United States congressmember Pat Ryan sponsored and attended the three-hour Senior Resource Fair at the Kingston YMCA April 2, where 34 different agencies had set up tables to explain an array of social services, some private, some public. The event attracted more than 200 attendees.
“The idea is to just help folks get connected with the help that they need in one place,” said Ryan, “so they don’t have to navigate a web of phone calls, waiting on hold, sending emails, that sort of thing. This way it’s in person.”
Anyone 60 years old qualifies as a senior by having witnessed the sun rise and set 21,900 times or more. Some 53,299 people in Ulster County now qualify as seniors. An additional 26,400 Ulster County residents are in their fifth decade. That makes 43 percent of the Ulster County population over 50.
Social Security benefits, primarily funded through payroll taxes, have been receivable since 1935 upon retirement or during periods of unemployment or injury.
Peter Van Aken, a volunteer manning the American Association for Retired People (AARP) table, has some potential bad news for those counting on Social Security as they near retirement age. The program’s trust fund, says Van Aken, is set for insolvency just one year shy of its centennial.
“What we’re doing today here at this good event,” said Van Aken, “is to say to people, Tell your congress people to enact legislation to keep Social Security fully funded, amongst other programs like prescription drug pricing and home healthcare aides, past the shortfall in 2034.”
To keep Social Security afloat — in name the Old Age and Survivors trust fund (OASI) — the federal government must increase taxes or cut services. There is also the option to push the retirement age back.
That decision to increase the retirement age, without a vote, is what brought protesters out into the French boulevards and avenues in 2023. France eventually adopted its new retirement age of 64, up from 62.
In the United States 62 is the current age at which a citizen may begin receiving retirement benefits, while Medicaid becomes available at 65.
The largest caucus of House Republicans called for an increase in the retirement age just two weeks ago.
“In written plans, now on paper released by the House Republican Study Group,” Ryan said, “they want to raise the retirement age and cut literally trillions of dollars from the plans and privatize what’s left.”
That budget proposal included $2.7 trillion in combined cuts to Social Security and Medicare. The same proposal provided $5.5 trillion in tax cuts were for the ultra-wealthy and for large corporations.
Van Aken wouldn’t let himself get pinned down about raising the retirement age. ARPA, he said, had no opinion on the matter.
“There’s a lot of things that can be done,” he said. “There’s also a threshold of $160,200 on annual income. So anybody in America who earns over $160,200 for their total year’s income, earnings past that point, they’re exempt from paying into the FICA tax, it stops for them.”
As his starting position to address the coming shortfall, president Joe Biden has proposed raising taxes on anyone making more than $400,000. Van Aken demurred weighing in on that proposal. “There’s a lot of plans,” he said. “It’s not up to me to decide. It’s up to Congress to decide.”
Community partners attending the fair included the Ulster County Office for the Aging, the Castle Point VA, the Social Security Administration, the Ulster County Department of Health, New York State Office of Mental Health, the Statewide Senior Action Council, Westchester Medical Center, RECAP, Legal Services of the Hudson Valley, and the New York State Attorney General’s office.
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