Widows and social security.

This article provides policymakers with context for understanding past and future policy discussions regarding Social Security widow benefits. Using data from surveys, projections from a microsimulation model, and recent research, it examines three types of benefits-those for aged widows, widows caring for children, and disabled widows. The economic well-being of aged widows has shifted from one of widespread hardship to one in which above-poverty, but still modest, income typically prevails. Many aged widows experience a decline in their standard of living upon widowhood, a pattern which is pronounced among those with limited education. Widows caring for children have been a sizeable beneficiary group historically, but policy changes and demographic trends have sharply reduced the size of this group. Family Social Security benefits ensure a modest level of household income for widows caring for children. Disabled widows differ from the other groups because they are at higher risk for poverty. Introduction In a moving letter to President Roosevelt in 1933, Mrs. M. A. Zoller asked for assistance for her 82-year-old widowed mother, writing in part: She is helpless, suffering from Sugar Diabetes, which has affected her mind. She has to be cared for in the same manner as an infant. She is out of funds completely. Her son whom she used to keep house for is in a hospital in Waco, Texas-no compensation for either himself or her. I am a widow; have spent all my savings in caring for her.1 Letters such as this were typical during the 1930s as the public asked elected officials for relief from the material hardship brought on by both the Great Depression and life events outside their control (health problems, job loss, death of a spouse). Though a wide variety of economic security plans were debated during the 1930s, policymakers ultimately produced two landmark pieces of legislation-the 1935 Social Security Act and the 1939 Amendments to the Act-that provided additional and immediate relief to low-income Americans and, for the longer term, a social insurance structure in which the payroll tax contributions of workers would fund benefits in retirement or upon the death of the wage earner. Many of the programs created over seven decades ago by these two pieces of legislation are easily recognizable even today, including Social Security, federal and state means-tested programs, and unemployment insurance. Interestingly, the Social Security Act of 1935 provided only limited protection for survivors under the new Social Security program. A lump sum equal to 3.5 percent of total wages could be paid to the estate of a worker in certain cases. However, even before the program became truly operational, this approach began to be viewed as inadequate. The 1938 Social Security Advisory Council, using somewhat stark language, wrote: A haunting fear in the minds of many older men is the possibility, and frequently, the probability, that their widow will be in need after their death. The day of large families and of the farm economy, when aged parents were thereby assured comfort in their declining years, has passed for a large proportion of our population. This change has had particularly devastating effect on the sense of security of the aged women of our country.2 Concluding that lump-sum benefits were unlikely to be adequate and likely to be spent by the recipient before her retirement, the advisory council recommended that the program include monthly benefit amounts for two classes of widows: aged widows and widows caring for children. The Social Security Board (the forerunner to the current Social Security Administration (SSA)) agreed with these recommendations on social insurance grounds, noting that most national insurance programs at that time provided for widows and orphans.3 Congress enacted these changes with the amendments of 1939. The advent of widow benefits, which continue to this day, was a fundamental development in the history of the program for several reasons. …