Most people aged 65 and older receive the majority of their income from Social Security. Without Social Security benefits, 38.7 percent of older adults would have incomes below the official poverty line, all else being equal; with Social Security benefits, only 10.2 percent do.  The benefits lift 16.5 million older adults above the poverty line, these estimates show.

Comprehensive studies that match Census survey data to administrative records suggest that the official estimates overstate older adults’ reliance on Social Security but confirm that Social Security lifts millions of older adults above the poverty line and dramatically reduces the poverty rate among people aged 65 and older. Social Security Lifts 900,000 Children Above the Poverty Line
Social Security is important for children and their families as well as for older adults. About 5.7 million children under age 18 (9 percent of all children in the U.S.) lived in families that received income from Social Security in 2022, according to Census data. This figure includes children who received their own benefits as dependents of retired, disabled, or deceased workers, as well as those who lived with parents or relatives who received Social Security. In all, Social Security lifts 900,000 children above the poverty line.

Social Security records show that 2.6 million children under age 18 qualified for Social Security payments in December 2022. Of these children, 1.3 million were the survivor of a deceased worker. Another 1.0 million received payments because their parent had a severe disability. And 322,000 children under 18 received payments because their parent was retired.

Social Security is especially important for women and people of color. Women tend to earn less than men, take more time out of the paid workforce, live longer, accumulate less savings, and receive smaller pensions. Social Security brings 9.4 million older women above the poverty line.

Black and Latino workers benefit substantially from Social Security because they have higher disability rates and lower lifetime earnings than white workers, on average. In addition, Black workers have higher rates of premature death than white workers, and so their spouses and children are more likely to be eligible for Social Security survivor benefits. Latino workers have longer average life expectancies than white workers, which means they have more years to collect retirement benefits. Without Social Security, the poverty rate among older Latino adults would be 43 percent, and the poverty rate among older Black adults would be 47.4 percent.
Social Security lifts more than 1 million older adults above the poverty line in Florida, California, and Texas, and over half a million in New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Michigan.

If Social Security did not exist, many individuals aged 65 or older likely would have saved somewhat more and worked somewhat longer, and many might live with their adult children rather than in their own households. Other studies confirm, however, that Social Security has made a very large contribution to reducing poverty and that cutting Social Security benefits could substantially increase poverty among older adults.
*** A 2017 study by Adam Bee and Joshua Mitchell of the Census Bureau matched the CPS survey responses used for official poverty statistics to administrative data from the Social Security Administration (SSA), the Internal Revenue Service, and other government sources.They found that official estimates overstate older adults’ reliance on Social Security and poverty rates among older adults, but confirmed that Social Security lifts millions of adults aged 65 and older above the poverty line and dramatically reduces the poverty rate among these adults. They did not find significant underreporting of income among people of working age. Further study has confirmed their findings using more recent data, but Bee and Mitchell’s study remains the most comprehensive analysis.
Bee and Mitchell’s study confirms Social Security’s large effect on poverty among older adults, but the enhanced data reduce both the poverty rate for these adults and the number of older adults lifted above the poverty line, compared to the official measures. The study estimates an elderly poverty rate in 2012 of nearly 7 percent, rather than the official rate of 9 percent. It also estimates that Social Security lifted about 3 in 10 older people — 10 million — above the poverty line, about one-third lower than official estimates.

The study also confirms that Social Security remains the foundation of retirement income. It is the largest single source of income for older adults, providing the majority of income for half of retirees and at least 90 percent of income for 18 percent of retirees. These rates of reliance are similar to Health and Retirement Survey and Survey of Income and Program Participation estimates.[10] However, they indicate significantly less reliance on Social Security than the CPS alone, which estimated that about 65 percent of older adults received at least half of their income from Social Security and that 36 percent received at least 90 percent. Bee and Mitchell’s study also finds that Supplemental Security Income (SSI) plays a more important role in older adults’ income than official figures suggest, as many older adults with low incomes confuse SSI with Social Security.