Urban Institute Research Assess Impact of Raising Social Security Retirement Age

Research from the Urban Institute's Retirement Policy Project looking into proposals that would raise the age at which workers can first receive Social Security retirement benefits suggests that lifetime benefits for all groups would be lower, but less so for those with lower lifetime earnings and less education. However, it would push more retirees into poverty: raising the age to 69, for example, would increase the share of retirees with incomes below the wage-indexed poverty level in 2050 from 14.4% under the current system to 16.2% percent, an increase of 1.5 million people.

The Urban Institute's research is included in five separate research briefs. One--"How Long Do Boomers Plan to Work?" by Gordon Mermin, Richard W. Johnson, and Dan Murphy--finds that as boomers approach retirement, "they intend to work longer than people born a dozen years earlier did, a shift that will help promote economic growth and partly offset the economic pressures created by an aging population." Among workers ages 51-56 in 2004, 51% said they expect to work past age 62, up from 47% among comparable workers in 1992.

The other four reports are:

• "Would Raising the Social Security Retirement Age Harm Low-Income Groups?"
• "Minimum Benefits in Social Security: Design Details Matter"
• "Minimum Benefits in Social Security Could Reduce Aged Poverty"
• "Racial Differences in Baby Boomers' Retirement Expectations"

Source: Urban Institute Press Release (January 30, 2007)