Senior Citizens: The Struggle to Obtain Benefits

While senior citizens aren't really they type of people to be out protesting for Medicare or Social Security benefits, they literally have to pull their own weight for some of those benefits. Some of those benefits are already provided by the government, while others require to pay for part of the benefits. Senior citizens are the main recipients of many governmental provided benefits because they are generally the social group with the least amount of resources or ability to produce income. Another reason, is that when they are around the age of 60, age that is considered about to retire, many companies prefer hiring young workers instead of elderly or aging people. That's why senior citizens generally receive a lot of attention and benefits from the government.


In recent years, the Social Security checks millions of senior citizens rely on will not increase as customer prices have gone down, better known as "The Social Security Freeze". It is a frightening thought for many senior citizens who have a pension to rely on. Though there are some ways for senior citizens to maximize their Social Security benefits. One of them is to retire, and retire again. This means that if the retiree finds another well-paying job, the elderly can withdraw benefits application and repay in one sum what they've received. Later, they can reapply for a larger Social Security benefit, even 30% larger; then the money they received prior to having that job can be added into an account go gain interest. Another way is to file and suspend. Suspend your benefits until age 70, your benefits will increase an additional 8% for every year you delay, collecting beyond your normal retiring age. The final way is to wait to retire. Now, this is not the answer many senior citizens want to hear, but there is not reduction in benefit if you work until full-retirement age.


The Obama administration plans to spend $250 stimulus payments to about 57 million seniors and veterans, and this would amount to a roughly 2% amount raise for the average senior citizen. If approved, the checks for the senior citizens will cost about $13 billion, yet there is no plan on how to finance them. Senior citizens are willing to wait this out on the government, relating to the recession and federal deficit. Some senior citizens feel as if they could use a little more, and have shown hostile behavior towards the government and have spoken out about the issue in MSNBC news, but with the recession and federal deficit, a big increase in their social security checks is not promising.

References:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33341802/ns/business-your_retirement/
http://www.ehow.com/info_7924111_information-senior-citizens-medicare.html
http://seniors-site.com/finances/ss.html
http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Seniors/Laws.shtml