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Background

The Older Americans Act (OAA) is the backbone of services to America’s aging population.  First enacted in 1965, the OAA helps seniors to stay independent and healthy through a wide range of services and programs, including these:

• Meals on Wheels,
• congregate meals,
• senior center services,
• transportation,
• support for family caregivers,
• home and community services,
• health promotion and disease prevention,
• civic engagement, and
• community service employment for low-income older workers.

With strong support from the National Council on Aging (NCOA) and many other aging-related organizations, Congress reauthorized the OAA in the fall of 2006, strengthening it in numerous ways and adding important new initiatives.

Major OAA programs

These are the major components of the OAA, receiving 94 percent of the annual appropriations:

• Supportive Services (Title III-B) – services that enable older persons to remain in their own homes and age in place, rather than enter institutions. The most frequently provided services are home health, personal care and transportation.
• Nutrition Services (Title III-C) – congregate and home-delivered meals, increasing the health, functionality and quality-of-life for millions of seniors.
• National Family Caregiver Support Program (Title III-E) – services to help ease the burdens of caregivers, including respite care, counseling and supplemental services. More than one-fifth of all households nationally are caring for someone 50 years old or more.
• Senior Community Service Employment Program (Title V, SCSEP) – part-time employment and training for low-income workers, helping to lift them out of poverty and restore a sense of self-worth, while strengthening communities through community service job placements. 

New programs in OAA

In addition, these valuable new initiatives added to the OAA in 2006 deserve significant startup funding:

• The National Center on Benefits Outreach and Enrollment – marshaling person-centered, cost effective techniques to enroll low-income seniors in a broad range of federal, state and private benefits programs.
• Disease Prevention and Health Promotion – national technical assistance program under the Administration on Aging’s Choices for Independence initiative to develop evidence-based educational and behavioral change programs in the aging network to reduce the risk of injury, disease, and disability. As demonstrated by the Stanford Chronic Disease Self-Management Program, there is ample evidence that such initiatives produce significant Medicare and Medicaid savings.
• Multigenerational and Civic Engagement – enabling seniors to make important contributions to their communities by creating: (1) demonstration and research projects for multigenerational and civic engagement activities; (2) a comprehensive national strategy for using older adults to address community needs; and (3) intergenerational programs that involve senior volunteers with families that have special needs.

Funding situation

OAA funding has been virtually frozen since FY 2002. The majority of recent increases were for the senior nutrition programs and to enable SCSEP to cover the increase in the federal minimum wage. This flat funding year after year means a serious erosion in purchasing power due to inflation, and also diminished ability of OAA programs to reach the growing population of seniors in need.

This table shows actual OAA appropriations for the past eight years (numbers in millions). Through FY 2008, funding for AoA increased less than 5 percent; SCSEP increases in recent years were only allowed the program to keep pace with the new minimum wage--no new slots were created.

However, FY 2009 funding includes some key increases that bode well for future investment in Older Americans Act appropriations. Overall funding for OAA increases by 6.6 percent in the FY09 appropriations bill; even with the funding for SCSEP minimum wage adjustment factored out, the increase is still a respectable 5.5 percent.

In addition, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (stimulus) provides another $120 million for SCSEP and $100 million for the senior nutrition programs over the next two years. 

History of OAA Funding (in millions)

Fiscal Year    SCSEP    AoA    Total

In view of the above, NCOA urges Congress to:

• Increase funding for existing OAA programs by 12% in FY10; and
• Provide sufficient start-up funding for the new initiatives in the 2006 reauthorization, including
  • $4 million for the National Center on Benefits Outreach and Enrollment and
  • $3 million for Multigenerational and Civic Engagement.

Why is a funding increase needed, and what will it accomplish?

• OAA programs help to preserve the health and independence of our nation’s seniors, enabling them to remain in their own homes longer.
• If funding since FY02 had simply kept pace with inflation and the increasing number of seniors, it would be more than $400 million higher than it is in FY08.
• With flat funding, service providers are constantly faced with difficult choices about which services to cut.  Rising food and gas prices hit nutrition programs hard.
• Nearly 85 percent of states report waiting lists for home-delivered meals; 24 percent report waiting lists for congregate meal sites.
• The unemployment rate of seniors increased 60 percent in 2008 and is at a 31-year high. In December 2008, the unemployment rate for adults aged 65 and older reached 5.1 percent; this is a 60 percent increase and a 31-year high. Also in December, a total of 1.4 million adults ages 55 and older were unemployed at this time and more were underemployed.
• Spending money on OAA programs saves taxpayers’ dollars in the long run, because it cuts Medicaid and Medicare expenditures by reducing premature nursing home placements, averting malnutrition and controlling chronic health conditions.

For additional information, please e-mail advocacy@ncoa.org or call 202-479-1200.

March 2009

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