In this brief, we use data from the Urban Institute’s Well-Being and Basic Needs Survey (WBNS) to estimate the prevalence of material hardship among adults ages 60 and older in 2025.

We find that more than one-third of older adults had difficulty meeting basic needs for food, housing, or health care, with the highest rates of hardship observed among older adults with disabilities, those in fair or poor health, or those with low incomes. We also find that many older adults received assistance from safety net programs that face cuts in federal funding.

Why This Matters

Recent policy changes threaten to erode the safety net for older adults. These changes include cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) enacted as part of the 2025 budget reconciliation law. These cuts may leave many older adults unable to access assistance, increasing the risk that they will experience material hardship that jeopardizes their health and well-being.

Key Takeaways

• Over 1 in 3 (36.6 percent) adults ages 60 and older reported one or more material hardships in 2025, such as food insecurity; problems paying the rent, mortgage, or utility bills; or difficulty affording health care.
• Medical hardship was the most common type of difficulty in 2025, with 32.1 percent of older adults reporting unmet health care needs because of costs, problems paying medical bills, or medical debt.
• About 1 in 7 (14.3 percent) older adults reported food insecurity, and 8.6 percent reported challenges paying for housing or utility costs.
• More than half of older adults with low incomes, those who are Black or Hispanic, those with a disability, or those in fair or poor health reported at least one material hardship.
• Public safety net programs provide assistance with basic needs to many older adults who are at greatest risk of material hardship, with nearly half of older adults with low incomes reporting family participation in SNAP, Medicaid, housing assistance, or SSI in 2025.
• Other private and public supports offer additional assistance to older adults, and these supports may experience further strain as federal safety net funding is scaled back.

How We Did It

This analysis draws on data from the December 2025 round of the WBNS, a nationally representative, annual survey of adults that monitors individual and family well-being in the context of a changing safety net.

More than 10,000 adults, including more than 3,600 adults ages 60 and older, participated in the 2025 survey.