Funding for Elder Services Cut Drastically

Ix-Chel Poot

Poot also spoke about the decrease in funding for social services for elderly persons. Government subvention for service providers were cut by forty percent, while some external agencies withdrew funding completely.

Ix-Chel Poot, Executive Director, N.C.A.

“The Council doesn’t offer any services. We are purely policy oriented. But, what we have seen from our service providers is the ones who were receiving government subvention they also received a forty percent cut just like every other department. So, that was unfortunate. That also translates to what they are able to offer. The programs that were receiving external support, we saw a lot of that external support drop as well just because there is less financing available. So, funders would say, I can give you up until this point, but after this point there is no guarantee what is going to happen here. Then, as we said before, the older persons themselves doesn’t necessarily have purchasing powered to be able to supplement the services that they need.”

Paul Lopez

“What does this say about the future of those services from a policy stand point?”

Ix-Chel Poot, Executive Director, N.C.A

“It says we need to rethink the way we look at aging. Very often we want to address aging at the point of sixty or sixty five or fifty five when we are coming on to retirement. The issue of aging must be addressed very early on. So we need to be able to put in place, for our twenty-year olds, twenty-one year olds, twenty- five year olds, access to adequate healthcare, access to savings schemes, access to pensions, access to housing, all of these things so that when you hit fifty-five and sixty you are not managing expenses as if you are thirty. You already own your home, have sizeable savings, you have been able to make investments, you have a retirement plan in place, whether it is contributions to social security or other supplementary, so that when you hit your retirement years, you are not still trying to figure out, how am I going to afford to be alive.”