Social Security Spouse and Survivor Benefits for the Modern Family

Abstract

The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, part of a consortium that includes parallel centers at the University of Michigan and the National Bureau of Economic Research, was established in 1998 through a grant from the Social Security Administration. The Center's mission is to produce first-class research and forge a strong link between the academic community and decision makers in the public and private sectors around an issue of critical importance to the nation's future. To achieve this mission, the Center sponsors a wide variety of research projects, transmits new findings to a broad audience, trains new scholars, and broadens access to valuable data sources.

Bridging Partner Lifecycle Earnings and Pension Gaps by Sharing NDC Accounts

“…Ferber, Simpson, and Rouillon (2006) suggested that US Social Security retirement payments to spouses of workers should be eliminated to "cut off" the economic dependency of wives on their husbands and this practice replaced with earnings sharing. Favreault and Steuerle (2007) estimated the outcome of a sharing using US data projected until 2049 and found that the effects were not as large as expected. In addition, individuals' pension base after 2012 is projected extrapolating previous earnings careers.…”

Social Security in the United States

“…Since the male breadwinner model is becoming less prevalent over time while the two-earner model is more prevalent, researchers have analyzed the extent to which gendered behavior changes are disadvantaging women in terms of their Social Security benefits (Maestas 2018) (See ▶ Gender and Employment Later in Life). There is also research suggesting ways in which the system should change to adapt to the modern family realities of higher divorce and mothers who work but have gaps in labor force participation due to childrearing (Favreault and Steuerle 2007). This research highlights the tradeoffs between competing goals of poverty reduction, gender fairness, system progressivity, and supporting family caregiving and household production.…”

Changing Social Security in the US: Rising Insecurity?

“…Some policy analysts favour a plan that functions like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), so that each year when older people with lower incomes file their tax returns, they receive additional Social Security benefits. Others prefer a plan in which the minimum benefit slides up with the number of years of contributing to the system, and, in the European tradition, in which a care credit offsets time out of the labour market (Favreault and Steurle, 2007). The simplest plan, however, provides a minimum benefit to all who are eligible for Social Security (Harrington Meyer and Herd, 2007).…”