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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Declining eligibility for social security spouse and widow benefits in the United States? | | Author(s) | Madonna Harrington Meyer, Douglas A Wolf, Christine L Himes |
| Journal title | Research on Aging, vol 28, no 2, March 2006 |
| Pages | pp 240-260 |
| Source | http://www.sagepublications.com |
| Keywords | Social security benefits ; Older women ; Wives ; Widows ; Ethnic groups ; Rights [elderly] ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | Currently in the US, two-thirds of older women receive Social Security spouse and widow benefits, which are distributed on the basis of marital rather than employment status. However, marriage rates are down, particularly among Black women. This study used June 1985, 1990 and 1995 Current Population Survey data to trace trends in marriage for women from five birth cohorts and to predict marital patterns for the three later cohorts. The authors found that the proportion of women who will reach age 62 without 10-year marriages, and thus be ineligible for spouse and widow benefits, is increasing modestly for Whites and Hispanics but dramatically for African Americans. When women who were born in the 1960s reach age 62, 82% of Whites, 85% of Hispanics and just 50% of Blacks will be eligible. Alternative mechanisms for distributing benefits are discussed. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-060519204 A |
| Classmark | JH: BD: SNW: SP: TK: IKR: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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