Food stamp participation by eligible older Americans remains low

Food Review, Summer-Fall, 2002 by Parke Wilde, Elizabeth Dagata

USDA Takes Steps To Reach the Elderly

In response to these and other studies, USDA and some States have begun testing and implementing Food Stamp Program changes designed to increase participation by eligible people age 60 and older. USDA already permits the elderly to conduct mandatory meetings with caseworkers over the telephone, instead of face-to-face, to help overcome transportation barriers. In some States, new federally funded efforts to reach the elderly seek to counteract the lack of information about program rules and benefit levels and remove barriers to participation. For example, FNS, which administers the Food Stamp Program at the Federal level, is providing $2 million in grants to six States to conduct 2-year nutrition pilot projects designed to increase eligible elderly participation. One project will test the use of a simplified food stamp application. Three projects will provide the elderly with one-on-one assistance with the application process. Two projects will provide benefits to the elderly in the form of a commodity packag e, in hopes of making food stamp benefits appear less similar to welfare programs that may be stigmatized in the view of some potential elderly participants. ERS will fund an independent evaluation of these pilot projects so that successful outreach models may be extended more widely in the future.

South Carolina has tested another approach to easing access to the Food Stamp Program for eligible older Americans. As noted earlier, some SSI participants in all States are automatically eligible for food stamp benefits, but they typically must nevertheless apply to the Food Stamp Program so that their benefit level may be determined. The South Carolina program automatically provides food stamp enrollment and a standardized benefit for single-person households receiving SSI, which avoids the burden of additional application tasks. To date, this approach has increased participation in the Food Stamp Program, increased client satisfaction, and decreased application costs for the State. The success of the South Carolina effort has led other States to consider similar approaches.

Food stamp participants age 60 and older have grown from 7.4 percent of all participants in 1994 to 10 percent in 2000. Between 2000 and 2015, the Census Bureau projects that the number of Americans age 65 and older will increase from about 35 million to about 46 million. After a period of slow growth, the numbers of potential older food stamp participants will increase, especially after 2005, when the oldest of the baby boom generation reaches age 60. Many of these aging boomers will have adequate financial resources for their retirement needs, but others will not. In years to come, the success of the Food Stamp Program's outreach efforts will increasingly depend on the program's success in reaching eligible older Americans.