CFK reports from: The Dirksen Senate Office Building
Event: Youth and Senior Social Security Beneficiaries and Their Families
Organized by: Generations United
Where/When: Washington, D.C., May 2, 2005
By Robert Capriccioso
Today, in an effort to explain more about the Social Security system and its effects on families, the Generations United organization hosted a briefing on Capitol Hill focused on poverty and survivor issues.
Arloc Sherman with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, highlighted new findings from his research that Social Security lifts approximately 1 million children above the poverty line.
“Apart from the Earned income Tax Credit (EITC), no other government program lifts more children above the poverty line,” said Sherman. He noted that because Social Security benefits are sufficient to lift even very poor children out of poverty, it actually does more to reduce child poverty than any other program.
Sherman’s analysis indicates that Social Security reduced the child poverty gap (the total amount by which the incomes of all children who are poor fall below the poverty line) by 21 percent in 2002. That was more than the reduction achieved by EITC (20 percent), Food Stamps (15 percent), and TANF (9 percent). (Poverty status in the analysis was determined by comparing the family’s disposable income with the official federal poverty line—$18,810 for a family of four in 2003).
The research also looked at individual states: In 25 states, Social Security lifted more than 10,000 kids above the poverty line. And in California alone, 141,000 children were lifted above the line.
Eric Kingson, Professor of Social Work and Public Administration at Syracuse University, made the point that Social Security is a life insurance policy for almost all families with dependent children. For a family with two young children and a working spouse, Social Security provides the equivalent of a $400,000 term life insurance policy.
In December 2003, 1.9 million children of deceased workers received monthly benefits; the average monthly benefit for each child today is $900. In 2003, Social Security paid out $86 billion in survivors’ benefits, noted Kingson, adding that private insurers paid out $51 billion dollars in comparison.
Kingson also highlighted that Social Security dollars are adjusted for inflation. Thus, the annual cost of living adjustment ensures that inflation will not erode the value of a family’s survivor’s benefits.
Referencing President Bush’s proposal to privatize Social Security, Kingson said he doesn’t think it will happen because the effects on survivors and the disabled would be too costly.
As part of Generations United’s goal of increasing awareness of the issues discussed at today’s briefing, the organization has helped establish the following Web site:
www.socialsecurity4youth.org [1]