RELEASED
October 24, 2005

BENEFITS-CHECK-UP ARIZONA GOES STATEWIDE
Helps Seniors/Disabled Get Hundreds of State and Federal Benefit

PHOENIX - Arizonans 55 and older or disabled are eligible for hundreds of free and subsidized benefits from the federal and state government - but most don't know it. Last year, older Arizonans left over $260 million dollars in benefits unclaimed!

BenefitsCheckUp Arizona is changing that.
( www.benefitscheckup.org/link/AZ)

BenefitsCheckUp Arizona now helps qualified citizens across Arizona, find out what benefits they can get - and helps get them!

Governor Napolitano implemented the BenefitsCheckUp program in May, 2004, to assist older Arizonans so they are never put in the position of having to make a choice between paying their rent or buying food.  The program, piloted in Maricopa and Mohave Counties, has been hugely successful. It is now expanding to sites across the state.

The website and 800 telephone number are designed to help seniors and the disabled to discreetly, safely and quickly check more than 1,300 different benefits they may be eligible for including groceries, shelter costs, prescription drugs and health care.  (They don't even have to identify themselves.)  The on-line survey takes only 30 minutes to complete.  To get started, citizens should go to the website at www.benefitscheckup.org/link/AZ or call 1-800-432-4040 to get help with a free screening at an agency nearby.  

For more information on BenefitsCheckUp contact Karla Averill from the Governor's Office for Children, Youth & Families at (602) 364-2250.