Poster #78 - Left Out After Loss: Unmet Need and the Reach of Social Security Survivor Benefits for Children

• In Event: Saturday Poster Luncheon

Abstract

​In the U.S., 7 percent of children experience the death of a parent before age 18, and exposure is uneven. Children of insured workers are entitled to Social Security survivors benefits with no means test and no recertification, but the program’s reach over time is largely unknown. Take up requires linking a deceased parent’s earnings record to their children, which publicly available data cannot do, and existing estimates are single snapshots. I build an annual coverage index, awards to children under 18 per death of an adult aged 25 to 54, and test it against estimates of bereaved children. A direct check of its one assumption shows the index is conservative. Parental-age death is nearly twice as common in the highest poverty counties as the lowest, and rising. When need increased 40 to 45 percent during the COVID-19 pandemic, awards rose 25 percent, reaching additional bereaved children at six tenths the usual rate.

Author

• Keri Lintz, University of California - Los Angeles
  Presenting Author