Financial Hardship Before and After Social Security's Early Eligibility Age

Richard Johnson () and Gordon Mermin

Working Papers, Center for Retirement Research at Boston College from Center for Retirement Research

Abstract: Although poverty rates for Americans ages 65 and older have plunged over the past half century, many people continue to fall into poverty in their late fifties and early sixties. This study examines financial hardship rates in the years before qualifying for Social Security retirement benefits at age 62 and investigates how the availability of Social Security improves economic well-being at later ages. The analysis follows a sample of adults from the 1937-39 birth cohort for 14 years, tracking their employment, disability status, and income as they age from their early 50s until their late 60s. It measures the share of older adults who appear to have been forced into retirement by health or employment shocks and the apparent impact of involuntary retirement on low-income rates. The study also estimates models of the likelihood that older adults experience financial hardship before reaching Social Security’s early eligibility age.

Pages: 42 pages
Date: 2009-01, Revised 2009-03
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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