Here is What the Government Should do to Meet the Needs of People who are Nearing the Age of Retirement

For people who work full time and are nearing the age of retirement, coronavirus is not only a threat to their finances but to their health also. Although the pandemic is a threat to everyone, the economic fallout from the virus will affect the elderly more than the youth as they won’t have any time to recover.

It will take years for people to get back on track with their individual investments, and for people who are nearing the age of retirement or are being retired involuntarily because they cannot get any other job, it will be too late as their retirement will be marked by deprivation.

Everyone knows that the elderly have been deprived of receiving any assistance from the government, and if the government does not see to their needs in the next stimulus package, these people will fall back into poverty. To save retirement, these policies should be included in the next package.

Expansion of Unemployment benefits is the need of the hour

According to an estimate, more than 30% of the people will face joblessness in the coming month, which means that more than 12 million older people will lose their jobs. When the businesses get open, the elder will be at a greater disadvantage than their younger counterparts because jobs will be less paying and more demanding.

According to a study, the jobs will pay less than 20% of the previous stipend of the same job right now. So, the elderly need unemployment benefits more than the youthful, and the federal government should look to their needs.

Increment of social security benefits by $200

There was no help offered to the seniors other than offering them a check worth $1200 in the initial three stimulus package. Due to the corona outbreak, the seniors have been left with nothing more than their social security because the employers don’t have to provide a pension plan. Since social security is their only hope to live their lives in peace, the benefits must be increased for these people in order to maximize their chance of living a stress-free life.

Reverse the policy and allowing 401 (k) withdrawals without penalty

The CARES act suspended the financial penalties for those who were withdrawing money form 401 (k) and other IRA accounts. This sounds like a good thing, but not if we take into account its long term impacts. The penalty is there just so that people couldn’t withdraw these funds to meet their short term needs and sacrifice their daily needs for long term easiness. Rather than sacrificing their future, the policymakers must find a new way to compensate workers other than the extended unemployment benefits.