Demographic and economic characteristics of nonbeneficiary widows: an overview.

This article is the first in a series of reports on young survivors. It analyzes the characteristics of widows under age 60 without dependent children-women who thus were ineligible for monthly social security benefits-after I year of widowhood. The data source is a Social Security Administration mail survey of 3,000 women widowed in 1977. The women were found to have a higher average age and somewhat less education than women under age 60 in the general population. Three-fourths had received a lump sum from a life insurance policy. Their income was generally low: An overall annual median of $6,144 was found. One-fourth of the total sample and almost half of those not working had incomes below the poverty level. Poverty was associated with labor-force status rather than with age, and earnings were by far the most important source of income. Work before the death of the husband was strongly associated with current employment: The median duration of such experience was 7.6 years for those who were not employed and 17.2 years for those who were working. Pension benefits based on the work of the late husband ranked far behind earnings as an “income source” but increased in significance with the age of the widow.