Howard M. Iams

Reducing women's poverty by shifting social security benefits from retired couples to widows

This article examines proposals to transfer Social Security benefits from married couples to surviving widows in terms of effects on poverty rates, trust fund expenditures, and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) expenditures. Because widows are much more likely to be living in poverty than older married women, it makes sense to consider Social Security benefits in a lifetime framework and transfer some benefits from the time both the husband and wife are alive to the time when there is only one survivor, usually the wife. Because of expected life span and age differences of marital partners, a

Marital History, Race, and Social Security Spouse and Widow Benefit Eligibility in the United States

1 reduction of the couples benefit can finance a

The Changing Impact of Social Security on Retirement Income in the United States

1.45 increase in the widows benefit. The 1990 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) matched to the Social Security Administrations benefit records are the basis for the estimates.

The Impact of Minority Group Status on the Projected Retirement Income of Divorced Women in the Baby Boom Cohort

Large-scale changes in American family structures over the past decades have important implications for the retirement experiences of women. In this study, the authors use a restricted-use file of the Marital History Module of the U.S. Census Bureaus Survey of Income and Program Participation to investigate changes in the marital histories of women aged 40 to 69 years between 1990 and 2004, with a focus on outcomes relevant for Social Security spouse and widow benefit eligibility. Multinomial and binary logistic regression analyses show significant changes in womens marital patterns since 1990, with more substantial shifts occurring among recent cohorts. Due to downward trends in marriage, the authors find a modest decline in Social Security spouse and widow benefit eligibility in 2004, particularly among Black women born toward the end of the baby boom generation.

Economic and Health Implications of Long-Term Unemployment: Earnings, Disability Benefits, and Mortality

As members of the baby-boom cohort—individuals born in 1946 to 1964—approach retirement age, their economic well-being at that time is of particular concern to policymakers. Baby boomers grew up in a different era than did current retirees—one accompanied by considerable changes in marriage patterns, earnings and work patterns, retirement policy, and the economy. Although these changes will undoubtedly affect baby-boomer retirees, it is difficult to know exactly how they will influence their economic well-being.

Social Security Income Measurement in Two Surveys

SUMMARY Using projections from the Social Security Administrations Modeling Income in the Near Term (MINT1), we examine the characteristics and retirement income of white non-Hispanic, black non-Hispanic, and Hispanic divorced women in the baby boom cohort. Although we find significant differences in retirement income for divorced women of different racial and ethnic groups, the characteristics associated with higher or lower retirement income are very similar. That is, being college educated, owning a home, and having pension and asset income, for example, correspond to increased retirement income for all racial and ethnic groups. However, because black and Hispanic women are less likely than white women to be college educated, to own their home, and to have pension and asset income, their retirement income tends to be lower than that of white women. We conclude the paper by briefly discussing policy options to address the retirement needs of divorced women.

The Impact of Employment and Earnings Shocks on Contribution Behavior in Defined Contribution Plans: 2005–2009

Data from the 1984 Survey of Income and Program Participation are linked to longitudinal records from the Social Security Administration to examine the relationship between the long-term unemployment that prime-aged (ages 25-55) male workers experienced around the time of the 1980-1982 twin recessions with earnings, receipt of either Disability Insurance or Supplemental Security Income (DI-SSI) benefits, and mortality. Separate estimations are made for those who voluntarily and involuntarily left employment and the combined sample of these two groups. We find that 20 years later, long-term joblessness was associated with significantly lower earnings and higher likelihoods of the receipt of DI-SSI benefits as well as mortality.

The Distributional Impact of Social Security Policy Options: An Analysis of Divorced and Widowed Women

As a major source of income for retired persons in the United States, Social Security benefits directly influence economic well-being. That fact underscores the importance of measuring Social Security income accurately in household surveys. Using Social Security Administration (SSA) records, we examine Social Security income as reported in two Census Bureau surveys, the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) and the Current Population Survey (CPS). Although SSA usually deducts Medicare premiums from benefit payments, both the CPS and the SIPP aim to collect and record gross Social Security benefit amounts (before Medicare premium deductions). We find that the Social Security benefit recorded in the CPS closely approximates the gross benefit recorded for CPS respondents in SSAs records, but the Social Security benefit recorded in the SIPP more closely approximates SSAs record of net benefit payments (after deducting Medicare premiums).

The Disappearing Defined Benefit Pension and its Potential Impact on the Retirement Incomes of Boomers

This article investigates the relationship between job changes and earnings changes and workers’ participation and contributions to defined contribution (DC) plans. We use longitudinal information from Social Security W-2 taxrecords matched to a nationally representative sample of respondents from the Survey of Income and Program Participation. Our findings reveal that both job changes and earnings losses lead to an increase in the probability of stopping contributions and to a decrease in contribution amounts and contribution rates. This pattern was true not only during the Great Recession of 2007-2009 but also during the nonrecessionary period prior to it, suggesting that contributions to DC plans are not necessarily driven by inertia but instead are quite dynamic and vary over time. Our simulations indicate that observed changes in contributions during the Great Recession are likely to have a nontrivial impact on retirement preparedness of future retirees, particularly for those who experienced job changes.

It's All Relative: Understanding the Retirement Prospects of Baby-Boomers

Using microsimulation, we estimate the effects of three policy proposals that would alter Social Security’s eligibility rules or benefit structure to reflect changes in women’s labor force activity, marital patterns, and differential mortality among the aged. First, we estimate a set of options related to the duration of marriage required to receive divorced spouse and survivor benefits. Second, we estimate the effects of an earnings sharing proposal with survivor benefits, in which benefits are based entirely on earned benefits with spouses sharing their earnings during years of marriage. Third, we estimate the effects of adjusting benefits to reflect the increasing differential life expectancy by lifetime earnings. The results advance our understanding of the distributional effects of these alternative policy options on projected benefits and retirement income, including poverty and supplemental poverty status, of divorced and widowed women aged 60 or older in 2030.