Raise the $60 Personal Needs Allowance - What's Been Done; What You Can Do
Raise the $60 Personal Needs Allowance - What's Been Done; What You Can Do
Dear friends - I'm writing to update you on our fight to Raise the $60 Personal Needs Allowance (PNA) for residents of personal needs allowance and to thank you for all your help over the past year on this struggle. Here's what we know:
Ø House Bill 2253- The bill to raise the PNA will quietly die at the end of the 2008. We will work to get it reintroduced in the new session and will need your help in 2009 for that!
Ø SSI Cost of Living Adjustment (raise) - We were excited to learn that people on SSI will be receiving a $37/month raise from Social Security starting January 2009. This is the largest raise in SSI since 1982!! However: Unless the Department of Public Welfare changes the amount of the personal needs allowance to reflect this raise, the personal care home residents will not receive ONE CENT of their raise.
It will all go to the owners of the personal care homes. We understand that the owners' costs are also rising; they have received many raises over the past 15 years to address this. Residents have not received a raise for 15 years! We are asking for DPW to support a split in the $37/month raise: $18.50 to the residents, $18.50 to the owners - this just seems fair and in fact, it's what the Department of Aging does in their Dom Care Homes.
Here's what we need YOU to do:
- Contact the governor's office and your legislator to ask that DPW "Split the SSI Raise" between personal care home residents
- Here's a message you can use:
It's time to give a holiday gift to Pennsylvania's low income personal care home residents: SPLIT THE SSI RAISE!
Nearly 10,000 seniors and people with disabilities in PA's personal care homes are struggling to live on a $60 monthly allowance that must pay for medication co-pays, transportation, clothing, phone calls and all personal items. They have not received a raise in their monthly needs allowance since 1993!
In January 2009, all citizens on SSI will receive a generous 5.8% cost of living raise, $37 per month - the largest raise in 25 years. PA's PCH residents will not receive ONE CENT of the raise unless DPW decides lets some of it go to them. We advocate that the raise be split evenly between the residents and the owners, as it was for Dom Care.
Please ask DPW to "Split the SSI raise" so that some of our most vulnerable residents can better meet their own needs!
Have a letter writing table at your holiday party! You can use pre-printed postcards to send your message - just print them up on card stock.
Send to:
1. Governor Edward Rendell
225 Capital Building
Harrisburg, PA 17120
Or [email protected]
2. Your PA state legislators - You can find your legislator at www.congress.org. Type your zip code into the box beside "find your officials". Send your message to your State Legislators.
Questions? Contact me at PMHCA: 412-621-4706 or [email protected].
Thank you for in advance for making the effort to make a difference for 10,000 Pennsylvanians!
Rachel
P.S. Please help us by passing this message on to others you know!
Rachel Freund
Policy Advocate Coordinator
Pennsylvania Mental Health Consumers Association
374 Lawn Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Pittsburgh office: 412.621.4706 extension 22 Harrisburg office: 1.800.88PMHCA (1.800.887.6422) www.pmhca.org<http://www.pmhca.org/>