Do older Hispanic immigrants receive more from public assistance?

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Sociology
• Public Health

Background:

• Foreign-born adults, including Hispanic individuals, access public benefits less than U.S.-born populations.
• Understanding immigrant underutilization of public benefits and trends is limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the extent of public benefit underutilization by older immigrants.
• To analyze trends in public benefit receipt among immigrants over recent decades.
• To investigate differences in benefit receipt across various public support types.

Main Methods:

• Utilized 1998-2020 data from the Health and Retirement Study.
• Applied structural equation models (SEM) to analyze nativity and ethnicity impacts.
• Examined receipt of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), SNAP, SSI, and welfare benefits.

Main Results:

• Older Hispanic immigrants are less likely to receive SSDI but more likely to receive means-tested benefits due to poverty.
• Public benefit use by older immigrants declined relative to nonimmigrants from 2008-2020.
• This decline was more significant for Hispanic immigrants.

Conclusions:

• Older immigrants may be underutilizing public benefits and are not a disproportionate burden on welfare systems.
• SEM effectively models complex relationships between demographics and benefit outcomes.
• Findings highlight potential disparities in access and utilization of social safety nets for immigrant populations.