Research
U.S. Caregiving System Leaves Significant Unmet Needs Among Aging Adults
Policy Note | America’s eldercare system relies on families to provide care to aging adults, leaving those without family or wealth particularly vulnerable to having their care needs go unmet. 8.3 million people, or 42 percent of adults who have difficulty with tasks like getting dressed, using the toilet, or preparing meals did not receive any help in 2020 (the latest data available). Older adults who do not get the care they need face higher negative health outcomes and disability levels....
Policy Note | The Social Security benefit structure penalizes people who claim before age 70. Yet over one-fifth of eligible people claim before their full retirement age (age 67 for those born in 1960), and over 90 percent claim before the maximum age of 70, resulting in reduced monthly benefits. While many claim early out of necessity, financial advisors often recommend to those with retirement savings to spend down their savings before tapping into Social Security to increase their lifetime monthly benefit. However, few people have professional advisors. A Social Security Bridge option that is formalized, accessible, and easy to understand would allow beneficiaries to boost monthly benefits and help protect against downward mobility in retirement. This bridge, while important for many, is not a relevant for those with little to no retirement savings. Thus, we also advocate for increasing the Social Security minimum benefit to ensure adequate lifetime retirement income for the over 63 million Americans who will retire without any retirement savings.
The rates of elder poverty among widows and single women are higher than among couples and men.
ReLab's new report, "Disparities & Erosion in New York’s Workplace Retirement Coverage," documents two trends in retirement plan coverage: 1) retirement plan coverage is declining for all New Yorkers, and 2) disparities in coverage continue to exist based on race, education and income.
Using data from the Survey for Income and Program Participation (SIPP), this study investigates the relationship between withdrawals from 401(k) and IRA accounts and household level economic shocks such as job-loss, job change, divorce, and the onset of poor health.
Rather than being "self-financing," New York's Hudson Yards project cost the city $2.2 billion in costs, largely due to tax breaks provided by the city to incentivize development and standard development risks and costs.
Guaranteed Retirement Accounts (GRAs), proposed in the 2018 book Rescuing Retirement, are universal individual accounts funded throughout a worker’s career by employer and employee contributions and a refundable tax credit. If GRAs were implemented in 2018,1.5 million seniors would be saved from poverty or near poverty by 2025. This increases to 3.6 million seniors by 2035 and 8.1 million seniors by 2045.
- If we do nothing to reform the current retirement system, the number of poor or near-poor people over the age of 62 will increase by 25% between 2018 and 2045, from 17.5 million to 21.8 million.
- If the GRA were implemented in 2018, 8.1 million seniors would be saved from old-age poverty or near poverty by the year 2045.
Author: Teresa Ghilarducci, Michael Papadopoulos, and Anthony Webb
Download PDF
Raising Social Security’s Full Retirement Age leaves all workers with two bad choices: working longer or living on reduced monthly benefits.
This report documents the growth in older workers’ unstable and low-wage jobs from 2005 to 2015. By 2015, nearly 25% of older workers were in bad jobs.
