Benefits for individual retired workers and couples now approaching retirement age

The first article in this issue of the Bulletin provides information on women and couples who were receiving retired-worker benefits in 1976. This article updates that information, focusing on potential full retired-worker benefits earned by men and women who will be reaching retirement age in the early 1980s. It is estimated that an increasing proportion of married women will become insured for benefits in their own right. Among female workers, the highest benefits are projected for those who never married. Divorced women show the next highest benefits, widowed woman are next, and then married women. Comparisons between men and women show little difference between the average benefits for those who never married; benefits for divorced women are projected to be about 80 percent of the benefits of divorced men; retired-worker benefits for married women are 58 percent as high as those for married men. This article also gives estimates of combined benefits for couples in which both husbands and wives will be insured workers. The highest average benefits are for couples in which the wife would be dually entitled; the lowest benefits are for couples in which the wife would receive only a spouse benefit.