Spouse and Survivor Benefits

Abstract

Recommendations by the HEW Task Force on the Treatment of Women under Social Security indicate that dependent's benefits paid to aged wives and widows of retired workers may be altered, if not eliminated for future cohorts of retirees. The impact of their elimination will depend on the characteristics of persons who would otherwise have been eligible to receive these benefits. Spouse and widow benefits were initially enacted to transfer income to these presumably needy groups. Thus, the appropriate test of these benefits' fulfilling the original antipoverty goals of their passage is the extent to which they are available to relatively low-income aged. This paper examines the income redistributional effects of the additional benefits available to wives and widows, above those for which they are eligible as retired workers. The results show that additional benefits paid to wives do not target aged poor couples and cannot be justified on antipoverty grounds.