Retirement News : Seniors : Skimpy social security has seniors back to work

Skimpy social security has seniors back to work

Date Added: 28-03-2005

INDIANA--Most people dream about the day they can retire from workforce, by age 65 if not before, and living out the rest of their lives without a care--except maybe for when that next grandchild is coming.
But life isn't always a bowl of cherries. Sometimes--more often than not, actually--life can be the pits--as the millions of senior citizens who can't afford to retire will tell you. They have to continue working through their supposed golden years to supplement their social security benefits to make ends meet.

According to the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), by 2030, the number of Americans over 65 will be 70 million--double the number in 2001. Trends also indicate that the number of workers over age 55 will increase by 46 percent in the next 10 years alone.

For December 2003, 2,387,770 Pennsylvania residents received social security benefits and thousands of those are forced to either continue to work or reenter the workforce because their expenses have left them strapped.

With that in mind, many local agencies have provided opportunities for senior citizens to update their skills and match them with cooperating employers.

Aging Services, Inc. of Indiana County, Westmoreland County Community College and Experience Works all offer such services to senior clients who have found themselves having to pinch pennies.

Aging Services and WCCC, as well as some AARP branches, operate a federally funded program called the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP), which trains seniors who meet income and age requirements.

Non-profit organizations serve as the employers in this program. The seniors' wages are paid through federal funding, not the training site.

Depending on the training they receive, seniors can participate for two years. After that, the client is aided in finding unsubsidized employment.

"I have quite a few workers 65 and older," said Jackie Bardroff, senior employment coordinator for Aging Services, Inc. in Indiana.

Many of her clients have taken positions in offices doing clerical work, others become caretakers or maintenance workers, all depending on their qualifications and their interests.

"It's not like McDonalds and Wendy's, like people think," Bardroff stressed.

"I think there is a stigma attached to people on social security," she remarked. "They don't want people to know they have to work."

A person must be at least 62 to apply for social security, unless there are extenuating circumstances such as widowhood. Bardroff has many clients in their late 50s and early 60s who are not yet eligible for social security, and therefore have even more reason to hold down a job.

Social security is earned based on a person's wages and how many years worked.

Aging Services has five clients in the SCSEP, which Bardroff said are all currently placed in training programs.

Title 5, the umbrella under which SCSEP operates, "has always been part of our program," Bardroff said. "And it's wonderful because it trains them to use the computer, to type."

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