Important Facts on Women & Social Security

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• As research by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) and others shows, the current Social Security program is a foundation for women. 57% of all beneficiaries aged 65 and older—including retirees, the disabled, and survivors of deceased workers—are women. Over 21 million women aged 65 and older receive Social Security checks each month.

• For both men and women aged 65 and older, Social Security is the largest source of income, contributing more than all other sources—such as earnings, pensions, and assets—combined.

• Women rely on Social Security for a larger part of their income in retirement than do men because women are less likely than men to have income from their own pensions (28 percent of women aged 65– 74 receive pension income, compared with 42 percent of men aged 65–74). Also, women who do receive income from their own pensions receive, on average, less than half as much as men.

• Social Security provides more generous benefits to lower earners for the amount of taxes paid, as compared with higher earners. Because women have lower earnings on average across the lifetime than do men, they benefit from this distribution toward lower earners.

• Social Security provides family benefits to the children and spouses (and some ex-spouses) of workers in the event of a worker’s retirement, disability, or death. In 2010, 27% of women aged 65 and older received only spousal benefits (based on their husbands’ or ex-husbands’ earning records). Another 29% of women in this age range received benefits based both on their husbands’ earnings records (or ex-husbands’) and on their own, increasing their benefits.

• Since women’s life expectancy is five years longer than men’s (81 for women compared with 76 for men),7 women rely disproportionately on survivor benefits.  They also rely on Social Security for a longer period, making the cost-of-living adjustment to Social Security, which protects recipients from inflation as they age, especially important for women.

• Unmarried women living alone aged 65 and older are 3 times more likely to be living in poverty than married women aged 65 and older (16.6% compared with 4.8 percent).10 Without Social Security benefits, more than 2/3 of these unmarried women would live in poverty.

Source: http://iwpr.org/"Illinois social security disability lawyers are dedicated to help women of Illinois in getting the justice and social security benefits they deserve!