Social insurance and children: The relationship between Social Security, economic well-being, and family context among child recipients

Abstract

The relationship between social insurance, which provides families protection against certain risks, and child economic security is understudied. Using the 2004 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) matched to Social Security Administration benefit records, this article investigates the economic welfare effects of the child component of the US Social Security program. We examine how the poverty rate of child beneficiaries would change, absent Social Security income, and how heavily the family incomes of these children rely on it, by family characteristics. Our findings reveal that Social Security plays an important role in mitigating economic insecurity among children deprived of a wage-earning parent through disability, death, or retirement. Family structure, earnings, and employment status are identified as key factors moderating the effect of Social Security on child recipients' financial circumstance.

Measuring Sufficiency of Social Insurance in Maintaining Quality of Life of Civil Pensioners in Pakistan

“…Social protection is an umbrella term which includes both social insurance and social assistance (Barrientos, 2006;Government of Pakistan, 2008& Weigand & Grosh, 2008. Social insurance, a contributory and work-related entitlement, is different from social assistance which is means tested anti-poverty programmes (Tamborini & Cupito, 2012). Social insurance aims at protection of vulnerable household and families from falling into poverty when they are unable to maintain their income due to several factors including old age, disability and/or death (DeWitt, 2010).…”