It’s good news that the Pennsylvania Department of Aging has started to take a tougher line with the agencies counties depend upon to investigate claims of elder abuse.

So far four counties have been evaluated using the state’s new compliance schedule, and only one — Adams County — was given a satisfactory grade. The other three, Franklin, Perry and Northampton counties, were found to have significant or repetitive problems.

The issue is of particular importance now because Pennsylvania is aging rapidly. In 2010 the state had a population of about 12.7 million people. About 15.4 percent (1.95 million) of Pennsylvanians were age 65 or older, according to federal Census data.

By July of 2017 the state had added about 103,000 new residents. But the percentage of elderly Pennsylvanians had skyrocketed to 17.4 percent (2.22 million people) — an increase of 278,163 people.

So Pennsylvania, the fifth-largest state in America, is growing slightly — and aging more than twice as fast as it is growing.

Butler County is no different. In 2010 the county’s population of 183,862 included more than 27,000 people age 65 or older, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s a little more than 15 percent of the county’s population.

Nearly a decade later, in 2017, the Bureau estimates that Butler County’s population has increased to 186,847. So has the percentage of elderly residents, which are now thought to make up 18 percent of the county’s population.

The effect this burgeoning elderly population has had on the state’s social safety net for seniors is fairly straightforward: there’s more to do.

That means more reports of elder abuse to investigate — agencies investigated nearly 30,000 last year, according to the AP — growing caseloads for social service workers who deal with the elderly, and more demands for a slice of the money dedicated to protective services.

What it hasn’t meant is more state support for elder care services. Despite the growing senior population, there’s been no corresponding increase in state funding for things like elder abuse investigations, or to increase staffing or training at the 52 county-based agencies responsible for such work.

So the state’s new grading system isn’t only a day late, it’s a dollar short too.

Elderly Pennsylvanians aren’t the only people feeling the effects of a lackluster protective services field.

The state’s ChildLine program, which is supposed to help counties deal with child abuse claims and investigations, has also struggled mightily in recent years.

And the Pennsylvania Health Department, which is responsible for investigating complaints at nursing homes, has also come under fire for its handling of some investigations.

The message is clear: The state must act to repair these programs and agencies, and help prepare them for what should have been an obvious and foreseeable increase in demand for services.