Older Citizens in Search of Security
MARGOLIS, RICHARD J.
States of the Union OLDER CITIZENS IN SEARCH OF SECURITY BY RICHARD J. MARGOLIS One sunny summer morning I pay a visit to a municipally sponsored Senior Center in a Vermont town I shall call...
...He was behind in his rent ($ 125 for a single room with a bath down the hall) and in his grocery bill ($94...
...When you were younger," I ask of Harold Milton, a sad-eyed gentleman who grew up on a farm near Columbia, "did you ever worry about how you would manage after you retired...
...The total misses putting him over the official poverty line by 19 per cent...
...She never asked anyone for help...
...Its ceiling on earned income is $65 a month...
...Most of those present are all too familiar with the transformations of autumn, a problematic season in which clinging to life can bea full-time occupation...
...Milton tells me he eats here at the senior center every noon, Monday through Friday, most days walking the two miles from his rooming house on the edge of town...
...That's right, four, two for cataracts and two for cancer...
...He may want to talk to some of you.' People here tend to think categorically...
...On official charts he would be categorized as one of the "near-poor...
...Perhaps hoping to change the subject, Mr...
...He was 46.1 was 40...
...You should have saved Vermont for October," I am advised by Christine, the Center's young director...
...Roma and her four children began collecting Social Security benefits...
...The trouble is, I can't get secretarial jobs...
...Theonesl like best are those getting ready lo fall—such subtle colors...
...Iknowbecauseitwasmyson's birthday...
...Mrs...
...I guess I'm like my mother—I've never asked anyone for help...
...The method of calculating such benefits is complicated...
...No," he answers, "it never entered my mind...
...His benefits amount to $250 per month, a sum so meager as to render him eligible for yet another program managed by the Social Security Administration, one aimed exclusively at assisting the poor...
...Milton and I sit side-by-side on folding chairs in a room that once served as a Unitarian church...
...Milton senses pressure on him to pay in full...
...Roma explains how she manages: "I do without a lot of things...
...He worked in a quarry," she tells me, "and he'd never been sick a day in his life...
...He squints at me amiably through thick lenses and states that he is 71 years old, has never set foot outside Vermont, and has no plans to do so...
...College was out of the question—not like with my kids, who all got some kind of degree...
...Milton was working, he would stand to lose about $18 a month...
...Hismonthly Social Security check came in the morning' s mail and he cashed it immediately...
...Yes...
...If SSI ever discovered thatMr...
...But I'm not complaining...
...He is writing a book about senior citizens...
...A white-haired woman in an apron says grace: "We thank you, Lord, for these days that you give us...
...What does a little kid know about such things...
...Although the jar is lined with paper to mask the size of the donation, sometimes Mr...
...Milton earns about $ 100 a month, which brings his total income to $5200 a year, or about 5 per cent above the poverty line...
...Back a few yearsl had four operations...
...States of the Union OLDER CITIZENS IN SEARCH OF SECURITY BY RICHARD J. MARGOLIS One sunny summer morning I pay a visit to a municipally sponsored Senior Center in a Vermont town I shall call Columbia...
...I hope I never have to...
...The doctors saved my life...
...After my husband died I did wait-ressing for 12 years...
...He came from Italy...
...I make clothes last a long time, and I work whenever I can—temporary office work, jobs likethat.Ihaveacoupleofbachelorsin my neighborhood and I do their laundry for them...
...One night he came home and went to bed early...
...SSI's rules are especially restrictive...
...second, today's dessert—baked apple—comes courtesy of the ladies' auxiliary of a local men's club...
...He suffers from arthritis in both hands, which he says makes the work "kind of slow and painful—but I don't mind the work and 1 don't mind the money...
...It is called Supplemental Security Income, or SSI for short, and it provides him with an additional monthly stipend of $84...
...for every dollar earned over that the government reduces benefits by 50 cents...
...My companion's clothes are brighter still...
...Roma is one of some 4 million widows and widowers who collect Social Security Survivors' Benefits...
...I wouldn't do that kind of work any more...
...That was pretty good money in those days...
...Nothing in their greener years has prepared them for the uncertainties they now face...
...I don't know how she got through her life...
...The people in charge," he says with a smile, "they let us know there's no such thing as a free lunch...
...You see, I was counting on my Social Security...
...and third, "There'ssomeonehere today who does not fit your category...
...We kids all had to work our way through high school...
...Todayhehasthedollar...
...I'm just happy to be alive," he says...
...That's the hardest part," she says, "not having enough to buy presents at Christmas...
...Between the two he collects $4,008 a year, the most allowed anyone (in 1985) who receives combined Social Security-SSI benefits...
...Roma's four dependent children made her immediately eligible and made the benefits relatively generous...
...I have a aice garden and I never think of myself as poor...
...She died a long time ago, just after I was married...
...Some 60 elderly citizens are there, quietly awaiting lunch...
...But in the event, Social Security has fallen short of Mr...
...As often as not, their chances of surviving depend on which slots they are deemed to occupy...
...Oone of the persons I talk with after lunch is Stella Roma, a trim 66-year-old widow whose husband died of a heart attack in 1958...
...Social Security's earnings ceiling is $7,320...
...He started complaining of pains in his arm and things like that...
...The leaves are beautiful then...
...He is wearing a crimson shirt, maroon-and-white striped suspenders and green-and-white checked pants...
...Milton's expectations...
...Too many hours onmy feet...
...By the time he had covered the two and had purchased some odds-and-ends—soap, toilet paper, a pair of socks—he was left with seven dollars in his pocket...
...Most survivors without children must wait until they are at least 60 years old before they can start collecting...
...Roma is grateful for the little extra she is able to earn, about $1,500 a year...
...Milton lets me know he is a semiretired handyman—"semi," because two nights a week he cleans offices at several insurance and real estate firms in downtown Columbia...
...He was buried 26 years ago today.' "Exactly to the day...
...Then Christine makes some announcements: First, the exercise group will meet in the front room right after lunch...
...Amen...
...That ought to come tomorrow...
...She knows what her life might have been like without Social Security: "My own father died when I was five...
...We were getting about $600 a month," she recalls...
...You' re over the hill when you' re over 60, or even when you're over 50...
...I ask...
...When they ask you your age, you know very well what the story is...
...He has good reason to be reticent about his work: "The Feds, you know, they got all them rules...
...The stained glass windows opposite cast garish lights on our hands: reds, yellows, purples—autumn colors...
...Within weeks Mrs...
...It was hard work, but I needed the money...
...He was a baker and his chest was torn open by a bread-making machine...
...There's just so much you're supposed to make on your own, and after that they lower the boom...
...My poor mother couldn't even speak English...
...Somewhat reluctantly Mr...
...My mother was left with seven children, andatthetime, you know, in 1923, there was no insurance or Social Security...
...That leaves her about $3,200 for everything else-food, clothing, utilities, transportation (no car), eyeglasses, prescriptions, occasional travel and, most important, gifts for her five siblings, four children and 11 grandchildren, not to mention multiple nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends...
...Besides, wasn't the Federal government supposed to be putting aside a fat share of their personal earnings each payday against later, leaner years...
...Old age and its pauperizing possibilities once musl have seemed mercifully remote: There would be time enough to make the necessary arrangements, lo gather antidotes to the stings of enforced idleness sure to come but hard to imagine...
...It's "sort of a voluntary contribution," he says: The contributor pushes whatever he or she can afford through a slot cut into the top of a Mason jar...
...They just say, 'We'll call you.'" Mrs...
...As soon as the clock on the wall shows noon, we all file into a larger room and take seats at long tables that volunteers have furnished with paper doilies, paper plates and plastic cutlery...
...But now that the children are married and have children of their own, Mrs...
...The money helps pay her taxes ($654) on a house that's free and clear, her fire and flood insurance premiums ($750), and her oil bill ($800...
...But I'll get my work money, too," he reminds himself, "and my SSI...
...Roma collects only $326 a month, which is the amount her husband would have received had he lived to retire...
...I'm doing just fine...
...No, they don't come right out with it and say you're too old...
...Lunch costs him a dollar—when he happens to have a dollar in his pocket...
...We had planned a birthday party for him—he was just five years old—and I went through with it...
Vol. 68 • October 1985 • No. 14
