Caregiver Impacts Report - by Innovation Illinois: Why does Illinois State Government want to cut In-home Care for Seniors and Disabled?

A new report from Innovation Illinois on the economic impact of caregiving in Illinois, one dollar invested in the Illinois Home Services Program (HSP) results in three dollars and thirteen cents of economic activity. The overall amount of money that HSP saves Illinois every year is potentially more than $700 million dollars.

So if HSP saves Illinois so much money every year, why does our state government want to cut it?

 

The availability of home services is an important part of Illinois’ Olmstead implementation, which is based on the right to community integration in Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Taking away the availability of home services to those who need it directly contradicts the spirit of the celebration of the ADA in this, its 25th anniversary year.

SUMMARY of Caregiver Impacts Report - Innovation Illinois

In Fiscal Year 2013, the State of Illinois paid $2,563,825,011 in combined State and Federal funds to provide childcare for low-income working parents and to give in-home care to seniors and people with disabilities.

The human impacts of these caregiving investments are difficult to overstate. Safe, affordable childcare makes it possible for low-income parents – especially mothers – to get jobs and stay in the workforce. In-home care for the elderly and disabled makes it possible for them to live independently in their homes and remain connected to their communities. These are the kinds of fundamental human services that state governments are established to provide, and that we as a statewide community have set out as our shared priorities for State spending in Illinois.

But beyond the benefits and respite that caregiver programs provide to clients and their families, these programs are drivers of economic development ¬– creating jobs for caregivers, recapturing Federal funds, supporting jobs throughout the community, and generating vital economic activity throughout Illinois.
As we confront the possibility of drastic cuts in the Illinois State budget for human services, it is important to understand the very real – and very positive – economic impacts of these programs, which extend far beyond their direct beneficiaries. The State of Illinois’ investments in caregiving drive real, measurable, positive impacts on our overall economy:

• The State’s investment in these caregiver programs directly created a total of 144,062 caregiver jobs in Illinois and indirectly created an additional 66,591 jobs in communities across the state.
• The State’s caregiver programs brought a total of $1,141,781,585 in Federal dollars back home to Illinois taxpayers in FY2013.
• In-home care programs for seniors and people with disabilities save up to $1 billion each year.
• By investing $1,422,006,814 in General Revenue Funds in caregiver programs in FY2013, the State of Illinois generated a grand total of $5,311,728,317 in economic activity in communities throughout Illinois.
• Every dollar of GRF spending invested in caregiver programs generated an average of $3.74 in economic activity.

At a time when deep cuts in the State budget are being touted as painful but necessary to spur economic development, it is critically important to consider the very real and positive economic impacts of these programs. Any reductions in these programs will have a direct, negative impact on communities and on Illinois taxpayers ¬– triggering job losses, diminishing Federal reimbursements and erasing important economic activity in communities statewide.

FOR THE FULL REPORT, VISIT: 

http://innovationillinois.org/blog/2015/07/20/caregiver-impacts-report/