Christmas is days away and everyone from the Triangle J Area Agency on Aging is wishing you and yours a happy holiday and a joyous New Year!

As we face 2012 many people have questions about how to maintain a safe and healthy lifestyle when they are financially unstable. It turns out that there still are many untapped benefits programs that are available to vulnerable older adults. The question is how do you find these programs and tap into them?

The National Council on Aging (ncoa) is celebrating 10 years of helping people locate benefits with their BenefitsCheckUp program. This program has identified more than $10 billion in benefits for over 3 million vulnerable older adults. It is a comprehensive web-based service to screen for benefits programs for seniors with limited income and resources. Programs range from extra help paying for prescriptions to locating food programs in your area.

After locating the programs, BenefitsCheckUp creates a report that describes the programs that may help. Many of the programs have online applications and can be printed directly from the BenefitsCheckUp website. If you think you may be eligible for benefits or know someone who could benefit from this service visit http://www.benefitscheckup.org/. 

For a warming, real life story of how BenefitsCheckUp can work, read Mr. Buddy’s story. http://www.ncoa.org/enhance-economic-security/benefits-access/double-the-income-financial.html