Caregiving and women's Social Security benefits: a comment on Kingson and O'Grady-LeShane.
This article re-examines the effects of caregiving on women's Social Security benefits using the New Beneficiary Survey. Total (husband and wife) Social Security benefits to the family, rather than only the women's own benefits, is the appropriate measure for married couples. We find family benefits and family income to be invariant to the number of children. The reduction in own retirement benefits associated with married women's raising children is made up by higher benefits received by their husbands and higher spouse benefits. Furthermore, adjusting Social Security benefits for caregiving dropout years is not an efficient means to improve the economic well-being of poor elderly women.
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, DC 20201.
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D000368:Aged; D017028:Caregivers / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D012179:Retirement / Q000191:economics; D012943:Social Security / Q000191:economics*; D014481:United States; D014930:Women