Sen. Kirk fighting identity theft among seniors

Story by 89 WLS Reporter Nick Gale

(CHICAGO) U.S. Senator Mark Kirk is again pushing legislation to help curb identity theft and fraud among senior citizens.

Kirk met with senior citizens in Chicago to discuss a Senate bill he is pushing that would change Medicare cards carried by senior citizens. He hopes to model the card after IDs that military personnel carry. It would have a picture of the senior citizens and would encrypt their social security number. Carmenza Millian with AARP says it's a change for the good.

"I think that everybody knows that there has not been any change to the Medicare card in over 50 years, so now with the enhanced technology and the capability that we have, this is a way of preventing fraud, waste and abuse in the Medicare system," Millian said.

Kirk introduced The Medicare Common Access Card Act of 2014 (S. 2586) in July of this year.

http://goo.gl/7ZDSWehttp://goo.gl/7ZDSWe

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Internet could help isolated seniors out of their loneliness

Research by a UK think tank called The Policy Exchange shows that about four in 10 people in the UK aged 65 and over don’t have access to the Internet at home, even though they could benefit from it.

The senior citizens are losing out, it's reported, on a means of social interaction at a time of life when contact with others is particularly important.

Policy Exchange says a significant percentage of older people are very lonely and that the World Wide Web could alleviate some of that loneliness. All it would take would be a cool one billion Euro to bring dramatic social and economic benefits. So can the elderly learn to love tech? And do they even want to?

Rosemary Sargentson could be the "silver surfer" poster child Policy Exchange has in mind when it suggests that a significant investment should be made to help pensioners learn how to get online. She's a little older than your average child though. A frail, but elegant lady, she doesn't have time to give her exact age because she's busy learning new skills - getting to, then using, and then possibly even enjoying the Internet.

http://www.dw.de/internet-could-help-isolated-seniors-out-of-their-loneliness/a-17755727

The Benefits of Social Media for Seniors

Posted on May 29, 2014

Benefits of Social Media for Seniors

When most people hear ‘social media,’ seniors don’t typically come to mind. However, seniors aged 65 and older represent one of the fastest growing age groups to use social media, according to NPR and the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project. In fact, seniors are the fastest growing demographic on Facebook today. Older adults are learning that social media sites are easy to access and are user-friendly. They are also catching on quickly to all the benefits social media has to offer them. We’ve laid out 5 of the top benefits of social media for older adults.

1. Keep in touch. Social media sites such as Facebook offer seniors many ways to stay in touch with friends and family and to reconnect with people from your past. By keeping in touch, older adults can avoid feelings of loneliness and isolation that sometime occur as you age.

http://vistaprairie.org/blog/the-benefits-of-social-media-for-seniors/

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