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Raising Retirement Age Would Widen Benefit Disparities for Disadvantaged
The age to receive full Social Security benefits should be closer to 70, according to a report published in the journal Daedalus. “We’re living longer and healthier than ever before, but the statutory age of retirement for receiving Social Security benefits doesn’t reflect that,” says lead author S. Jay Olshansky, professor of epidemiology in the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health. When Social Security was enacted in 1935, the age of full retirement was set at 65. Back then, a 25-year-old had a 62.4 percent chance of living to retirement age, and a 65-year-old retiree lived, on average, for another 12.6 years. “If we calculated retirement age using the same ratio of retired to working years present in 1935, the age of eligibility for full benefits today would be close to 70 years old, and the age for early retirement would be 66.5 years old,” Olshansky said. “But raising the age of retirement would further exacerbate disparities in Social Security entitlements and place increased financial burdens on populations with lower life expectancies.” Read More…