Profile of Marie Nickiel

Profile: Marie Nickiel

Marie Nickiel, a73 year-old widow, has lived outside of Green Bay, Wisconsin her entire life. Mrs. Nickiel was married to her husband for 46 years before he died. She and her husband were always careful about money and both worked hard, while raising two sons. Mrs. Nickiel worked in restaurants, babysat and did other “odds-and-end jobs.” Her husband was a mechanic at a local equipment company.

Retired now, Mrs. Nickiel is the volunteer bingo caller at her local senior center and does a tremendous amount of crocheting and sewing. Mrs. Nickiel is active in her community and volunteers for many causes, including sewing diapers for missions in Haiti and Honduras and knitting lap robes for local nursing home residents with yarn people have donated. In just two years’ time, she and another volunteer made over 800 robes. She also belongs to the local VFW and the Ashwaubenon Lioness Club. In the summer, she cans vegetables from her garden to make it through the winter. In addition to all of her volunteer work, Mrs. Nickiel spends time with her four grandchildren and great grandchild and occasionally goes on a senior citizen bus trip, plays bingo, and roots for the home-town favorite Green Bay Packers.

Mrs. Nickiel has serious health problems that require special medications and treatment. Her only source of income is Social Security of just over $1,000 a month; thus her annual income is about $11,000 per year, which is over the $10,400 federal poverty level threshold and SSI limit of $8,649, but well below the Elder Economic Security Income Standard™ Index for Brown County, Wisconsin which is $25,243 for an elder with poor health and a monthly mortgage payment.

To try to make ends meet, Mrs. Nickiel qualifies for Wisconsin’s SeniorCare prescription assistance program and a Public Service Commission program called “Friends Rebuilding Together,” which enabled her, in the past year, to finally get some much-needed home repairs including a new water heater and railings installed in her 50+ year old home. Her dream is to be able to afford new side steps to her back door. Mrs. Nickiel has no money for movies or treating her grandchildren. By the end of the month, between her mortgage, utilities, taxes, health insurance and health care out-of-pocket costs, food, and gasoline, Mrs. Nickiel just barely squeaks by.

Stories like that of Marie Nickiel illustrate the need for well-informed decision making by policy makers, service providers and advocates working on behalf of low-income seniors, particularly given the economic downturn and state budget constraints. The Wisconsin Elder Economic Security Initiative™ offers a conceptual framework and concrete tools, such as the Elder Economic Security Standard™ Index, to evaluate how well programs and policies are helping elders who struggle to make ends meet. Finally, policy makers, advocates and service providers have the tool they need to appropriately develop and assess programs and policies with respect to economic security for elders across the state.

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