JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Starting in January the government will increase social security benefits by 8.7% to offset inflation. While that was welcome news to many seniors, one specific senior that relies on social security still has an issue with the amount of money that she receives.
"I just want the politicians to pay attention to us, we're not just a bunch of dead meat in these nursing homes, we're real people," said Linda Poore during a phone interview with First Coast News in February.
Eight months later she is still calling for the Florida state legislature to raise the stipend that nursing home residents receive from social security. And she was furious when she heard that social security benefits were rising due to inflation, but not nursing home stipends.
"The politicians go on and on, but they don't care anything about us," said Poore. "They just care about our votes."
Poore receives $130 a month from her social security check. The rest goes to Fouraker Hills Nursing Home, a facility she enjoys living in and says gives her the care she needs.
Poore doesn't have any family and relies on a woman from her church to go shopping for toiletries, extra drinks and some specific items that the nursing home doesn't provide. Poore gives the woman from her church money from her social security stipend to buy the items but says inflation has made those items more expensive.
"We have worked all our lives for social security money we get and we expect an increase in the amount of money we're going to get," said Poore, who wants the same amount of money that other social security recipients are receiving.
"It's high time for us to get an increase, it's just time," said Poore, "we are totally being ignored."
Poore hopes that politicians will hear her pleas for help before the election and that she, as well as thousands of other nursing home residents across Florida will get a boost in their stipends.