would use the elder Economic Security Standard Index (known as the Elder Index) to provide a better measure of poverty to plan for the needs of California's growing aging population.

Wiggins said that the Elder Index is “a new tool that accurately quantifies the annual cost of meeting basic needs for retired, older adults in each county. “

Assemblyman Jim Beall, Jr. (D – San Jose) is the lead author of AB 324 and AJR 4; Senator Carol Liu (D – Pasadena) is principal co-author.

Wiggins said the measures are needed because policymakers are seeking a more accurate picture of what it really takes to make ends meet in today’s economy.

Lawmakers typically measure poverty and determine benefits eligibility using the Federal Poverty Line (FPL), which is a 1963 measure based solely on the cost of a bare-bones food diet. Although it is updated annually using the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the 2008 FPL is the same dollar amount – $10,400 for an individual living alone – whether one lives in a high- cost market or a low-cost one.

As a result, the FPL vastly understates the real number of people struggling to make ends meet – leaving policymakers with unreliable data and poor planning tools.

“Many seniors fall through the cracks of this faulty system, with too much income to qualify for support, but not enough to cover their most basic human needs,” Wiggins noted.

California leads the nation with the most elders (300,000) living below the FPL, the majority of them women and people of color. An estimated 864,000 California elders do not have enough income to cover their most basic needs (e.g. housing, healthcare, food, transportation), while 677,000 elders living alone or with a partner struggle to survive on incomes above the FPL but below the Elder Index. Public programs (e.g., Food Stamps, Medi-Cal, Medicare subsidies) are failing to help these seniors because eligibility for these programs is based on the FPL.

The U.S. Census Bureau projects that the national population of people age 65 and over is expected to more than double by 2030. California already has the largest percentage of adults age 65 or older in the country (3.5 million). Without an accurate, regional picture of economic needs, local Agencies on Aging cannot adequately plan for the needs of this growing population.

To provide policymakers with a better measure of elders’ needs, AB 324 would:

• Require California Area Agencies on Aging (AAA) to use the Elder Index to determine poverty in preparing their needs assessment and in developing local area plans;

• Require the California Department of Aging (CDA) to include a compilation of the index data in its State area plan;

• Require any new California State needs-based program to use the index, or some percentage thereof, in determining eligibility (this would also apply to any current program that is later modified to become needs-based);

• Require the CDA to annually update the Elder Index for each county of California and annually calculate the number and demographic profile of seniors living below the updated index (less than $60,000 a year).

The second measure – AJR6 – urges the U.S. Congress and President to modernize the Federal Poverty Guidelines to reflect the actual costs to survive in each state and county of the U.S.

Wiggins represents California’s 2nd District, which includes portions or all of Humboldt, Lake, Mendocino, Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties.

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