The number of seniors eligible for property tax and rent relief in Pennsylvania increased by more than 100,000 as the program’s income cap increased last year.
Gov. Josh Shapiro, speaking at a senior center in Pittsburgh on Thursday, said the long-overdue changes would provide $318 million in tax and rent relief to a broader group of Pennsylvanians.
“We’ve heard you in urban, rural and suburban communities saying that seniors need a little extra help, a few more bucks in their pockets,” Shapiro said, adding that the expansion was the result of cooperation between Republicans and Democrats in the state Legislature. “In this case, thanks to our connection, the biggest beneficiaries were seniors.”
Shapiro signed the extension real estate tax and rent relief program in August 2023. This was the first amendment to the program since 2006.
Raises the maximum rebate for seniors from $650 to $1,000 and the income cap for renters from $15,000 to $45,000 a year and for homeowners from $35,000 to $45,000 a year.
The expansion also ties this limit to an enhance in the cost of living, so if a senior’s social security contribution increases, it does not disqualify him or her from the PTRR program.
Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity’s office reported Wednesday that 97% of people who applied received payments from the state treasury. The Treasury Department is reviewing the remaining applications, and those who have applied may submit their applications track your discounts online.
Shapiro noted Thursday that the application process for 2025 is now open.
Treasury Secretary Pat Browne, who spoke after Shapiro at Vintage Senior Services on Thursday, said there were about 520,000 applicants for the program in 2024, and the department estimated about 20,000 low-income seniors who could apply. qualify, did not submit applications.
“We want to make sure everyone qualifies, steps forward and has the opportunity to apply. So stealing one of the governor’s lines is not a good idea,” Browne said:
Pennsylvania residents can apply for property tax or rent reductions online or in person by making an appointment at a Department of Revenue district office or state legislator’s office. Information about the application process and place can be found on the department’s website.
While the expansion was under consideration in the General Assembly, lawmakers said they were seeing a piercing enhance in the number of voters who were once eligible for the rebate but no longer received it.
In the nearly twenty years since the last amendment to the legislation enabling the program, the Tax Relief Act, cost-of-living adjustments to Social Security and pensions have pushed many people who rely on rebates beyond the program’s income limits.
Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato, who served as Allegheny County’s state representative until 2023, says that in addition to the state property tax and rent relief, the county offers a property tax exemption for primary residences and a flat 30% abatement tax for low-income seniors who have owned their homes for 10 years or more.
“I think it’s also very important to emphasize that over the last 10 years, we’ve seen a 10-fold increase in the number of seniors using our homeless shelters,” Innamorato said, adding that affordable housing solutions must take seniors into account.
Innamorato said Allegheny County will spend $2.5 million this year on housing repairs that many low-income seniors cannot afford. It will also spend $3.5 million to create 150 affordable housing units.
The revised program rules include a provision to adjust the upper income limits based on the Federal Consumer Price Index to ensure that the maximum income under the program does not again fall brief of support for low-income seniors.
According to the Department of Revenue, the number of people who have applied for the rebate has dropped from a recent peak of just over 600,000 in 2009 to about 400,000 in 2022. The state has paid out $192 million in rebates this year.
