Half of America's Elderly Will Spend at Least One Year in Poverty

Dec. 13, 2010 - PRLog -- It has frequently been argued that the elderly are exposed to low rates of poverty as indicated by the Census Bureau’s annual income statistics. Yet by using a life-course approach to follow individuals as they age across their 60s, 70s, and 80s, researchers demonstrate that the likelihood of both income and asset poverty is extremely high during this stage of life.

“A Life Course Approach to Understanding Poverty Among Older American Adults,” (http://www.familiesinsociety.org/ShowAbstract.asp?docid=4032) published in the current issue of Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services, reports on the findings of authors Mark R. Rank and James Herbert Williams. Analyzing data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), the longest running longitudinal data set that contains in-depth information on family demographic and economic behavior, Rank and Williams found that the majority of elderly will not experience extreme poverty. Much of the reason for this is due to the reach and strength of Social Security.

However, the likelihood of the elderly experiencing at least one year in poverty or near poverty is substantially higher. Nearly half of all Americans who live between the ages of 60 and 90 will fall within these poverty rates:
18% of Americans will have experienced poverty by the age of 70,
29% by the age of 80, and
41% by the age of 90.

The corresponding percentages for those who will fall below 125% of the poverty line are 22%, 35%, and 48%.

This risk is not evenly distributed across the population. One of the most important economic divides is race. Although 33% of White older Americans will experience at least one year below the official poverty line, the corresponding percentage for Black older Americans was double that at 65%.

In addition, for unmarried older Americans, the percentage experiencing income poverty was 51% compared with 25% for married older Americans. Likewise, for those with fewer than 12 years of education, the percentage experiencing poverty was 48% compared with 21% for those with 12 or more years of education.

Along with income poverty is asset poverty. A majority of the elderly will experience a period during their later years where the value of their savings and other liquid assets are extremely low. As in the case of income poverty, there is a sharp dividing line in experiencing asset poverty by race. Blacks between the ages of 60 and 84 were 2.8 times more likely than Whites to experience net worth asset poverty, 2.3 times more likely to experience financial wealth asset poverty, and 2.4 times more likely to experience liquid wealth asset poverty.

There are several reasons for the rates of impoverishment across the life course: (1) Americans are living longer; (2) the influx of Americans entering their senior years, coupled with a declining percentage of workers in the prime earning years, will put increasing pressure upon the benefits and sustainability of the Social Security and Medicare programs as well as other social safety nets programs directed at the elderly; and (3) economic trends show that Americans have not been accumulating adequate savings for retirement.

According to Rank and WIlliams, "There will be a need for creative and innovative thinking regarding policy options and choices to protect the elderly in the future from the ravages of poverty during the later years of life."

Some strategies to consider would include policies that encourage greater levels of savings among the working-age population, facilitating cooperative living arrangements among the elderly, establishing fair terms with respect to reverse mortgage programs, and strengthening the Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs.

The authors add, "All of these changes have the potential to reduce the extent of economic insecurity facing the elderly."

Founded in 1920, Families in Society is the oldest social work journal in the United States and continues to serve as an important source of expert, interdisciplinary information for professionals in social work and related fields such as psychology, nursing, and behavioral health. The journal’s articles are informative, instructive, reflective, and, periodically, controversial. Typically, they examine a broad range of human service activities, such as advocacy; family-life education; public policy; agency administration; professional training and education; and group, family, and individual counseling.

Families in Society scholarship is routinely distributed via national and international partners to supplement research compilations on a variety of topics. Recent examples include the Administration on Aging and the Children’s Bureau within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Veterans Health Administration in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Foster Family-Based Treatment Association, International Foster Care Organisation, Better Care Network (UNICEF/Child Protection Sect.), Integrated Policy & Legislation Team (Canadian Ministry of Children and Family Development), Australian Association of Social Workers, Center for Victims of Torture, Pennsylvania Child Welfare Training Program, Protective Services Training Institute of Texas, and Milwaukee Public Schools.

The Alliance for Children and Families, headquartered in Milwaukee, provides an in-house editorial and support staff which publishes the quarterly print journal and its companion website, Families in Society Online. The Alliance is the United States’ largest association of private, nonprofit human service agencies and organizations. Its mission is to build the capacity of its members to serve and advocate for children, families, and communities. Its members annually serve more than 3.4 million people with a wide array of programs and services.


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Now in its 92nd year, Families in Society focuses on the art, science, and practice of social work. Published by the Alliance for Children and Families, the publication is one of the most respected professional journals in North America on social and human services.