Estimates of unreported asset income in the survey of consumer finances and the relative importance of Social Security benefits to the elderly.

Throughout the 1990s and the early 2000s, the Social Security Administration’s publication Income of the Population 55 or Older has reported a decline in the proportion of the elderly receiving asset income and a corresponding rise in the proportion of the elderly receiving all of their income from Social Security. The decrease in receipt of asset income is puzzling because greater numbers of people were participating in a booming financial market.1 Thus one would expect that a greater proportion of the elderly would have asset income and a smaller proportion would receive all of their income from Social Security. Because retirement income ideally is composed of multiple sources of income (savings, pensions, and Social Security), the elderly receiving all of their income from any single source of income are deemed to be economically vulnerable. The Social Security Administration is thus particularly concerned about beneficiaries whose only source of income is their Social Security benefits.