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principle of using a taxable wage base which applies to nearly all the working population, by raising the present maximum to at least $6,000, as a means of assuring more adequate retirement benefits for future generations of senior citizens.

Constant Purchasing Power Bonds. In an economy and society like our own, we have and will continue to have on an increasing scale, millions of older persons living for many years in retirement on income from savings and pensions which decline in value with rises in the cost of living. The subcommittee urges that the propensity to save for retirement should be promoted and protected to keep up with changes both in the cost of living and in the standard of living. In this respect, retired persons will then be more like most employed persons whose wage increases provide protection against cost-of-living increases and changes in the standard of living.

9. The subcommittee recommends as a major innovation in protecting the purchasing power of retirement income that the U.S. Treasury issue bonds for retirement purposes, redeemable upon the individual's retirement at an amount adjusted to any increases in the cost of living subsequent to the purchase of the bond, plus the stipulated interest on the purchase price.

In the bill introduced last year by the subcommittee's majority membership, provisions were made for limitations in the total amount of such bonds that could be purchased by individuals and for the constant purchasing power feature to be available only if the bonds are used for retirement purposes (after 20 years from date of purchase), either by individuals or by pension funds. Because of its importance, this proposal is discussed in both the next chapter and in the chapter dealing with income of the aged.

VIII. Housing

While all of us might cherish the notion of holding onto and continuing to live in the old family homestead in our later years, for many of the aged population this is either not possible or is difficult to implement. The subcommittee has learned of the many cases in which elderly retired couples and individuals find that their homes are too big, too expensive to maintain, or unsuited to their new needs as aged persons. To be sure, many of these housing needs are diverse, and might call for alternatives ranging from retirement homes to retirement hotels, from public low-rent to cooperative-type private facilities. But housing the elderly includes some common problems, including low income, a need for meaningful activity, and accessibility to community and health services in accordance with changes in physical and mental well-being.

10. The subcommittee urges the following legislative action in the field of housing for aged Americans:

(a) Increase the Federal contribution in public housing to $120 per year for each elderly family in public housing projects, in order to maintain the solvency of such projects and to increase the number of available units for the aged with very low incomes. Provision for health, recreational and social services should be essential elements of all public housing for older persons.

(b) Increase the present authorization and appropriate at least $100 million for the program of direct loans to nonprofit groups to construct low-rental housing for the elderly for fiscal year 1962, with increases

8

ACTION FOR THE AGED AND AGING

thereafter as demand indicates. Immediate action in this field should be taken by the appropriate Federal agencies.

(c) Require the provision of essential health and social services in plans for all federally aided multiple-housing programs for the aged. With respect to private sales and rental housing, the subcommittee repeats its earlier recommendation that such services be included in considering amounts eligible for FHA mortgage insurance for the elderly.

IX. U.S. Office of Aging

In all of its work during the past 2 years, the subcommittee has been concerned about the lack of any legislatively authorized special agency within the executive side of the Federal Government to represent the aged on a full-time basis and responsible for coordinating and stimulating programs dealing with their problems and status in society. The increasing size of the population involved, and the many-sided nature of their conditions, call for such an agency to serve the aged and aging.

11. The subcommittee recommends the establishment of a U.S. Office of Aging concerned full time, and on a permanent basis, with an overall view of programs and policies affecting the status of America's older population. Such an office would serve as a clearinghouse of information; assist the Secretary of HEW in all matters pertaining to the aging; administer grants to States; support research and training projects; provide technical assistance to States and localities.

*

Proud of their conquests over the challenges of disease and toil, Americans should also assume the responsibility of intelligently meeting the problems created by such progress. Among these "fruits of progress" is an ever-growing population of human beings physically able to survive beyond the years during which our industrial order requires their contributions to the "productive" side of society. We are all potential, if not already actual, members of this segment of the American population. In short, this subcommittee's recommendadations, and the information contained in this and its other reports, are the story of all citizens.

The recommendations and the information cannot be dismissed in cavalier fashion, nor shrugged off as mere remnants of an old tale, or as if they have no bearing on each and every one of us. The bell of aging tolls for all men and women, and individual and national intelligence demands that we express our responsibility through considered action to meet the conditions that characterize the process of aging in the second half of the 20th century.

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thenate. Committee

on Labor and Public Welfare

ACTION FOR THE AGED AND AGING

A REPORT

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON LABOR AND

PUBLIC WELFARE

UNITED STATES SENATE

MADE BY ITS

SUBCOMMITTEE ON PROBLEMS OF

THE AGED AND AGING

TOGETHER WITH

MINORITY VIEWS

PURSUANT TO

S. Res. 266

(86TH CONGRESS, 2D SESSION)

A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING A STUDY OF THE
PROBLEMS OF THE AGED AND AGING

MARCH 28, 1961.-Ordered to be printed

67714

U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

WASHINGTON: 1961

thereafter as demand indicates. Immediate action in this field should be taken by the appropriate Federal agencies.

(c) Require the provision of essential health and social services in plans for all federally aided multiple-housing programs for the aged. With respect to private sales and rental housing, the subcommittee repeats its earlier recommendation that such services be included in considering amounts eligible for FHA mortgage insurance for the elderly.

IX. U.S. Office of Aging

In all of its work during the past 2 years, the subcommittee has been concerned about the lack of any legislatively authorized special agency within the executive side of the Federal Government to represent the aged on a full-time basis and responsible for coordinating and stimulating programs dealing with their problems and status in society. The increasing size of the population involved, and the many-sided nature of their conditions, call for such an agency to serve the aged and aging.

11. The subcommittee recommends the establishment of a U.S. Office of Aging concerned full time, and on a permanent basis, with an overall view of programs and policies affecting the status of America's older population. Such an office would serve as a clearinghouse of information; assist the Secretary of HEW in all matters pertaining to the aging; administer grants to States; support research and training projects; provide technical assistance to States and localities.

*

Proud of their conquests over the challenges of disease and toil, Americans should also assume the responsibility of intelligently meeting the problems created by such progress. Among these "fruits of progress" is an ever-growing population of human beings physically able to survive beyond the years during which our industrial order requires their contributions to the "productive" side of society. We are all potential, if not already actual, members of this segment of the American population. In short, this subcommittee's recommendadations, and the information contained in this and its other reports, are the story of all citizens.

The recommendations and the information cannot be dismissed in cavalier fashion, nor shrugged off as mere remnants of an old tale, or as if they have no bearing on each and every one of us. The bell of aging tolls for all men and women, and individual and national intelligence demands that we express our responsibility through considered action to meet the conditions that characterize the process of aging in the second half of the 20th century.

CHAPTER I

THE NEEDS OF THE AGING WHERE WE ARE TODAY

The Subcommittee on Problems of the Aged and Aging came into being because of a clear and present need for a national legislative body to inquire into the problems of America's senior citizens.

Our assignment was to conduct a complete study of those problems, the problems of agencies which deal with them, and the extent to which Federal programs ought to be undertaken. In carrying out this task, the subcommittee has inevitably focused national attention on the complex and deeply interrelated needs of the elderly and on the urgency of more comprehensive and active programs to deal with those needs. That problems existed, we knew at the start of our task. But we found them more stark, more profound, more knotty than even we had suspected.

The aging constitute a massive segment of our population; currently, 16 million Americans are 65 or over. This portion of the population has grown at an explosive rate. Between 1920 and 1950, there was a three-fourths increase in the number of people in this age group. The average lifespan has risen by some 22 years since 1900, and continuing advances in medical science guarantee that the trend will go on into the indefinite future.

The elderly in our society are disadvantaged to an almost unique degree. At the same time life expectancy in the United States continues to increase, further compounding the economic, medical, housing, and other problems of older persons. A program of drift not only will leave these problems unsolved, but will result in multiplying them; and this will occur at a time when the expectation of all Americans for a good life grows keener and more emphatic. This Nation believes that despite occasional setbacks, our economy is so creative and abundant that adequate income, housing, medical care, and public services for all are feasible. We cannot rest contentedly with the knowledge that half of our aging population lives at an economic level which, at today's costs, can only be called poverty. Almost three-fifths of our senior citizens have less than $1,000 annual income, and, for many of this group, social security benefits averaging $74 per month are the mainstay of income.

The subcommittee is committed to the view that this Nation can and must do much better by its senior citizens. In 1960, therefore, we have centered our efforts on a series of concrete proposals to deal with the most pressing needs of the aged and aging. The groundwork for our 1960 recommendations had been laid in 1959, by holding a series of hearings in Washington and seven other cities which included town meetings where the elderly could speak for themselves. In conjunction with the hearings, we visited nursing homes, hospitals, homes for the aged, senior recreation centers, housing projects, and retirement hotels. In this way, we had the opportunity to hear hundreds of senior citizens spill out their often grievous troubles, and

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