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The National Resource Center on LGBT Aging is conducting its second annual survey to elicit feedback on its efforts to reach key audiences and deliver critical services. The survey also asks for suggestions for resources to help improve the lives of LGBT older adults in the nation.

Anyone who completes the approximately 10-minute survey will be entered to win a $50 gift certificate to Amazon.com. The survey deadline is February 6.

PHI, one of the Resource Center’s 10 partners, developed curricula and a training program for aging services providers and LGBT advocacy organizations. The Resource Center on LGBT is a project of Services & Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE) and is funded by the Administration on Aging.

– by Deane Beebe

For the third consecutive year, PHI is hosting the Earn, Keep, Save MORE website, an online tax resource center to help direct-care workers get the tax credits that they are entitled to receive and access free tax preparation assistance services.

The Earn, Keep, Save MORE website — designed for direct-care workers and employers in Michigan and across the nation — provides information on:

• state and federal Earned Income Tax Credits (EITC);
• Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) sites; and
• The Beehive — a free online tax preparation service and financial education site.

Long-term care employers are encouraged to use the site to download materials — paycheck stuffers, fact sheets, and posters — to help their employees make this a rewarding tax season.

Tax Credits Boost Income

The EITC is a refundable tax credit for low- and moderate-income families and individuals.

A family can receive an EITC of up to $5,751, depending on income and family size. Anyone eligible for a federal EITC automatically qualifies for a state EITC if their state offers it; most states do. State tax credits range from 3 percent to 40 percent of the federal EITC.

“Many who are eligible for the EITC do not claim it — either because they don’t know about it or they don’t think they will be eligible because they do not owe any taxes,” said PHI Senior Workforce Advocate Tameshia Bridges, who has been coordinating the Earn, Keep, Save MORE efforts in Michigan since the program began.

“Getting a large tax refund with the help of EITC can mean extra money to catch up on bills, buy a computer for the family, or open up a savings account.”

Free Tax Preparation Assistance

VITA sites — sponsored by community-based organizations and staffed by IRS-trained volunteers — provide free tax preparation assistance and often offer workshops on saving and financial planning.

Families with an annual income below $50,000 are eligible for free tax preparation assistance at VITA sites through April 15.

The Beehive makes it possible for people who do their taxes themselves to file both their state and federal taxes for free online.

More information on EITC eligibility, as well as materials to help employers spread the word about EITC and VITA sites, are available on the Earn, Keep, Save MORE site.

– by the PHI Policy team

On January 18, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways & Means voted 23-13 to repeal the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) program, by approving the Fiscal Responsibility and Retirement Security Act (H.R. 1173).

The Committee’s approval clears the bill to be voted on by the full House.

Advocates for older adults and people with disabilities — as well as for direct-care workers — have been supporters of the CLASS program, the voluntary, federal insurance plan created under the Affordable Care Act to help people purchase long-term services and supports (LTSS).

The CLASS program would also establish a national Personal Care Attendants (PCA) Workforce Advisory Panel to advise Congress on the adequacy of the number of PCAs, their wages and benefits, and access to the services that PCAs provide.

Advocates Oppose the Bill

CLASS supporters have organized to oppose the advancement of H.R. 1173 (pdf).

On January 17, more than 50 organizations sent a letter (pdf) to the Ways & Means Committee leadership opposing the bill.

Caring Across Generations also mobilized its supporters, generating hundreds of calls to Committee members opposing repeal.

The Obama Administration halted implementation of the CLASS program in October due to concerns about its viability. However, the Administration also opposes repeal, arguing that CLASS provides a framework for future action to meet the LTSS needs of older Americans and people with disabilities.

Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) is leading efforts to defend CLASS against repeal in the Senate.

– by Gail MacInnes, PHI National Policy Analyst

Karen Kulp

Karen Kulp, president and CEO, Home Care Associates, and PHI board member, explains that paying home care workers minimum wage and overtime is fair and smart.

I recently had the honor of traveling to Washington, D.C., to stand with President Barack Obama, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, and home care workers from across the country, as the President announced the proposed regulations to ensure that home care workers have minimum wage and overtime protections under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The new regulations amend a law that dates back to 1974, which exempted employers from paying minimum wages and overtime for “casual babysitters” and “companions for the aged and infirm.”

Pennsylvania is one of 21 states (along with Washington, D.C.) that require employers to pay minimum wage, and among 16 of these states that also mandate paying overtime. This leaves 29 states — and nearly 1.4 million workers — without these basic labor protections.

I was asked to go the Washington in my role as president of Home Care Associates in Philadelphia, which has been in business since 1993. We have over 175 workers who provide services to people in their homes and other settings.

Kulp (L) with President Obama

We believe that that providing quality care requires creating a quality job. A quality job means providing appropriate training as well as decent wages and benefits. This not only makes sense because it is the right thing to do — we believe it is the smart thing to do.

Our experience is that in the long run, paying decent wages leads to greater investment by workers resulting in lower turnover rates and better quality of care.

More people are seeking home care for themselves or loved ones. Today there is greater competition to provide those services — from franchise businesses, providers who offer minimum wages but no benefits, and independent home care workers who are hired directly by consumers or their families for their services.

Home Care Associates has a workforce that is experienced and committed to doing this incredibly challenging and important work. It takes a special kind of person to do this work day in and out. Workers stay when their work is respected and adequately rewarded. At our company our aides average over four years on the job, which benefits the individuals for whom we care.

As a nation, it is time for us to recognize the valuable role that home care workers play in caring for our loved ones. Many of us would not be able to work to support our own families without the assistance of a home health aide.

The success of our company is proof that you can have a successful business and still pay workers decent wages and provide them with benefits. The need for quality workers will only increase in coming years. That is why we support these proposed regulations to assure that workers across the country receive fair pay for the critical services they provide.

Gov. Jerry Brown

To help fill the $9.2 billion gap in California’s 2012-2013 budget, Governor Jerry Brown’s (D) budget proposal includes cuts of $163.8 million to the In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) Program by eliminating domestic assistance — such as meal preparation, food shopping, laundry, and housework — for clients who reside in the same home as their caregivers.

The IHSS program provides personal care — including help with bathing, dressing, toileting, and feeding — and domestic services to about 435,000 low-income elders, the blind, and people with disabilities who live in their own homes but are at risk for nursing home placement without the services and supports that the program provides.

About 60 percent of IHSS clients would be affected should the proposed cuts take effect at the start of the new fiscal year on July 1, according to an article in the Sacramento Bee.

The caregivers, many of whom are family members, receive hourly wages and benefits between $8 and $14.78, reports the publication.

Cuts Deemed “Unwise”

Calling the proposed cuts to the IHSS “unwise,” a Los Angeles Times editorial says that “Slashing or ending that care means people in need will have to go to nursing homes, which can also be on the state tab but are more expensive.”

“The general public does not understand how easy it is to end up in a nursing home because it is the only place where care will be provided,” explained San Francisco IHSS Public Authority Executive Director Donna Calame, who is also a PHI board member.

“Sometimes, the simple acts of assisting someone with food shopping and preparation are all that keep a person well nourished and out of a hospital or nursing home. For a very few number of hours per IHSS consumer per month, California will not be saving very much money with these cuts and is risking much higher public expenditures for care in an institution.”

The state’s share of the IHSS Program costs is projected to be about $1.4 billion for 2012-13; the remaining costs are covered by state and county funds, reports the Sacramento Bee.

“There is an institutional bias in public funding of long-term services and supports,” Calame said. “IHSS advocates certainly hope the legislature will reject this proposal from Governor Brown.”

Brown has also proposed closing the budget gap by increasing revenues through a temporary half-cent sales tax increase and imposing higher taxes on the rich. A ballot measure which will be voted on in next November’s election will determine whether these proposals will become effective.

California had planned to cut the IHSS Program services by 20 percent beginning on January 1, as part of automatic, midyear across-the-board cuts enacted to offset tax revenue shortfalls. Disability Rights California filed a suit contending that these cuts violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, and a U.S. District Court judge ruled to temporarily halt them.

– by Deane Beebe

Oregon's state capitol building

Contract negotiations between Oregon and the union representing home care workers there have stalled over a state proposal to substantially raise the eligibility requirements for aides to receive health insurance.

A bargaining team led by Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) wants to require home care aides that provide Medicaid-covered services to low-income elders and people with disabilities to work 130 hours a month for three consecutive months in order to qualify for health benefits. Currently, aides must work 80 hours for three straight months.

The increase in hours would cause 2,000 of the state’s 12,000 home care aides to lose their benefits, according to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which represents the aides.

In late December, negotiations between the state and the union reached an impasse, largely because of the insurance issue. Discussions between the two sides will re-open next month.

On January 18, a group of about 100 home care workers staged a protest against the cuts in Kitzhaber’s office.

The governor said that he respected home care workers and collective bargaining rights in general. “We will try to do all we can,” he said.

Budget Woes Cited

Kitzhaber’s bargaining team says that the cuts to home care workers’ benefits are necessary to help close a $300 million budget gap.

Oregon’s in-home care program has been the target of cuts before. On Jan. 1, home care workers saw their hours reduced by 5 percent, a move that saved the state $4 million.

But the SEIU and AARP Oregon say that the newly proposed benefits cuts go too far. The organizations have launched a media campaign asking Oregonians to speak out against the proposed cuts.

“It is extremely disappointing that Gov. Kitzhaber and his team are attempting to reduce benefits for low-wage workers just to save the state a few million dollars,” said PHI Government Affairs Director Carol Regan.

“Beyond that, this is bad fiscal policy,” Regan added. “Reducing low-wage workers’ access to health care will result in higher Medicaid enrollment and put a greater strain on emergency medical care in Oregon. These cuts will simply shift costs, not lower them.”

– by Matthew Ozga