Enhance Economic Security

• Benefits Access
• Economic Security Initiative
• Mature Workers
• Home Equity
• National Center for Benefits Outreach & Enrollment

Resources

For Professionals

• Celebrate Older Americans Month by Finding Benefit Programs that Can Help You
• House Budget Reconciliation Sets Disturbing Precedent for Seniors Programs
• BenefitsCheckUp® Promotes Programs to Fight Senior Hunger During National Nutrition Month
• New Report Finds Millions of Low-Income Older Adults are Missing Out on Help
• You Gave, Now Save
• The Impact of Isolation on the Economic Security of Older Adults
• Webinar: Community Mapping

For Older Adults and Caregivers

• You Gave, Now Save
• Exclude me from search

For Advocates

• House Budget Reconciliation Sets Disturbing Precedent for Seniors Programs
• You Gave, Now Save

3 Women, Hundreds in Benefits

Emma, 76, raised 10 neighborhood children in Southwest Philadelphia and worked three jobs most her life.

When she lost $7,000 in the stock market, she found herself financially crippled. She’d never applied for government assistance. The hassle would be too large, the benefits too small, she thought.

Just a few blocks away, 75-year-old Flora's gas stove broke as winter approached. Then a faucet needed repair. She didn’t apply for benefits because she didn’t know how.

In nearby Germantown, PA, Kathleen, 67, bought a house. Then she lost her job. She needed financial assistance but didn’t think she qualified for government help.

Crunched by the Economy

Faced with escalating medical costs, rising unemployment, and an economic crisis, these three women--and millions of others like them--find themselves in positions of financial insecurity. Although help is available, most don't know if they're eligible--or how to apply. 

NCOA helps. We support 10 Benefits Access Centers around the country to link older adults to benefits that can help them pay for food, housing, health care, and more. 

Emma, Flora, and Kathleen all received help from Benefits Data Trust, a Philadelphia nonprofit that uses an aggressive outreach approach to locate and contact individuals who may need benefits.

Launched five years ago, BDT doesn’t wait for reluctant seniors to contact them--instead, counselors use the same telemarketing techniques used to sell credit cards to target individuals and offer help.

Counselors help older adults sign up for benefits, and then follow up to make sure they're receiving them.

Unexpected Help

All three women received unexpected phone calls.

When Kathleen received a call from a counselor, “I was surprised,” she says. “Really, really surprised.” With her counselor's help, she began receiving a monthly food stamp stipend.

Emma began receiving $153 each month, also for food. Flora not only began receiving $40 each month in food stamps, but also discovered that she qualified for a $244 payment to help pay her energy bill.

“If I’d known about this,” Flora says, “I’d have been on these benefits all along.”

BDT estimates that an individual who taps a combination of federal and state benefits can access up to $6,633 a year.

“I see a lot of them,” says Emma, of her neighbors in need. “They’re afraid that people are going to find out they’re getting stamps, and they don’t reach out until it’s too late. If this [program] continues, I will tell you it will help out a whole lot senior citizens.”

Do you know a senior in need?

• Visit BenefitsCheckUp® for help.

want to live in a country where

older adults don't have to choose between paying for medicine or food.