WASHINGTON - Gail Ruggles of Newark, Vt., couldn't find work after belatedly getting a college degree at 56. The phrase "at your age" came up frequently in conversations, a sad reminder of her long-shot prospects for employment, she testified at a Senate subcommittee hearing on Tuesday.

Ruggles fell deeper in debt and turned down the thermostat at home. She told her children she wasn't hungry so they would have more to eat.

"I gained weight from poor eating," Ruggles, now 61, told lawmakers on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions subcommittee on aging. "I knew I looked bad, and that made my chances of getting a job worse."

Her predicament is common among unemployed people 55 and older, according to a Government Accountability Office report released during Tuesday's hearing on seniors and the recession.

Since 2007, unemployment rates for those people have doubled and have remained above pre-recession levels, the report said. At the same time, household incomes have fallen and medical costs have increased.

Unemployment rates for other age groups are even higher, but older workers who lost their jobs were less likely to find new ones, according to the report

"They may have skill issues with shifting to another job," testified Barbara Bovbjerb, of the GAO. "They also, frankly, have employer issues. Employers will not always look to hire older people."

The percentage of adults who began drawing Social Security benefits at age 62 rose during the recession, as did awards of Social Security Disability Benefits and applications for Supplemental Security Income benefits. Social Security and other benefits played a role in keeping those 65 and older out of poverty, according to the report.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., held the hearing a day before the Social Security Administration was scheduled to announce whether more than 50 million retirees will receive a cost-of-living adjustment for the first time in three years.

Some in Congress want to cut back on seniors' COLAs, but Sanders said the current formula is inadequate and understates seniors' purchasing needs. Sanders also is fighting Republican efforts to scale back Social Security and other programs for seniors and the poor.

No Republicans attended the hearing and only one Democrat - Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota - stayed for most of it. Sanders said he was disappointed that the subcommittee's top Republican, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, didn't attend, and he expressed hopes other Republicans would show up.

"It's very easy to get up on the floor of the Senate and announce, ‘I'm in favor of cutting Social Security, cutting Medicare, cutting Medicaid, cutting heating assistance,'" Sanders said. "But it may be a little bit harder to learn what the impact of those cuts will mean on real human beings and what kind of suffering will take place and how many people perhaps will die as a result of those cuts."

Witnesses highlighted the importance of COLAs and the Older Americans Act, which is due for reauthorization. The law provides for a paid job training program for low-income, unemployed seniors.

Ruggles credited the program, administered by Vermont Associates for Training and Development, Inc., with giving her "the stepping stones to become economically self-sufficient."

Vermont Associates assigned her to work with a Native American nonprofit group, which gave her skills she's using now as an administrative assistant at a medical technology firm.

"I got a nice raise this past January," Ruggles said. "I have insurance benefits, vacation time and I am even investing in a 401K."

Ruggles said the program needs to be expanded and better advertised. She learned about it by chance in 2009 while shopping at a thrift shop for a winter coat, she said. The clerk handed her a brochure when she mentioned she was looking for work.

According to the GAO report, the average income for senior households in the lowest 20 percent of income groups is $7,466.

Ruggles said she's seen seniors give away or euthanize their pets because they can't afford to feed them, or forgo electricity to save money.

"You just start giving things up," she said. "You don't shop for new clothes. You're supposed to take a medication seven days a week. You take it four to stretch it out."

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