Minimum Benefits in Social Security Could Reduce Aged Poverty (Series/Older Americans' Economic Security) Melissa Favreault, Gordon Mermin, C. Eugene Steuerle, Dan Murphy Despite Social Security's success at bolstering retirement security, many older Americans remain mired in poverty. Because Social Security does not guarantee a minimum benefit, many long-service, low-wage workers receive benefits that leave them below the poverty line. African Americans, Hispanics, and unmarried women are especially vulnerable. Although productivity gains are likely to reduce old-age poverty over time, Social Security's long-term financing problem makes future benefit cuts likely. This analysis explores two potential minimum-benefit designs and shows that an effective minimum benefit could help protect the highest-risk groups.
Would Raising the Social Security Retirement Age Harm Low-Income Groups? (Policy Briefs/Retirement Project Brief Series) Gordon Mermin, C. Eugene Steuerle Social Security's projected financial shortfall has spurred discussions about increasing the age at which workers can first receive retirement benefits. This brief examines the future distributional impacts of raising the retirement age by about three years. Raising the retirement age hits lower-income workers less hard than other groups because the disability program provides some protection. However, it still increases poverty rates. Combining the retirement age change with an enhanced minimum benefit increases lifetime benefits for the lowest earners and substantially cuts the Social Security deficit without significantly increasing poverty rates.
Minimum Benefits in Social Security (Research Report) Melissa Favreault, Gordon Mermin, C. Eugene Steuerle In light of Social Security reform proposals that include provisions for minimum benefits, this paper considers the redistributive purpose of Social Security and whether a minimum benefit may reduce need among aged and disabled people more equitably or efficiently than current law structures. We then examine several minimum benefit designs. We find that minimum benefits could help reduce poverty among the aged substantially, even in the context of benefit reductions to improve the program's long-term fiscal deficit. However, trade-offs exist; generous minimums could reduce Social Security’s earnings relationship, which has helped the program garner strong political support.
Social Security Reform (Testimony) C. Eugene Steuerle The Social Security debate could and should be part of a larger one in which we engage our fellow citizens in figuring out how to take best advantage of new opportunities created by longer lives and better health. Since Social Security was first enacted, vast changes have occurred in the economy, life expectancy, health care, the physical demands of jobs, the labor force participation of women, and even the age at which one can be considered old. This testimony focuses especially on our increasing inability to protect the young, the truly old, and the vulnerable when Social Security morphs into a middle-age retirement system.
Alternatives to Strengthen Social Security (Testimony) C. Eugene Steuerle Since Social Security was first enacted, vast changes have occurred in the economic and social circumstances of the nation. In testimony before the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means, senior fellow Eugene Steuerle addresses Social Security reform and related budget pressures. He presents an array of observations and recommendations dealing with labor force participation, inequities and inefficiencies in the Social Security program, automatic and unsustainable federal spending growth, and private retirement and employee benefit systems.
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