Centre for Policy on Ageing



Older women and poverty transition — consequences of income source changes from widowhood
Author(s)	Martie Gillen, Hyungsoo Kim
Journal title	Journal of Applied Gerontology, vol 28, no 3, June 2009
Pages	pp 320-341
Source	http://jag.sagepub.com
Keywords	Older women ; Widows ; Economic status [elderly] ; Income [older people] ; At risk ; Poverty ; Transitional phase ; Correlation ; United States of America.
Annotation	Older single women are disproportionately vulnerable to poverty. Using data from the 2002 and 2004 waves of the US Health and Retirement Study (HRS) of 5,799 women age 65 or older, this study investigated the effect of change in income sources by recent spousal loss on poverty transition. The focus is on the effect of widowhood on income source change, and how such change affects poverty transition of recently widowed older women. Findings indicate that widowhood greatly decreases income from every source. Specifically, a $10 increase in social security benefits decreased the probability of poverty transition for recently widowed older women by 67.2%. These findings call for reconsidering social security survivor benefit rules and women's education with regard to financial security in retirement. (KJ/RH).
Accession Number	CPA-090701205 A
Classmark	BD: SP: F:W: JF: CA3: W6: 4MT: 49: 7T
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.