Early Claiming of Higher-Earning Husbands, the Survivor Benefit, and the Incidence of Poverty among Recent Widows

Citation

Diebold, Jeffrey C.; Moulton, Jeremy G.; & Scott, John C. (2017). Early Claiming of Higher-Earning Husbands, the Survivor Benefit, and the Incidence of Poverty among Recent Widows. Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, 16(4), 485-508.

Abstract

Social Security provides survivor benefits to lower-earning spouses of deceased workers entitled to a retirement benefit. The value of the survivor benefit depends on a number of factors including the deceased worker's claim age. We use the Health and Retirement Study and a discrete time hazard model to analyze how the claim age of married men influences the likelihood that their spouse will enter poverty in widowhood. We find that delayed claiming is associated with reduction in a widow's poverty risk. The magnitude of this relationship varies significantly with the claim age, Social Security dependence, and survivor benefit dependence.

URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1474747215000438

Reference Type

Journal Article

Year Published

2017

Journal Title

Journal of Pension Economics and Finance

Author(s)

Diebold, Jeffrey C.
Moulton, Jeremy G.
Scott, John C.

ORCiD

Moulton - 0000-0002-1719-2657