[Dems2008] Seniors' debt

[from a March 2005 article; things have probably gotten worse since
then, I suspect]


A decade ago, just 18% of Americans over 65 carried an outstanding
balance on a credit card, according to SRI Consulting Business
Intelligence. Today nearly half of all card-carrying seniors carry
unpaid balances month to month.

Oh, but that's not all. Credit-card debt is behind an alarming trend
reported by Demos, a nonpartisan public policy group in New York
City. It found that bankruptcy among senior citizens has increased
217% in the past decade.

Though their debt levels lag behind those of younger generations, the
amount of money the elderly borrow is creeping upward. The average
credit card debt of those 65 and older was about $4,000 (in 2001) --
an 89% increase since 1992. Those headed into retirement -- ages 55
to 64 -- and carrying credit card debt reported that almost one-third
of their family income went to debt payments.

-----------
Several weeks ago, there was a piece in the national news over the
high percentage of persons whose personal bankruptcies were prompted
by unpaid healthcare debt.

I spoke with a bankruptcy lawyer about that article. He said that
his observation is that the figure is actually understated -- in his
view there are a lot of persons who go into bankruptcy with high
credit card debt and low or no healthcare expense debt ONLY BECAUSE
they paid off health-related bills and debts with credit cards, thus
shifting what would otherwise be direct healtcare-related expenses
into debt that appears only as credit card debt.

For similar reasons, he said that the high percentage of bankrupts
who are there because of gambling debts also is understated because
those gamblers ran up credit card advances that do not appear as
gambling debt but that only appear as credit card debt.

---

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