Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Economic Status Of The Elderly: Is The Problem Low Income?, John B. Williamson

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The thesis of this paper is that poverty among the elderly is increasingly becoming a problem of relative as opposed to absolute economic deprivation. Many of the elderly (persons age 65 and over) are oppressed by the absolute poverty they must endure, but for most of those for whom inadequate income is a source of concern, the real problem seems to be relative economic deprivation. If present trends continue this will be increasingly the case in future years.