Latest Reports from the Income & Benefits Policy Center

The recession has increased joblessness among older Americans. These graphs and tables report unemployment rates and how they have varied by age, sex, race, and education since 2007.

The 2009 economic downturn that pushed up unemployment rates did not spare older workers. Unemployment rates reached record highs in 2009 for men and women age 55 and older. Older African Americans, Hispanics, and adults with limited education were especially likely to find themselves unemployed. Older adults who lost their jobs spent more time out of work than their younger counterparts. There were some encouraging developments, however. Employment rates for adults age 62 and older did not fall because many older workers stayed in the labor force, and earnings for full-time workers age 65 and older grew substantially.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provides low-income households with electronic benefits to purchase food in grocery stores. People residing on Indian reservations, and households with American Indians and Alaska Natives residing near reservations, or in certain areas of Oklahoma, may have a food assistance option besides SNAP-the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR), which provides a monthly package of commodities. This report combines findings from site visits to seven reservations that participate in FDPIR with analysis of administrative and survey data to compare the two programs with regard to eligibility, participation, administration, and possible effects on health.

This report presents estimates of the potential effects of numerous proposals designed to reduce child poverty in the state of Connecticut (CT). The results show the effects of initiatives to increase adult education, expand and improve the safety net, and strengthen families through increased child support and post-welfare case management. The results show the effects using two measures of poverty (the official measure and a modernized measure that includes all family resources and updated poverty thresholds) as well as the sensitivity to assumptions about the effects of initiatives on employment and earnings.

Many agree that the official measure of poverty in the United States is flawed. Experts have recommended an alternative measure of poverty that includes all family resources net of taxes and nondiscretionary expenses and updates the thresholds to reflect current spending patterns. This fact sheet describes the official poverty measure and an alternative measure developed by the National Academy of Sciences, and uses data from the 2006 American Community Survey to estimate the extent of poverty in Minnesota under the official and alternative measure.

Rising health care costs threaten boomers' retirement security. In 2040, half of adults age 65 and older will spend at least 19 percent of their incomes on health care, up from 10 percent in 2010, if costs grow at the intermediate rate projected by the Medicare trustees. About 7 in 10 older Americans in the bottom two-fifths of the income distribution will spend more than 20 percent of their incomes on health care in 2040. These projections underscore the importance of controlling health care costs and the need for boomers to plan for future health care spending.

How employers respond to automatic pension enrollment is important to the debate over how to increase retirement savings for all Americans. We recently completed a study showing that employers with autoenrollment have lower match rates than those without it, suggesting that employers may be trying to offset their higher costs. In contrast, the Employee Benefit Research Institute finds that employers with automatic enrollment have increased match rates since 2005. The two studies measure different concepts and use different time frames. A large sample of 401(k) plans reporting match rates before and after autoenrollment is needed to fully understand employer responses.

We use the Health and Retirement Study to investigate household assets at older ages. We find a notable increase in the net worth of older households between 1998 and 2006, with most of the growth due to housing. The age pattern of asset accumulation and decumulation varies considerably by income. High-income seniors increase assets at older ages. Middle-income seniors reduce assets in retirement, but at a rate that will not deplete assets within their expected life. Low-income seniors spend their financial assets at a rate that will mostly deplete them, leaving only Social Security and defined-benefit pensions at older ages.

A patchwork of public programs, including Social Security Disability Insurance, workers’ compensation, Supplemental Security Income, and veterans’ benefits, provides income supports to people with health problems who are unable to work. Yet, many Americans who develop disabilities in their fifties or early sixties fall into poverty. With millions of boomers entering their sixties—when work disability rates peak—it’s time to fix the social insurance safety net for disabled workers.

Record numbers of older men and women began collecting Social Security benefits in 2009. New awards surged last year partly because the age-62 population grew rapidly. More importantly, older Americans were much more likely to claim Social Security in 2009 than recent previous years, probably because many seniors were unable to find work. Social Security benefits provide an important safety net for unemployed older adults, but early claimants receive permanently reduced benefits, threatening their future economic well-being.