State officials hope to create a toll-free hot line for aging citizens, bolster training for workers at local senior centers and launch other programs as part of a plan to revive the state's Department on Aging.

A task force studying the logistics of re-establishing the defunct state agency voted Tuesday to advise the General Assembly to delay the department's start date for six months, pushing it back from Jan. 1 to July 1, 2007.

The extra time would be used to analyze the needs of Connecticut's current and future senior citizens, resulting in a study that task force members believe will help the state better craft the new department's duties and offerings.

Some of its proposed tasks already have received a favorable reception among advocates for Connecticut's senior citizens.

Those ideas include creating the toll-free hot line to help seniors find appropriate services, distributing updated brochures statewide about aging-related programs and operating a Web site with resources for older residents and their caregivers.

The analysis recommended by the task force would also help determine what programs should be created or bolstered in health care, transportation, housing, nutrition, education, recreation, employment and other areas.

The General Assembly last year decided to re-establish the Department on Aging, which was disbanded in 1993 during budget cuts. Its administrative responsibilities were folded into the Department of Social Services, and a 17-member commission on aging was created as an independent advocacy group.

Twenty-three states have separate departments on aging or similar cabinet-level entities to handle programs and services for elderly residents, according to a 2005 report from Connecticut's Office of Legislative Research.

Legislators and advocates who argued last year to re-establish Connecticut's Department on Aging have said senior citizens need a central contact point to help them locate and understand state assistance programs.

Those advocates also said many seniors may have become frustrated or confused by the process, potentially missing out on services because they did not know whom to call.

"I get calls from all over the state from people who just don't know where to go, from their adult children who don't know who to turn to with their questions," said state Sen. Edith Prague of Columbia, a former commissioner of the Aging Department and chairwoman of the task force to revive it.

"They call me because they know my name, but someday there won't be an Edith Prague to call, and then who will they turn to?" she said.

In addition to monitoring the revival of the Department on Aging, advocates for the state's senior citizens expect to push several proposals in the new legislative session that begins Wednesday.

They include the revival of last year's unsuccessful idea to require criminal background checks for people who provide non-medical, in-home care and companion services.

Several lawmakers also have cited prescription drug costs, a shortage of housing for senior citizens, long-term care issues and transportation as other topics that might receive legislative attention.

John Erlingheuser, advocacy director for AARP Connecticut, said its highest priority this year is to seek more financial assistance to help seniors pay for increasing utility costs, and to urge legislators to block utility companies from passing on their energy-procurement fees to consumers.

"Our members are demanding action on this," he said. "These higher costs affect everybody, but they disproportionately affect seniors because being on fixed incomes, they have less ability to pay these increases."