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Social Security Reform: A Budget Neutral Approach To Reducing Older Women's Disproportional Risk Of Poverty, Richard V. Burkhauser, Timothy M. Smeeding

Center for Policy Research

Perhaps the single greatest achievement of social policy in the United States over the last three decades has been reducing poverty in old age. The transition from work to retirement is no longer economically perilous for the vast majority of older American workers. For most married couples, the risk of falling into poverty even several years after retirement is small. But when one partner of the marriage dies, the survivor faces another much more risky economic transition. The single greatest risk of falling into poverty in old age now comes after the death of a spouse, as the survivor faces …