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Workers with Low Social Security Benefits: Implications for Reform

many receive limited Social Security payments. In 2009, about 36 percent of retired workers and nondisabled widows received benefits that fell below the individual poverty level (Favreault 2010). This brief identifies the characteristics of Social Security beneficiaries age 64 to 73 with family benefits below the poverty level in 2003. We focus on these relatively young retirees because older beneficiaries provide less useful information about how the system should be reformed for future generations, given the rapid change in women’s work histories and the growth of the Social Security system. We identify factors associated with low benefits, describe how they are changing, and discuss what this implies for future Social Security adequacy and reform proposals. Data come from the Health and Retirement Study, a large survey of older Americans with matches to administrative benefits and earnings records. Favreault (2010) provides additional details.2 Older Americans with limited Social Security benefits share a number of characteristics. They are disproportionately women, racial minorities, and unmarried. Many spent time out of the labor force caring for young children. Less-educated workers are also very vulnerable, sometimes even when they have worked long careers.