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Poverty and Income Maintenance in Old Age: A Cross-National View of Low Income Older Women

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by Timothy M. Smeeding and Susanna Sandstrom November 2004

WP#2004-29  

Abstract

Over the past 40 years, great strides have been made in reducing poverty among the elderly in most rich countries. Pensioner poverty, however, has not been eradicated, especially in the Anglo-speaking nations. Poverty rates among older women are much higher than those for older men and much higher in the United States compared to other nations. In general, poverty rates rise with both age and changes in living arrangements, though living alone has a greater effect for women. Poverty rates among older women are highest among the divorced, widowed, and never married (all of which are also expected to rise significantly over the next decades). The challenge is to design retirement benefit systems that guarantee a minimum standard of living for all elderly women, while also preserving incentives for self financed retirement.

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Timothy M. Smeeding is the Maxwell Professor of Public Policy and the Project Director of the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS). Susanna Sandstrom is a Research Associate at the World Institute for Development Economic Research (WIDER) and LIS. The research reported herein was performed pursuant to a grant from the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College (CRR). The opinions and conclusions are solely those of the authors and should not be construed as representing the opinions or policy of SSA or any agency of the Federal Government or the CRR. The authors would like to thank Nancy Folbre and Gary Burtless for their comments on an earlier draft. They would also like to thank Mary Santy and Kati Foley for manuscript preparation. Please send comments to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .