Social Security Household Benefits: Measuring Program Knowledge

39 Pages Posted: 1 Feb 2019

See all articles by Katherine Grace Carman

Katherine Grace Carman

US Securities and Exchange Commission

Angela Hung

RAND Corporation - Labor and Population

Date Written: September 2018

Abstract

Social Security offers two types of benefits for spouses: spousal and survivor benefits. Regardless of his or her own work history, a married individual can claim spousal Social Security benefits, which are equal to half of his or her spouse’s Social Security benefits. Furthermore, a widow or widower can claim survivor benefits and receive or his or her deceased spouse’s full benefit if it is larger than his or her own benefit. Ideally, married individuals think about the impact of their Social Security choices on their spouse. However, if people do not fully understand the rules for the spousal and survivor benefits, they may make suboptimal choices, not only about Social Security claiming, but perhaps also about labor and marriage decisions. In this paper we make use of new data from the Understanding America Study to assess households’ understanding of these benefits. Overall, our results suggest that knowledge of spousal and survivors benefits is low. Furthermore, our results suggest that people’s perceptions of their knowledge is misaligned with their actual knowledge, with many perceiving that they know more about Social Security than they actually do. The results in this paper suggest particular areas where policymakers might be able to increase knowledge of spousal and survivors benefits. However, future research is needed to better understand how to increase knowledge in this area.

Keywords: social Security, spousal benefits, survivor benefits, claiming

Suggested Citation

Carman, Katherine Grace and Hung, Angela, Social Security Household Benefits: Measuring Program Knowledge (September 2018). Michigan Retirement Research Center Research Paper No. 2018-384, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3322883 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3322883

Katherine Grace Carman (Contact Author)

US Securities and Exchange Commission ( email )

450 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20549-1105
United States

Angela Hung

RAND Corporation - Labor and Population ( email )

United States

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