FAIRMONT — The West Virginia Elder Economic Security Initiative is focusing on the economic well-being of seniors in the state.

“Wider Opportunities for Women has a history in terms of measuring what it really costs for families and workers to make ends meet,” said Stacy Sanders, director of the Elder Economic Security Initiative at Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW).

She explained that WOW, based in Washington, D.C., came up with a tool that established a basic budget for workers and families. The organization has been leading the Family Economic Self-Sufficiency Index and looking for ways to improve policy using that tool.

WOW recognized that seniors face costs that are very different from workers and families, and collaborated with different partners to develop a framework for what comprises seniors’ basic needs, Sanders said.

The national Elder Economic Security Initiative was launched in 2005 and partnerships will be established in up to 20 states, she said. Through these collaborations, the states will gain access to the research and a national database will be developed.

The national initiative is still in the process of forming partnerships with states. Thirteen states are involved right now, and four additional states will be identified in the next few weeks, Sanders said. West Virginia was the 11th state to officially get its data.

She said the West Virginia initiative was formed on June 2, 2010. WOW has partnered with the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, the West Virginia Long Term Care Partnership and the Gerontology Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston to create the West Virginia Elder Economic Security Initiative.

With the launch of the state initiative, two documents have been published — the West Virginia Elder Economic Security Standard Index and a policy report titled “Elders Living on the Edge: When Meeting Basic Needs Exceed Income in West Virginia.”

According to Sanders, the Elder Index measures essentially all the costs that elders have and how much money they need in order to make ends meets. The index is tabulated using the framework of a senior’s core budget and costs related to long-term care. County by county information and a statewide average is provided.

In Marion County, a single senior that no longer has a mortgage needs $15,840 to meet their basic monthly expenses, a renter needs $18,012, and a senior with a mortgage needs $20,700.

West Virginia has the second oldest population in the country, and its costs are relatively lower than some of the other states where data has been gathered. But incomes in West Virginia tend to be lower as well, and gaps form between income and expenses, Sanders reported.

“They’re falling short of the benchmark that we’ve created (for) the index,” she said. “In West Virginia, one in three seniors has only Social Security income in retirement.”

That is one of the highest proportions of seniors living only on Social Security, Sanders said.

Without housing assistance, many seniors have a hard time maintaining economic security, and long-term care costs are completely unsustainable, she said. Some elderly people are really struggling and making sacrifices to meet their expenses and stay in their homes.

A lot of seniors who own their home are having to do repairs, and their houses aren’t really providing them with an adequate and comfortable living space, Sanders said. Accessing services can also be difficult, which is why programs that go into seniors’ homes are so crucial.

“Elders Living on the Edge” is a policy report based on the Elder Index. The report looks at a full array of support that helps seniors close the gap. It also includes a set of recommendations compiled by groups across the state about how West Virginia can incorporate this data into policy, address some of the issues, and plan for the future, she said.

Before the Elder Index, policymakers didn’t really have a sense of how much it costs to retire and were essentially making decisions with a piece of the puzzle missing, Sanders said.

“I think first and foremost this information really fills a gap in knowledge,” she said. “This research is really exciting and innovative because it really does fill that gap and it really can be a useful tool in terms of better planning.”

The West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, started in December 2007, is a research-based organization that tries to improve the lives of low and moderate income people. The center, located in Charleston, focuses on policy, outreach, education, developing proposals, and working with the Legislature and media groups throughout the state, director Ted Boettner said.

He said the Center on Budget and Policy became involved in the West Virginia Elder Economic Security Initiative and partnered with WOW about a year and a half ago.

The goal was to create a partnership and start dialogue about what exactly it takes to get by as a senior in the state and all the counties. Over the course of the year, the center worked with the Legislature and especially the West Virginia Long Term Care Partnership on the Elder Index, Boettner said.

The Center on Budget and Policy intends to “make sure lawmakers consider the index when they’re forming policy” and will use the data to educate different groups, he said. The “Elders Living on the Edge” policy report includes some recommendations, such as encouraging good retirement planning and health prevention so there are more assets available to seniors when they retire.

Boettner said West Virginia expects to see an increase of 150,000 seniors in 20 years and needs to have a plan for that. The state needs to make sure that seniors have the assets to live comfortably in their communities.

“The things that we do today can really play out in the future,” Boettner said.

To access the reports, visit www.wowonline.org. Information is also available at www.wvpolicy.org and wvltcpartnership.org.

E-mail Jessica Borders at jborders@timeswv.com.