Taking out the trash for an elderly neighbor may come with a cash reward under a state program that would pay people to do chores for senior citizens.

"Cleaning, shopping, transportation - we need to find new ways to support those kind of tasks that don't require a skilled work force," the executive director of the state Office for the Aging, Neal Lane, said.

The services would be made available through a state Expanded In-Home Services for the Elderly Program, which is expected to serve 51,000 seniors this year. A similar program is already available under Medicaid, mostly for the disabled.

The office is reviewing the details surrounding implementation, but Mr. Lane said they are moving toward making the service available as soon as possible.

The program, which got an additional $25 million in funding this year, is part of a larger effort by the state Health Department to keep the elderly out of costly nursing homes.

Seniors can live in their homes longer when they get help in performing such day-to-day chores, the deputy director of the Office for the Aging, Laurie Pferr, said.

Otherwise, seniors run out of money by hiring help and become eligible for Medicaid more quickly, she said.

"There's a direct correlation in providing these kind of services and delaying entry into Medicaid," she said. "This is thinking beyond medical services and looking at intervening earlier."

The Office for the Aging is reviewing who would be eligible to be paid as caregivers, Mr. Lane said.

The program would also address the fear of abuse many seniors have when hiring strangers from home care agencies, a spokesman for the New York State Alliance for Retired Americans, Michael Burgess, said. Abuse is much less likely when seniors are getting help from people they know, he said.

A survey by AARP found that 85% of its members in New York state would prefer to receive long-term care at home for as long as possible. That same survey found 49% of those people would prefer to receive care from a friend or loved one, an AARP spokesman, Bill Ferris, said.