You are here: Social Security Administration > Research, Statistics & Policy Analysis > Population Profile: Never Beneficiaries, Aged 60–89, 2015
Population Profiles
- Child Beneficiaries
& Poverty - Fully Insured
Workers - Marital Status
& Poverty - Middle Class
Beneficiaries - Never
Beneficiaries - Taxable Maximum
Earners - Veteran
Beneficiaries
Never Beneficiaries, Aged 60 or Older, 2020
Released: August 2021Next expected update: 2023
- About 3.5 percent of the total population aged 60 or older never receive Social Security benefits.
- Late-arriving immigrants and infrequent workers:
- comprise 86 percent of never beneficiaries, and
- have the highest poverty rates among never beneficiaries.
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Characteristic | Never beneficiaries | Current and future beneficiaries |
---|---|---|
Number of beneficiaries | 2.4 million | 69.9 million |
Women | 64% | 53% |
Race/ethnicity | ||
White | 40% | 76% |
Black | 11% | 10% |
All other races | 23% | 5% |
Hispanic origin | 26% | 9% |
Never married | 21% | 6% |
Widowed | 21% | 17% |
Less than high school education | 34% | 9% |
Poverty rate | 54% | 6% |
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Group | Percentage of never beneficiaries in group |
---|---|
Late-arriving immigrants: Immigrants who arrive at age 50 or later and have insufficient earnings to qualify for Social Security. | 45.8 |
Infrequent workers: Individuals who have insufficient earnings to qualify for Social Security, but are not late-arriving immigrants. | 39.6 |
Non-covered workers: Individuals with sufficient earnings, but who work in non-covered employment (primarily state and local government employees). | 13.4 |
Die before receiving benefits: Individuals who are projected to be eligible for Social Security benefits, but die before receiving them. | 1.2 |
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Group | Percentage in poverty |
---|---|
Infrequent workers | 67.2 |
Late-arriving immigrants | 57.3 |
Non-covered workers | 8.9 |
Die before receiving benefits | 8.1 |
SOURCE: Modeling Income in the Near Term, Version 8 (MINT8) microsimulation model using 2019 Trustees Report intermediate assumptions.