AARP Utah

On the heels of a new report showing the top scam in Utah is imposter scams, the AARP Fraud Watch Network offers tips so people can learn how to protect themselves from all ten of the top scams reported by Utahns in 2014.

With the Utah House failing to support SB164 Healthy Utah during a committee hearing Wednesday night—advancing HB446 Utah Cares instead—hundreds rallied at the capitol Thursday, March 4, in support of Governor Herbert’s bill. AARP Utah State Director joined legislators, religious leaders, citizen advocates, and health professionals to ask, "What's the hold up?" His comments are below:

We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,

AARP Utah unveiled a statewide survey that showed a growing concern over retirement savings in the state. The survey, Making Retirement a Reality: Helping Utahns Age 25-64 Save and Take Control of Their Future, engaged 1,000 Utahns age 25-64 and found that 85 percent wish they were able to save more money for retirement and 77 percent support the idea of a state-created retirement plan for those who lack access at their place of work. One in six of those surveyed has less than $5000 in savings. Currently in Utah, 53 percent of private sector workers [1] – and 21 percent of those surveyed -- do not have access to a retirement savings plan at their place of work. The results were presented during AARP Utah’s Democracy Day event at the Utah State Capitol on February 12.

As America celebrates the 50 th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), millions of eyes are on the hard-fought battle that was finally won in 1965.

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

by Sid Kirchheimer