Sunday, July 14, 2013

Do You Qualify for Extra Senior Services or Benefits?

One of the reasons I like living in a retirement community is because they do such a good job of keeping residents informed about issues that could affect us.  Many of the mailers that are sent to us report on programs or events for seniors that I would know nothing about if I lived in a typical residential neighborhood.  This week we received notice of a new Benefits Checkup website that has been created by the National Council on Aging.  Anyone with access to a computer can easily find out if they qualify for additional benefits or special services.  Many seniors suffer needlessly simply because they do not know how to access the programs that could help them.

Even if you are a Baby Boomer who has not yet retired, you may be interested in using this website to see if you can discover any programs that could provide assistance to your parents or other elderly members of your family.

What Senior Citizen Benefits Might be Available?

Wouldn't it be a nice surprise to discover that you may qualify for some additional help as you age?  Here are examples of the types of services or discounts that various government agencies and nonprofit organizations may be able to provide:

Medicare and Medi-Cal
Veterans' benefits
Employment Services
Nutritional Assistance
Home-delivered meals
Prescription drug assistance
Housing assistance
In-home care

The National Council on Aging Benefits Checkup

Thanks to the National Council on Aging, you can do a general benefits checkup using just one website to see which types of assistance you may be eligible to receive.  You will still have to contact the different agencies separately to apply for the actual benefits.  However, you can use this one website to discover specific agencies or organizations that are most likely to provide you with the services you need.  Here is the website:

http://www.benefitscheckup.org

What Information You Need to Provide the Benefits Checkup Website

In order for the website to be able to help you locate senior support services, you will need to be prepared to provide certain information.  Before you log on, make sure you have the following facts available:

Your state of residence and zip code
Whether you live in a home, apartment or mobile home
How long you have lived at your current residence
Your status as a Veteran
Your spouse's status as a Veteran
Whether or not you or your spouse ever worked for:
     A State Government
     The Federal Government
     A local government agency
     The Railroads
Names of all the prescription medications you currently take
The current income for yourself, your spouse and all members of your household
Your assets, including the value of your property, stocks, savings account, etc.
Your estimated expenses, including:
     Mortgage or rent payments
     Utilities
     Out of pocket medical expenses

They estimate that it will take most people at least 20 minutes to complete the benefits checkup.

After you have input all this information, the website will provide you with a list of all the programs that you may wish to contact for assistance.  Most of them will have their own application process.  However, by using the National Council on Aging checklist, you may discover several programs that you never even knew existed.

If you are interested in learning more about special programs for seniors, use this link to find a number of Amazon books about senior benefits.

If you are interested in more helpful retirement information from this blog, check out the index articles below.  Each one contains an introduction to that topic plus links to a number of related articles:

Gifts, Travel and Family Relationships

Great Places for Boomers to Retire Overseas

Great Places to Retire in the United States

Health and Medical Topics for Baby Boomers

Money and Financial Planning for Retirement

You are reading from the blog:  http://baby-boomer-retirement.blogspot.com

Photo of computer courtesy of www.morguefile.com


1 comment:

  1. Terrific information! Thanks for sharing what you learn from your community.

    ReplyDelete

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