Groups wrangle for long drawn out solutions while disabled seniors need help today
By Stephen Pate – The needs of seniors living in poverty often arise from disability. Disability is a factor of aging – the longer we live the more likely we will develop one or more disabilities.
Disabled seniors get no assistance from the Province or the Federal Government towards the additional costs that they incur.
Seniors with disabilities on PEI are cut-off from supports when they reach their 65th birthday. The regulations say that you must be under 65 to apply for disability supports.
Of 9,000 seniors with disabilities on PEI, 1,600 need some assistive device that they can’t afford. The balance either have a health care plan or their own funds to purchase what they need.
If you are 15, 45 or 55 years old and need a $10,000 wheelchair, the PEI Disability Support Program will buy it for you, assuming you meet the income test. If you are 65 years of age and need the wheelchair, tough luck. The Province is too cheap to help.
When seniors with disabilities can’t get the help they need, they end up in nursing and seniors homes. That costs 7 times more than it costs to keep them at home. The PEI Taxpayer pays that bill.
People are more likely to be disabled as they age. For all age groups, only 14% of the population are disabled. By 65 years of age, that number has climbed to 33% and at 75 years of age it has reached 56%
Children and working age adults often qualify for group medical plans that pay for disability devices. Seniors living on pensions have lower incomes.
If the PEI Government includes disabled seniors in the PEI DSP, they have solved a big part of the poverty problem among seniors and saved the taxpayer money.
PEI’s Legislative Social Development Committee is hearing from groups on the issues of seniors poverty. The Federal Government is discussing the same issues under Canada Pension and GIC.
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