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- Title
Women, Marriage, and Social Security Benefits Revisited.
- Authors
Tamborini, Christopher R.; Whitman, Kevin
- Abstract
Introduced into the Social Security program in 1939, spouse and survivor benefits have important implications for the retirement experience of women. At the end of 2005, 12.9 million women Social Security beneficiaries aged 62 or older (59 percent) received at least part of their benefit as wives or widows of entitled workers. For these women, a spouse or widow benefit provided a larger payment than that of their own earnings record (SSA 2007, Table 5.A14). A number of dynamic factors influence the number of women (and men) eligible for, and claiming, Social Security spouse or survivor benefits at retirement. Past and present marital status determines potential benefit eligibility (typically, one must be currently married, widowed, or have had a 10-year marriage to qualify), and the benefit amount is based on a person's lifetime earnings record in relation to a current or former spouse. This article focuses on the marital history component of eligibility, while acknowledging that large-scale changes in women's workforce attachment over the past half century, such as increases in labor market participation and earnings relative to men, have led to an increase in the share of women retirees receiving at least part of their benefit based on their own earnings record. The connection between marital history and eligibility for spouse or widow benefits is of increasing interest among policymakers and retirement analysts (Favreault and Steuerle 2007; Harrington Meyer, Wolf, and Himes 2006). Although marital trends have begun to stabilize in the United States in recent years (for example, divorce rates appear to have leveled off), an extensive literature documents dramatic changes in the marital patterns of women over the past several decades. Notable changes include increases in divorce, decreases in marriage durations, and a rise in the number of women who delay or forgo marriage. From a retirement perspective, shifting marital patterns are important as they may mean that the share of women with the option of claiming a spouse or widow benefit at retirement may change as well. For example, recent trends show higher proportions of never-married women in the population (Tamborini 2007), which would reduce the share of women potentially eligible for spouse or widow benefits by the time they reach retirement age. Since marital histories help establish whether spouse or widow benefits will be a retirement income option for women in old age, it is important to track marital trends, particularly as the leading edge of the baby-boom generation begins retiring. This article uses data from the 2001 Marital History Topical Module (wave 2) to the U.S. Census Bureau's Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) to examine the extent to which marital patterns are changing among different age groups of women. The SIPP Marital History Module is considered one of the best surveys to gauge recent marital patterns, especially since the National Center for Health Statistics and the Current Population Survey no longer collect comprehensive data on marriage and divorce. Thanks to an agreement with the U.S. Census Bureau, the Social Security Administration has access to a Restricted-Use File of the Marital History Module, which contains the year and month of marital transition events (marriage, divorce, widow). This information is important because it allows for the estimation of length of marriages, an important component of this article's analysis. To explore how marital patterns have changed over the past 15 years, the article also draws on data reported in Iams and Ycas (1988), which is based on the U.S. Census Bureau's 1985 Marital History Supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS)...
- Subjects
MOTHERS' pensions; SURVIVORS' benefits; SOCIAL security beneficiaries; RETIREMENT benefits; SOCIAL security
- Publication
Social Security Bulletin, 2007, Vol 67, Issue 4, p1
- ISSN
0037-7910
- Publication type
Article