Economy hitting the elderly especially hard

As a result, some services are in danger of disappearing, said Gordon Walker, chief executive of the Jefferson Area Board for Aging in central Virginia. The agency’s state and federal funding has remained flat for more than three years; now there isn’t enough money to provide for everyone.

“We’re having to put people on waiting lists for home-delivered meals, and we have a waiting list for air conditioners,” Walker said.

Many senior citizens are old enough to have lived through the Great Depression and the shortages of World War II, and they know how they should cope — if they could.

In a survey for AARP last month, more than half of respondents ages 50 and over said they had cut back on their grocery expenses. Nearly 40 percent predicted that some food items would need to be rationed within the next year, and most dramatically, 18 percent said they had started eliminating some meals entirely.

But while some elderly people can cut back, those with health issues often don’t have that option, said Jonathan Evans, chief of geriatric medicine at the University of Virginia Health System.

“People need what they need, and that need doesn’t go away,” Evans said. “This isn’t discretionary.”

Retirement? What retirement?
Retirement plans and government benefits must provide for average life expectancies reaching 20 years longer than they did in the 1930s.

Video   For many, bills don't end when kids turn 18 July 25: More and more parents are delaying retirement to help keep their middle-aged children out of debt and mortgage problems. NBC's Mark Potter reports. Nightly News

But inflation and stock plunges are eating away at retirement accounts, while Social Security is shrinking — the 2.3 percent increase in benefits announced in January was the smallest in four years. By comparison, consumer prices rose more than twice as much over the past year, the Labor Department said last week.

More and more able-bodied seniors are simply not retiring. They can’t afford it.

In a survey conducted in April, Woelfel Research of Dunn Loring, Va., found that 27 percent of Americans 45 or older expected to delay retirement because of the economic downturn. One of them is John Looney of Denver.

“I have been saving every year for some 40 years now trying to get ready for this moment where I might be able to have a little more time for family, for friends,” Looney said.

Now he expects to have to work for at least five more years.

If anyone should know, it’s John Looney. He works for AARP.

Also in msnbc.com business Your Career: Take this job and shove it! Answer Desk: Calif. will pay you Tuesday ... Biz Quiz: Possible winner in the Madoff mess? ConsumerMan: Door-to-door magazine scam   Video: What Madoff's prison days will be like

MORE FROM RETIREMENT

Retirement Section Front

Not much retirement security from government Social Security and Medicare finances worsen Taxing Grandma to subsidize Goldman Sachs Older workers turn to franchises in recession Why you'll work through retirement Newsweek: With Boomers' retirement, age wars loom ConsumerMan: Shady retirement seminars How the stock market affects retirement plans   As retirement savings evaporate, so do easy options Retirement account losses near $2 trillion Retirement Section Front   Add Retirement headlines to your news reader: