Latest Schwarzenegger Budget Plan Slashes In-Home Supportive Services Which Helps 408,000 Elderly, Blind or Disabled Californians Live Safely At Home

To maintain services and wages, counties would have to shoulder a huge new burden which they cannot afford and will not accept. The alternative is that workers wages would sink to the minimum wage of $8.00 an hour. The Governor’s plan would make it difficult if not impossible for consumers to find and keep quality home care workers as home care workers would turn to other less difficult and better paying jobs.

“I challenge the governor to spend a day providing care to an IHSS consumer and see if, in good conscience, he can live with his own proposals, said Herb Meyer, a senior and IHSS consumer from Marin County. “Why is he protecting the richest in California and hurting us?”

IHSS consumers are poor and will be poorer as a result of Schwarzenegger's other proposals to eliminate their cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) from Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and State Supplementary Payments (SSP). SSI is the sole source of income for some 1.3 million blind, aged and disabled persons; they must rely on the SSI grant for all their living expenses.

"We still understand the magnitude of the state’s tough economy, the severity of our budget deficit and the tough choices that must be made,” said Ernie Powell with AARP. “However, we still do not believe that the health and welfare of seniors and people with disabilities should be compromised”

Since being elected in 2003, Schwarzenegger has repeatedly proposed cuts to the state’s In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program; all of the proposals have been rejected by the Legislature. "The Legislature should again reject these cuts as foolish and short-sighted, since the IHSS program ultimately saves state tax dollars compared to costly alternatives, including institutional care,” said John Wilkins, an IHSS consumer in Fresno County and Co-Chair of the Quality Homecare Coalition. “Why must we come to Sacramento every year to remind lawmakers of this simple fact?”

“Californians that have the least are being asked to give up the most. It is time for all Californians to share the burden of the downturn in the economy”, said Teresa Favuzzi, Executive Director of the California Foundation for Independent Living Centers. “This can only be achieved through increasing revenue; cuts alone are just not going to work.”

Background:

Individuals eligible for IHSS services are disabled, age 65 or older, or blind, unable to live safely at home without help and have very low income. The IHSS program is the largest nonmedical program in the nation and destined to grow due to California's aging population. IHSS is funded with a combination of state, county and federal dollars that enable IHSS consumers to hire a caregiver.

County social workers assess people for IHSS and can authorize up to 283 hours per month of services. Services include housecleaning, meal preparation, laundry, grocery shopping, personal care services (such as bowel and bladder care, bathing, grooming, paramedical services, accompaniment to medical appointments, and protective supervision for individuals whose mental status or cognitive functioning poses a threat to their safety and well-being). IHSS is the largest publicly funded nonmedical program in the nation designed to help people with disabilities, the elderly, and blind—and with limited resources—live safely at home.

The IHSS program has always received bipartisan support, and is widely praised as a model state program for helping the elderly and disabled live independently.

Jovan Agee is the political and legislative director for the United Domestic Workers of America in Sacramento.