Many Haines seniors won’t receive Senior Benefits Program payments from the Alaska Department of Human Services (DHSS) for the next two months due to lack of funding. On April 11, DHSS announced seniors who normally receive $76 monthly through the program would not receive their benefits for May and June. Seniors who receive $250 and $175 payments will not be affected.
As of 2017, 87 Haines residents were registered for the program, but it is unknown how many of them are in the affected group.
“(DHSS) must fully evaluate current programs to see whether or not funds exist to cover the shortfall to the Senior Benefits program without compromising another program,” communications director Clinton Bennett said.
The Alaska Commission on Aging (ACoA), a subset of DHSS that helps plan and advocate for older Alaskans with state and federal services, is very concerned about the welfare of those receiving payments. “They received little notification of the pending canceled payments and are among the most financially vulnerable,” said ACoA in a statement.
“Between medical appointments and medicine and food, we need every penny we can get,” said 77-year-old Haines resident Rebecca Enos.
The CVN informed Enos about the stop on payments during a phone call for comment. “Nobody has notified me. I haven’t gotten any letter from anybody,” she said.
Enos uses her monthly senior benefit of $76 to buy things like groceries and gas. It won’t kill her, she said, “but we need it back please.”
Seniors like Enos who are affected by the shortfall earn between $15,000 and $26,000 a year.
“People in that income bracket especially are sometimes not eligible for Medicaid, because they’re just over the limit to receive Medicaid,” Haines supervisor of Cornerstone Home Health Beverly McLaughlin said.
“Medicare doesn’t cover in-home chronic care or private pay. A lot of people use that money to give them several hours a month of in-home services. They might feel they can’t afford to have the help now,” she said.
These services might include bathing, toileting, catheter care, chores or respite care for a family member, said Mclaughlin.
The earliest iteration of the Senior Benefits Program was known for decades as the Alaska Longevity Bonus Program. Initially, Alaska Longevity rewarded seniors who had lived in Alaska for 25 years or more. In 1984, the residency requirement lowered to just one year. In 2003, it became a needs-based system.
The program is now geared toward lower-income Alaskans over the age of 65. Despite that, the highest amount of money a senior can receive, $250, has not changed since Alaska Longevity began in 1972.
“The amount that is given hasn’t adjusted for inflation at all,” said Vincent Hansen, who has worked in senior services for 25 years as an executive director, administrator and founding board member of Haines Assisted Living (HAL).
“A lot of them are just making ends meet. (Senior benefits) is one of the things that might help keep someone in Alaska if they’re on the edge,” he said.
“The cost of living in Alaska is huge, and that’s why this program exists. It helps,” assistant director for Southeast Alaska Independent Living (SAIL) in Haines Sierra Jimenez said.
SAIL helps its senior members apply for the benefits program.
“A lot of seniors who are just barely making it don’t know about the program. We do know that $75 means whether they can eat or not,” said Jimenez.
While the program’s largest payment has remained consistent, the smallest payments (affecting the highest income bracket) have fluctuated: in March 2016, the $125 monthly benefit was reduced to $47, and since 2017-2018 it increased to $76.
When Enos first enrolled in the Senior Benefits Program, she received $250 a month. Even though her income and family size has not changed, she said, she is now receiving the smallest amount of benefits, she said.
“(The payments) keep going down, which concerns me. Now it’s going down to god knows what,” Enos said.
“Seniors losing a portion of their monthly supplemental income simply means less medication, food or heating oil, less is less no matter how you look at it,” HAL general manager James Studley said.
Studley said that the lack of funds for the Senior Benefits Program is connected to a broader landscape of insufficient funds for healthcare and quality of life services that affect all Alaskans.
“This is but one element of the proposed budget cuts to the Department of Health and Social Services being presented in the Alaska Legislature. The larger issue is the Medicaid budget cuts and how it will affect the entire population, especially seniors, the disabled and young children,” he said.
On April 14, the Alaska House of Representatives rejected Governor Dunleavy’s budget, which slashed $225 million from Medicaid. But on April 4, the House Finance Committee voted unanimously to support a 58 million dollar cut to Medicaid funds, proposed by DHSS.
“The financial picture is dismal for the entire Medicaid program and there is no good solution being presented,” said Studley.
Both DHSS and the ACoA declined to comment about why funds ran out, because they are still trying to understand what happened.
One possible factor is an unforeseen increase in the total number of enrollees of the Senior Benefits Program this year. Last fiscal year, 275 more people enroled in the program. New data is not yet pubicly available to see whether or not there were more enrollees this year.