Since 1964, older, low-income Americans looking for work have received on-the-job training through a community-based program that pays minimum wage and gives them another crack at employment.
Part of Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty, the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) provides income that helps jobless people over 55 to keep the lights on, pay for food and medicine, and maintain a sense of dignity through public service. The goal is to find a full-time job and become self sufficient.
But as time passes, many trainees remain in the program, working 20 hours a week at jobs they enjoy with no thought of moving on.
“It’s comfortable, working with nice people,” says David Grant, 63, who has trained in the mailroom at the Delaware Division of Revenue for eight years. “Over time, you get to depend on it.”
Now, as the ranks of displaced workers swell and government budgets shrink, SCSEP has placed a 48-month cap on benefits for the first time in its 47-year history.
The new rule will impact more than 20 percent of Delaware’s 350-plus beneficiaries, some of whom have been in the program for more than 20 years. The national average length of stay is two years, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
“We have people who have been with us for 12 years, 15 years, who will be phased out starting in July,” says Sandria Thompson Burton, director of employment services at Wilmington Senior Center Employment Services, which administers SCSEP in New Castle County.
The ruling comes at a time when the state, county and most municipalities have placed a freeze on hiring, making it more difficult to find permanent jobs for trainees.
“The competition is fierce out there,” Burton says. “Work is harder to find than ever.”
Currently, 193 older Delawareans are enrolled in the program in New Castle County, working in more than 70 government offices, senior centers and nonprofit organizations. More than 40 people in the program will lose benefits unless they are able to obtain a waiver.
Carrie Cale of Middletown entered at program at 83 while recovering from a stroke. Seven years later, at 90, she assists the activities director at the Middletown Odessa Townsend Senior Center, helping with bingo games and blood pressure clinics.
“I got tired of sitting at home doing nothing and I figured working would be good for me,” she says. “It keeps me going—and the money helps to pay for medicine and household bills.”
Because she is over 75, Cale is eligible for a one-time, 12-month extension with the program, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Labor and the Delaware Division of Disability. Other criteria for a waiver include physical disability, ineligibility for Social Security, limited English, low literacy skills and living in a location with a persistently high unemployment rate.
In Kent County about 25 percent of the 55 people enrolled in the program have reached their 48-month limit, says Rose Ann Smith, who directs the program. SCSEP will continue to help them find permanent positions for as long as possible.
“We are here to serve the people who are most in need,” she says. “And with the bad economy, we are seeing more people who are in need.”
In Sussex County, 30 of the current 110 SCSEP participants will be phased out because they have passed the 48-month cap, says Roy Hazzard, who has managed the program for 18 years. The most senior worker signed up in 1988.
“The ones who stay on tend to be older, 70 and up,” he says. “With them, we gravitate toward the community service aspect of the program, while we focus on jobs for the people who are 55-65.”
Still, some over-65 trainees are finding jobs outside the program. Hazzard points to a 73-year-old carpenter, who built handicap-accessible ramps for a nonprofit group through SCSEP.
“They liked him so much, they hired him full time,” he says.
Betty Payne, 69, of Dagsboro, enrolled in SCSEP in February 2009 when the real estate office she was working in downsized due to slow home sales. She was placed as a receptionist at Sussex County Courthouse in Georgetown.
- VIDEO: DFM News' Patrick Mairs visits Betty Payne at her job to see first hand how the SCSEP worked for her.
Because of her age, she hesitated to apply for a full-time position when a slot opened seven months later.
“But my supervisor in the program encouraged me to apply—and I was delighted when I got the job,” she recalls.
The government’s goal is to place at least 20 percent of SCSEP trainees in jobs each year. The Sussex County group has met that goal every year except 2008, the first full year of the recession, when the local homebuilding market swooned. Last year, 16 of 75 trainees found jobs. This year, government stimulus money enabled the group to add 35 more slots.
About 2 million Americans age 55 and older are currently looking for jobs, according to the U.S. Labor Department. That is twice as many as in 2008.
Many low- and moderate-income older workers are unable to find new positions because their work experience is focused in declining sectors, including manufacturing, printing and construction, says Deborah Russell, director of workforce issues for AARP, an advocacy group for people 50 and older.
In Delaware, one third of construction workers have been laid off, with the sector shedding 10,000 from a high of 29,400 at the top of the housing market in 2006. Another 7,000 jobs in manufacturing were lost from 2005-2010, thinning the ranks from 33,300 to 26,300.
With the exception of autoworkers who lost their jobs when General Motors and Chrysler closed their Delaware plants, most employees in manufacturing and other graying sectors do not receive substantial severance packages.
“These are not the kind of jobs that offer good pensions and long-term benefits,” Russell says.
Older workers are not more likely to be out of work, according to the state Office of Occupational and Labor Market Information. In Delaware, the jobless rate in 2010 for workers 55 and older was 5.9 percent. The overall rate for workers 18 and older was 8.6 percent.
Still, it takes displaced older workers much longer to find new positions, says Matt Brink, director of the University of Delaware’s Career Services Center. The average job hunt for workers age 55-64 is 32 weeks, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For workers 25-34, it is 22 weeks.
Lower-income workers over 55 are especially challenged in a market glutted with job seekers.
“Because there are more people out of work, they find themselves in competition with people who have a bachelor’s degree and need a stopgap job,” he says.
With fewer years left to work, older job seekers also are less likely to seek out training programs that can provide them with the skills and contacts they need to land a position.
“Training programs are perceived as being more accessible to younger people,” Brink says. “It’s a strategy that is worth exploring for older workers, too.”
Through SCSEP, some senior Delawareans will find their first paying jobs.
“We have a few homemakers who lost spouses and need to get into the workforce because their Social Security doesn’t enable them to make expenses,” Hazzard says.
The majority have been laid off from low-wage jobs. To be eligible for the program, applicants must be without employment, 55 or older and with an income that does not exceed 125 percent of the federal poverty level. For a single person, that is $13,537 a year.
“They come in destitute and despondent,” Hazzard says. “The work they find here enables them to lead better lives, financially and emotionally.”
For most people in the program, the money they earn is the only way they can make end meet, says Burton of the Wilmington office.
“We consistently hear that the money is used for food and medicine, basic necessities,” she says.
