Wendy Strobel Gower

Executive Director, Yang-Tan Institute on Employment and Disability

Wendy Strobel Gower is the Executive Director of the Yang-Tan Institute on Employment and Disability with a focus on the functional limitations of disabilities across the lifespan.

Strobel Gower says:

“This policy change is likely to present an outsized impact on the disabled community and those in rural areas, where lack of access to transportation is an ongoing concern. People with disabilities are less likely to drive and more likely to live in households with zero drivers.

“Social Security serves as a lifeline for people with disabilities and for many other low-resource communities who rely on the income support it provides for critical needs such as housing, food, and healthcare. Disruptions in payments and services will have devastating consequences.”

_________________________

Mildred E. Warner

Professor of City and Regional Planning

Mildred Warner is a professor of city and regional planning and an expert on local government services.

Warner says:

“It is a real challenge to be aging in rural America. Distances are great, public transit is practically nonexistent, and access to services is difficult. That challenge just got more difficult with the Trump Administration decision to no longer allow verification by phone and instead require a visit to an agency field office, even as field offices are slated for closure.”

“A higher percentage of older adults live in rural communities than in suburban and urban communities. So why is the Social Security Administration making it even harder for rural older adults to access services?”

_________________________

Karl Pillemer

Professor of Psychology and of Gerontology in Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine

Karl Pillemer, is a professor of human development and gerontology and one of America’s leading aging researchers.

Pillemer says:

"Social Security is a fantastic program, one of those that if it didn’t exist, we would have to invent it. It is the economic lifeline for many older Americans. Of beneficiaries age 65 and above, around 44 percent of women and 39 percent of men get half or more of their income from Social Security, and between 10-15 percent of older Americans get 90 percent or more of their income from it.

"There is no logic behind denying these citizens, who have paid into the program their entire lives, easy access to their benefits. To the very rich, Social Security may seem like trivial income, but increasingly vulnerable older persons can’t live without it."