Older Americans may be doing better financially than the U.S. Census thought they were, according to a new analysis the agency recently released.
The Census Bureau found that the population overall had higher income and slightly less poverty than previously thought, thanks to a new analysis project, the National Experimental Wellbeing Statistics, or NEWS. The bureau is correcting survey data for a more accurate measure by linking the survey, decennial census and commercial data to remove errors and bias in income and poverty estimates.
The project found that in 2018, median household income was 6.3% higher than in survey estimates, and poverty was 1.1 percentage points lower.
But older Americans were faring far better. For those 65 and older, household income was 27.5% higher and poverty was 3.3% lower.
The previous estimates were spot on for those under 65, with median household income showing a slight difference of -0.1% in the corrected data. But for the 65-and-older group, household income was $55,610 vs. $43,700, a 27.3% difference.
Elderly Poverty Still a Problem
The Census Bureau has reported that the poverty rate increased since the 2020 survey, rising from 9.5% in 2020 up to 10.7% in 2021. It was not clear if the new wellbeing analysis would change that figure.
The bureau attributed the recent rise in elderly poverty to the COVID pandemic because older people were not eligible for as many pandemic benefits as they left the labor force with dim hopes of returning to work. Inflation has also had a disproportionally larger effect on seniors’ lower income.
Even if seniors were doing better than expected in 2018, they had a tough time during the pandemic. Teresa Ghilarducci, an economics professor at the New School who studies retirement policy, said the skyrocketing rate of early retirement will set older Americans back economically, especially poorer people with fewer resources.
As Congress grapples with an expected Social Security shortfall, Republican legislators are looking at raising the full retirement age, which is now 67 for those born 1960 and later.
The Republican Study Committee released an alternative 2023 budget that includes a proposal to ratchet the full retirement age to 70 eventually for people born in 1978 or later. The plan would also raise the qualifying age for Medicare.