Retiree Advocate Says Candidates Aren't Talking About What's Important

(Undated) -- The president-elect of the National Board of AARP, Eric Schneidewind, says candidates are not talking about the main issues that voters 50 and older have identified as being of primary importance to them. Too often, Schneidewind says, the candidates talk about Social Security only when they're discussing balancing the budget or reducing the deficit. According to the AARP, the average Social Security benefit in Illinois is slightly over 14 thousand dollars a year, or about 12-hundred dollars a month, and Social Security keeps hundreds of thousands of Illinois residents out of poverty. Schneidewind says we simply don't hear enough from the candidates about what they'll do to strengthen Social Security and Medicare.