Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 17 February 2000 — Page 9

The Muncie Times, Febuary 17, 2000, page 9

SOCIAL SECURITY

Polls show blacks need more Social Security information

By James Warner, Social Security manager in Muncie A recent survey done by the Social Security Administration, in collaboration with the Gallup Organization, revealed that, while many African Americans have a good understanding of the basic concepts of Social Security, only 41 percent can be considered “knowledgea-ble” about Social Security, compared with an overall public understanding level of 55 percent. African Americans surveyed correctly answered questions about how the amount of Social Security benefits depends on how much a worker earns, that Social Security pays benefits to workers who have become disabled and that Social Security provides benefits to the dependents of workers who die. Nevertheless, the survey found that African Americans had a lower knowledge of specific program features, such as the age for early retirement (reduced) benefits, and the age for receiving full benefits. Such information is considered important for retirement planing. Survey participants who were younger, and persons with lower income were less knowledgeable about Social Security than older and more affluent persons. This appears to be the case with African Americans, who are younger (20 percent were under 30 years of age compared to 15 percent of the general population), and had less income (37 percent had household incomes under $20,000 compared to 23 percent of the total public). The Social Security Administration conducted the survey last year to determine how knowledgeable the public is about Social Security. The Social Security Administration hopes to raise the level of knowledge among all groups in the coming years through public education efforts. The idea is that the more people know about Social Security, the better they can plan for their financial futures and benefit from the programs that Social Security offers. Social Security is particularly important to African Americans. With

lower wages and less pension coverage, African Americans are more likely to rely on Social Security as their sole source of income. Studies reveal that African Americans are more likely to qualify for disability and survivors programs. While African Americans are 13 percent of the population, about 25 percent of children receiving Social Security survivors benefits at the death of a parent are African Americans; 18 percent of disabled workers are African Americans. For more information about Social Security, call Social Security toll-free at 1-800-772-1213. Or you can visit the Internet at www.ssa.gov., our website. Why Social Security is Important to African Americans • Social Security is important to everyone, but it is especially significant to African Americans as a group. Social Security is a race-neutral program. In other words, individuals who are in identical life and income situations are treated the same, no matter what race they are. Groups characterized by different life and income situations will see different results from Social Security, again, no matter what their race. African Americans as a group tend to have lower earnings and less pension coverage throughout their working lives than whites. And they are less likely to receive retirement income from sources other than Social Security. For example, while 43 percent of whites have pensions in addition to their Social Security, only 32 percent of African Americans have non-Social Security pensions. Elderly whites are more often than twice as likely to have income from assets than their African American peers. Because African Americans tend to have fewer resources outside of Social Security, the program in general is a critical part of their income. And there are certain elements to Social Security that are especially relevant to African Americans. These include the nonretirement elements of the program. For example, African Americans generally have lower life expectancies

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