National Academy of Social Insurance: More than Five Million Children Rely on Social Security 2/26/2003
From: Jill Braunstein or Catherine Hill, 202-452-8097; e-mail: jillbraun@nasi.org both of the National Academy of Social Insurance WASHINGTON, Feb. 26 -- Although Social Security is best known as a retirement program, it also supports millions of children according to a new brief, Children's Stake in Social Security, issued by the non-partisan National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI). Significant findings of the study include the following: -- More American children are supported by Social Security than by the traditional welfare program for poor families. More than five million children under the age of 18-about 7 percent of all youngsters-get part of their family income from Social Security. The welfare program provides money for about four million children. -- Three million children receive Social Security themselves, and another two million live with family members who receive Social Security. Most of the children getting Social Security are dependents of a disabled worker (46 percent) or survivors of a worker who has died (45 percent). A smaller number (9 percent) are the children of retired workers. -- Social Security helps many low-income children. Just over one in three children in families receiving Social Security is poor or near-poor, with incomes below 125 percent of the poverty line. -- Social Security faces a long-term financial shortfall, and changes in benefits and revenues are being debated. The impact of Social Security reform on children merits more attention as the reform debate moves forward. The study was conducted by Catherine Hill, Director of Income Security, and Virginia Reno, Vice President for Research, at the National Academy of Social Insurance, under a grant from The Foundation for Child Development. The report is available online at http://www.nasi.org. --- The National Academy of Social Insurance is a non-profit, non-partisan organization made up of the nation's leading experts on social insurance. Its mission is to promote understanding and informed policy-making on social insurance and related programs through research, public education, training, and the open exchange of ideas. Social insurance encompasses broad-based systems for insuring workers and their families against economic insecurity caused by loss of income from work and the cost of health care. NASI's scope covers social insurance such as Social Security; Medicare; workers' compensation; and unemployment insurance, related public assistance, and private employee benefits. |