Old-Age and Survivors Insurance: Employment of Aged-Widow Beneficiaries Before Receipt of First Benefit

T HRBE out of every 10 persons aged 65 and over in the United States are widows. The lower mortality rate of women compared with that of men, the fact that on the aarerage wives are younger than their husbands, and the lengthening life expectancy of the population, all combine to increase the importance of widowhood as a problem in old age. Recognition of this problem led Congress in 1939 to provide widow’s benefits under old-age and survivors insurance. Widows whose husbands die fully insured are eligible, if aged 65 or over, to receive benefits threefourths as large as the husband’s primary insurance amount. Most widows, however, are under age 65 when they lose their husbands. Half the women becoming widows in an average year are under age 56; a fourth of them are under age 45.’ Widows under age 65 who are mothers with children under age 18 in their care and whose husbands were fully or currently insured when they died are eligible for mother’s benefits. The mother’s benefits are payable while the widow remains unmarried but only until the youngest child reaches age 18. The widow then receives no benefits under the program until she reaches age 65, when, if her husband died fully insured, she becomes eligible for widow’s benefits. Thus between the time the youngest child reaches age 18 and the time the widow reaches age 65, no monthly beneAts are payable to the widow under the program. Women who are under age 65 when they are widowed and who do not have minor children in their care are not eligible for