(4/8/99)
A new study shows the percentage of Utah's elderly living in poverty is
not as great as orginally thought.
Charles Sherrill reports from our exclusive Washington bureau.
The Social Security check is the economic life preserver that keeps
11.4 million elderly Americans financially afloat according to census data
analyzed
by an advocacy group for the poor:
Robert Greenstein, of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, says, "Social
Security raises out of poverty more than one of every three elderly Americans."
The group says elderly widows are by far the most financially fragile
beneficiaries.
Wendell Primus, Director of Income Security at the Center on budget and policy
priorities, says "Seventy-three percent of widows in this country rely upon
Social Security for over half their income."
Social Security has lowered the poverty rate among elderly women in Utah from
44 percent to eight percent, according to the study.
It's credited with reducing the total number of Utah's elderly living in
poverty from 72,000 to only 11,000.
Created 64 years ago as part of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal,
Social Security has helped millions of American couples enjoy an economically
independent retirement.
"We have achieved almost zero poverty among married elderly individuals,"
Primus said.
With more children than elderly now living in poverty some argue
that President Clinton's campaign to "save Social Security first" is morally
misguided.
"There ought to be a priority on doing things to reduce poverty among children
but so also should there be one on elderly widows," Greenstein says.
Social Security's defenders say it represents a committment. The elderly were
told they could count on a payback of their lifelong contributions to the
system.
The threshold for poverty is defined as $7,700 a year for an elderly individual
or $9,700 a year for a married elderly couple.
