Elderly Bankruptcy Filings Hit All-Time High. What"s to Blame?

hvactec

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In today's economic climate, it comes as no surprise that millions of Americans are facing unprecedented financial challenges. One group, however, has been hit especially hard: seniors. In ever-increasing numbers, . Experts have cited a number of factors that contribute to the problem, including high-interest credit card debt and oppressive medical expenses. The trend of rising senior insolvency began even before the recession, and there is seemingly no end in sight. For a great many elderly Americans, the looming threat of potentially costly and complicated bankruptcy proceedings has become a stark reality of their golden years.

A Look at the Numbers For two decades, the number of older Americans filing for bankruptcy has been creeping steadily higher. A report supported by AARP from the Consumer Bankruptcy Project showed a 150 percent increase in bankruptcies between 1991 and 2007 for those over the age of 64. Certain subsets of seniors were especially vulnerable to the trend: the rate of bankruptcy filings for Americans between 75 and 84 during the same time frame climbed an astounding 433 percent. These findings displayed the uniqueness of the financial challenges facing elders: for younger generations, bankruptcies dropped from 1991 to 2007. Enter the Great Recession. While bankruptcy filings began to cut a wider demographic swath, once again retired Americans bore a disproportionate burden.

In 2010, the University of Michigan Law School released a study examining elder bankruptcy. The results hammered home the severity of the problem: citizens 65 and older were shown to be the most rapidly growing demographic segment filing for bankruptcy. Some are now wondering how so many seniors have become dependent on the protections of the bankruptcy courts. After all, in the not-so-distant past, as a group, older Americans were actually more financially secure than their younger counterparts.

Many experts have blamed soaring out-of-pocket medical expenses, along with the rising costs of food and housing that Social Security payments are now too small to cover. But, the new study from the University of Michigan, while acknowledging multiple contributing factors, cites another issue as the primary culprit of many seniors' financial woes: massive . Seniors filing for bankruptcy owe a median balance of $22,562 on their credit cards, and the Michigan study found that interest and fees from credit cards were cited as a reason by elders for filing for bankruptcy 50 percent more often than among younger Americans.

Many older Americans have fallen victim to predatory lending practices, succumbing in one way or another to a torrent of credit cards offers. According to experts, before filing for bankruptcy, many live off credit cards for a number of months, either resistant to the idea of asking for help or simply having no one to turn to. For seniors, it is particularly difficult to climb out of a cycle of debt, as their employment options are much more limited compared to younger workers. Additionally, the nationwide epidemic of financial abuse by family members takes a heavy toll on the elderly. From outright theft to seniors' desire to stretch already overextended resources in an effort to help out relatives also impacted by the tough economy, a spectrum of family issues pose unique challenges to retired Americans

read more Elderly Bankruptcy Filings Hit All-Time High. What"s to Blame?
 
Obviously our seniors are sticking around longer, and lack the good grace to morph into solient green......~S~
 
Why won't these inconveniently POOR PEOPLE just shuffle off and die quietly like good losers of social darwinism?

How thoughtless of them to have outlived their social usefulness, eh?
 
Elderly Bankruptcy Filings Hit All-Time High. What"s to Blame?

There is no ‘blame’ with regard to this specific issue, as it’s a symptom of the overall post-December 2007 recession economy. Consequently one seeking blame would need to look at the cause of the recession itself.

But trying to assign blame is pointless – the focus should be on a solution, not that one will be coming from this current Congress.
 
Unfortunately some elderly people got suckered by kids and grandkids to cash in on the housing bubble and mortgage properties completely paid for. After they were fleeced by their relatives they couldnt pay the mortgages and lost their homes and everything else they had.
 
This is just another load of AARP political cr@p posing as fact. The facts are that the old have more money than the young, the young pay higher taxes than the old, and AARP loves it that way.
 
COLAs remember them?

Our Federal government forgot them for the last few years.

Throw into this economic cesspool the fact that the government lies to us about the CPI (upon which COLAs are based) for the last 20 years or so, and what we have us the steady erosion of incomes for those who are counting on SSI or retirements plans with COLA features.
 
http://www.usmessageboard.com/polit...wealth-than-the-entire-bottom-90-percent.html

More of the effects of "income inequality".

Republicans want to end Social Security and Medicare. Yea, that should take care of the problem faster than you can snap your fingers. Too bad many of those elderly vote Republican and for the people that would harm them. It really is too bad.

Bull crap!
Reps don't want to end SS.
What was being floated is taxpayers being able to use part of their FICA and invest some of it themselves, instead of allowing the Gov't to use it as a slush fund.
FactCheck.org : FDR’s “Voluntary” Social Security
Republicans want debt panel to overhaul taxes - BusinessWeek

On "wanting to end Medicare":
The Democratic National Committee says in a TV ad that "Republicans voted to abolish Medicare." Not true.
The ad refers to a proposal endorsed by most House Republicans as part of the alternative budget they presented earlier this year. In fact, the GOP plan actually called for:
Preserving the current Medicare program for anyone now receiving it, or within 10 years of qualifying for it.
For those now under age 55, converting Medicare to a system of private, government-approved health insurance plans purchased mostly with government payments.
FactCheck.org : Senior Scare, Yet Again
 
http://www.usmessageboard.com/polit...wealth-than-the-entire-bottom-90-percent.html

More of the effects of "income inequality".

Republicans want to end Social Security and Medicare. Yea, that should take care of the problem faster than you can snap your fingers. Too bad many of those elderly vote Republican and for the people that would harm them. It really is too bad.

Bull crap!
Reps don't want to end SS.
What was being floated is taxpayers being able to use part of their FICA and invest some of it themselves, instead of allowing the Gov't to use it as a slush fund.
FactCheck.org : FDR’s “Voluntary” Social Security
Republicans want debt panel to overhaul taxes - BusinessWeek

On "wanting to end Medicare":
The Democratic National Committee says in a TV ad that "Republicans voted to abolish Medicare." Not true.
The ad refers to a proposal endorsed by most House Republicans as part of the alternative budget they presented earlier this year. In fact, the GOP plan actually called for:
Preserving the current Medicare program for anyone now receiving it, or within 10 years of qualifying for it.
For those now under age 55, converting Medicare to a system of private, government-approved health insurance plans purchased mostly with government payments.
FactCheck.org : Senior Scare, Yet Again

I'm trying figure out what your articles have to do with anything. I did think the following was quite "revealing":

The suggestions brought forth by Republicans included lowering the top personal and corporate income tax rates from 35 percent to 25 percent and halting taxation of money that U.S. companies earn abroad.

------------------------------------

Do you really think throwing people's saving into the stock market would "grow their wealth"? Seriously? How many people now "grow their wealth" from the stock market? Or do most get "soaked"?
 
http://www.usmessageboard.com/polit...wealth-than-the-entire-bottom-90-percent.html

More of the effects of "income inequality".

Republicans want to end Social Security and Medicare. Yea, that should take care of the problem faster than you can snap your fingers. Too bad many of those elderly vote Republican and for the people that would harm them. It really is too bad.

Bull crap!
Reps don't want to end SS.
What was being floated is taxpayers being able to use part of their FICA and invest some of it themselves, instead of allowing the Gov't to use it as a slush fund.
FactCheck.org : FDR’s “Voluntary” Social Security
Republicans want debt panel to overhaul taxes - BusinessWeek

On "wanting to end Medicare":
The Democratic National Committee says in a TV ad that "Republicans voted to abolish Medicare." Not true.
The ad refers to a proposal endorsed by most House Republicans as part of the alternative budget they presented earlier this year. In fact, the GOP plan actually called for:
Preserving the current Medicare program for anyone now receiving it, or within 10 years of qualifying for it.
For those now under age 55, converting Medicare to a system of private, government-approved health insurance plans purchased mostly with government payments.
FactCheck.org : Senior Scare, Yet Again

I read the bottom one. Hilarious.

There was a vote on a GOP budget proposal that, among many other things, called for legislation that would gradually replace the current form of Medicare with a different model – and only for those now under age 55.

A different model. If you replace Medicare with a "voucher" program, then it's NOT Medicare. Get it?

Now get this, this is really funny:

In fact, the GOP budget projected that Medicare spending would rise 88.5 percent during the 10 years covered by the GOP budget proposal – with outlays going from just under $427 billion in the current fiscal year (which ends Sept. 30) to more than $804 billion in fiscal 2019.

Now what is truly fucking hilarious is the article you cite as "PROOF" is from MORE than two years ago.

Posted on September 8, 2009
 
Elderly Bankruptcy Filings Hit All-Time High. What"s to Blame?

The POTUS who has not focussed on job creation, only spending bills that went nowhere. Not even to those shovel-ready jobs....LMAO***
 
Elderly Bankruptcy Filings Hit All-Time High. What"s to Blame?

The POTUS who has not focussed on job creation, only spending bills that went nowhere. Not even to those shovel-ready jobs....LMAO***

Spending bills that went "no where"? Better tell that to the more than one hundred Republicans who voted against Obama's stimulus, then took credit for, get this, "Obama's Stimulus". Do a search and you can find lists of all the Republicans who begged for stimulus, used the money, then took credit for what they voted against. And then the ignorant Republican mob says, "Bills that went no where". So what is it? Blindness? Ignorance? Hatred of having a black president? It has to be something. What will Republicans actually admit to?

Republicans Voting Against Stimulus Then Asked Obama for Money

Alabama Republicans Jo Bonner and Robert Aderholt took to the U.S. House floor in July, denouncing the Obama administration’s stimulus plan for failing to boost employment. “Where are the jobs?” each of them asked.

Over the next three months, Bonner and Aderholt tried at least five times to steer stimulus-funded transportation grants to Alabama on grounds that the projects would help create thousands of jobs.

114 Lawmakers Block Recovery While Taking Credit For Its Success

Congressman Leonard Lance (R-NJ) Proclaimed That A Recovery Package Funded Program Was A “Classic Example Of A Shovel-Ready Project.”

Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) Asked Defense Secretary To Steer $50 Million In Stimulus Money To Georgian Bioenergy Project.

Congressman Diaz-Balart was among the “nine GOP House members from Florida, all stimulus no’s,” who, “joined nine of their Democratic colleagues, all yesses, in asking the feds to grant a waiver giving them access to, you guessed it, hundreds of millions in state stabilization stimulus cash.”
 
Elderly Bankruptcy Filings Hit All-Time High. What"s to Blame?

The POTUS who has not focussed on job creation, only spending bills that went nowhere. Not even to those shovel-ready jobs....LMAO***

The recession was caused by Wall Street and Republican deregulation. NOT Freddie/Fannie. Tell me, where do "derivatives" fit in to the "Freddie/Fannie" scenario? Make it good. :popcorn:
 
What's to blame? ....energy prices. Thanks to democrat party policies and the fake science of global warming elderly home owners can't afford to heat their homes. Under democrat policies the US is in hock to every two-bit dictator on the globe who can drill for oil. Obama told Brazil oil "we want to be your best costomer". America has enough oil resources so that Brazil should be the US's best customer but that's not the way the democrat party works. Senior home owners have seen heating oil sky rocket in recent years and they can't keep their homes warm with solar panels or windmills.
 

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