Connecting to Increase Access to Decision-Making Support
As they age, people face new challenges, new opportunities, and a sea of decisions to make about housing, health care, and more. Many people, especially those with fewer resources, find it stressful to understand and make these critical choices. Information overload, bureaucratic complexity, financial worry, and health concerns all exacerbate these challenges.
Driven by Executive Order 14058, Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery to Rebuild Trust in Government, an exploratory research project to understand the life experience of approaching retirement identified opportunities for federal agencies to collaborate to better meet the needs of older adults. The study revealed that, without adequate support, people are left to make compromised decisions that can lead to missed benefits and penalties.
While community-based organizations (CBOs) are trusted resources for one-on-one support, disjointed information can limit their efficiency and impact. Enter the new Federal Forum on Serving Older Adults, a pilot project focused on bringing together staff from CBOs to learn from federal agencies about a broad range of topics that matter to the communities they serve. The forum will also strengthen agencies’ understanding of engaging with hard-to-reach populations.
Coordinated in its pilot year by the Administration for Community Living (ACL), quarterly forum workshops will be facilitated jointly by federal benefits experts from agencies including the Social Security Administration (SSA), Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD), and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
Forum topics may include taxes, food, health care, housing, transportation, employment, and a range of other subjects important to people approaching retirement age. Select materials from workshops will be posted on this page.
Upcoming Workshop
Coming soon!
Past Meetings
Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Medicare (March 2024)
This session addressed benefits changes related to the IRA, including the expansion of the Low-Income Subsidy, also known as “Extra Help.”
Materials coming soon!
Approaching Retirement Age: Federal Resource Guides
As another component of the Increasing Access to Decision-Making Support For Older Adults project, ACL, along with other federal agencies, developed a collection of guides that consolidate resources and benefits information from various federal agencies to support older adults in making informed decisions about healthcare, finances, housing, and nutrition.