AARP Utah

He was born to former slaves in 1875. His parents, Anne Eliza (Riddle) and James Henry Woodson, could neither read nor write. Instead of going to school, he stayed home and worked the family farm in New Canton, Va. Having largely taught himself, he didn’t attend high school until he was 20 years old.

The Cost of Retiring Poor: Nearly 1 in 5 Utahns Will Reach Retirement age with More Debt than Cash and Savings

To coincide with Tax Identity Theft Awareness Week, the AARP Fraud Watch Network is launching an education effort to help people protect themselves from tax scams, releasing a new video, a tip sheet and encouraging people to take advantage of AARP’s free tax preparation services.

(Midvale, UT) To recognize their work to support family caregivers in Utah, AARP named Representative Rebecca Chavez-Houck and Senator Brian Shiozawa as 2014 “Capitol Caregivers,” a bipartisan group of 46 state legislators and 3 governors from 19 states. These elected officials have advanced policies to help family caregivers who are making it possible for older Utahns to live independently at home—where they want to be. Representative Chavez-Houck and Senator Shiozawa will be formally recognized for this honor today at the meeting of the Utah Coalition for Caregiving Support at the Department of Human Services.

Back in the 1940s AARP's founder, retired educator Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus, found a former teacher living in a chicken coop because she could afford nothing else. Dr. Andrus couldn’t ignore the need for health and financial security in America and set the wheels in motion for what would become AARP. She also pioneered the idea of insuring teachers as a group to make coverage accessible and affordable, approaching 50 different insurance companies before she found one that would go along with this concept. The belief that access to affordable, quality health care insurance is an American ideal drives AARP to continue this fight today.

by Lee Benson of the Deseret News

Across the nation, the aging population has proven to be an important and vital source of economic growth, according to “ The Longevity Economy: Generating Economic Growth and New Opportunities for Business,” a study conducted in 2013 by Oxford Economics and commissioned by AARP. This study counters long-held beliefs about the negative financial impacts of aging on the US economy by showing that the 50+ population actually fuels growth.

AARP's "Staying Sharp" presentations on brain fitness and financial fraud have always been popular around the state, but for 2014 we decided to add break-out sessions on topics that our state research showed were of particular interest to Utahns 50+. The topics added for these additional presentations included how to stay active for life; an overview of wills and living trusts; eating healthy; how to maximize Social Security benefits, and how to make your home fit your needs.

To address the needs of the 70 percent of Americans age 50+ who suffer from some level of hearing loss, AARP has launched the AARP Hearing Resource Center. The platform, online at www.aarp.org/hearing, connects AARP members and other consumers interested in hearing health with helpful tips, information, tools and links to related product solutions and programs. A Spanish language version of the site is also available.

AARP Utah Community Outreach Director Jill Duke of South Jordan cared for her mother-in-law for six years while she still had three children at home and a fulltime job. She made a 120 mile roundtrip visit twice a week to help with medications, provide companionship, and perform everyday errands until her mother-in-law needed round-the-clock care in an assisted living facility. But Jill’s caregiving duties did not stop—she still visited her mother-in-law every day to attend to her physical and emotional needs until she died this September.