The Elder Index – a tool from the National Council on Aging that looks at the true cost of how much seniors need to afford basic living expenses. Reporters can share Elder Index data on the state of senior economic insecurity in your state
The 2019 Elder Index and a companion report, Insecurity in the States 2019, calculates the elder economic “insecurity rate” both nationally and on a state-by-state basis. Researchers tracking the economic security of America’s older adults have found that half who live alone and nearly a quarter of those living in two-person households where both are age 65 or older are unable to afford basic necessities without extra assistance. The new index data and report were produced by the Gerontology Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston’s McCormack Graduate School.
The Growing Gap in Life Expectancy by Income
Income disparities affect people at every stage of life — including how long they live and how well of they are in retirement. People who are better-educated and earn higher incomes live longer, on average, than those with less education and lower incomes. The gap between high and low earners is widening, according to a September 2015 report from the The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
The report found that high earners have disproportionately received larger lifetime benefits from government programs such as Social Security and Medicare, primarily because of a longer life span. “The Growing Gap in Life Expectancy by Income”, offers the first comprehensive estimates of how lifetime benefits are affected by the changing distribution of life expectancy and how the growing gap in longevity affects traditional policy analyses of reforms to the nation’s leading entitlement programs. Skim the contents here or download a complete PDF version here.