My parents live independently. They are in their 80s but can manage on their own. They struggle financially since they only receive their social security checks. No money in the bank at all. I give them money for food. Their income is roughly $24000. ARe there any programs to help me defray some of the expense and what's available to help them
Take care,
Carol
My mom's income was about $ 1,700 a mo when she was still at home and just too high to qualify for anything with a strict "at-need" out there like SNAP.
But what she was able to get was:
- frozen homewowners taxes with all sorts of exemptions because of age. These need to be filed for. Check with their tax assessor website. this could be a really significant amount of money too.
- lower city services. For mom, this was 40% lower each month on her garbage pick-up cost.
- replacement of old utility stuff. Could be new lower water use toilets or new programmable thermostats or new efficient water heaters. My mom;s city has had all these programs for seniors who are homeowners. Right now they are replacing all the old gas meters and old gas stove hook-ups and for free but you have to sign up for it.
- Meals on Wheels or other meal replacement delivery program. My mom got this and it ran maybe $ 2.00 a meal and was alot of food. City program from federal funds but run by local church (with school kitchen) She got a nice free mid-size styrofoam cooler with lots of freezer blocks, so if she went out, she could just leave the cooler by the door. On Fridays, there were also sandwiches included for weekend meals. Really it was alot of foodstuffs.
- Senior pantry - these too seem to be church run. For my mom, the big one was Jewish Family Services who did this. She just needed to register and there would appear a couple of brown bags at her door once a month with easy open canned goods, cereals, a couple of rolls of paper towels and toilet paper. Nothing perishable but useful used every day stuff in the bags.
- Senior day care - again these are city / federal funded and done at a local church. My mom went to 2 different ones on a regular basis when she was still at home and they did meals for $ 1.00/1.50 and flu shots once a year and then regular health monitoring. 1 of them had a van to pick her up. the other she drove to.
- BSA - local scout troop cut elderly yards as part of their social service outreach. Eagle projects building ramps. This has to be done for the church or a community organization that holds the BSA charter and then in turn they "place" it at the homeowners property.
- "Christmas in October" type of stuff. In my city,New Orleans, the PRC did an annual total exterior re-do of a couple of dozen elderly homeowners properties every year. Painting, new roof, gutter repairs, new exterior walls. Big stuff and totally free. Joint project between PRC and major corporations for workers and donations. House behind us Chevron did, another one Schlumberger did down the street. Look to see what is available in their community and sign them up on the list. Took about 4 years for our neighbor to move up on the list.
Their local Area on Aging should have lists of what is out there for them to apply to.
Most of this is on-line. You will need to know what their SS and retirement is but other than that, the applications were straightforward.
So much of this is joint federal & state paid for with a local community organization
as the grant recipient. CBDG money. It's our tax dollars, so benefit from it.