Elderly women outliving men, savings accounts

Many, who live longer than men by a 2-1 ratio, drain retirement and live on Social Security.

Bill Lackey Lucille King, 86, has been in Villa Springfield for three years. STAFF PHOTO BY BILL LACKEY

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By Cornelius Frolik, Staff Writer Updated 7:51 AM Monday, June 13, 2011

SPRINGFIELD — Elderly women often outlive their male counterparts, but they also risk outliving the retirement funds they need to maintain their lifestyles.

Older women, who almost outnumber elderly men by a 2-to-1 ratio in the Miami Valley, depend on Social Security to provide as much as 90 percent of their income when they can no longer sustain their normal lives with the retirement money they have left.

Because women live longer, Social Security is the only thing standing between as many as 40 percent of area women 65 and older and poverty, policy researchers said.

In the six-county region, about 106,335 women 65 and older receive Social Security, compared to 80,195 men in the same age group, according to 2009 federal data.

Researchers said the trend of women outliving their retirement savings, which is largely attributable to differences in work history and life spans, can carry significant economic consequences.

The employees at Villa Springfield at 701 Villa Road see this all too often.

“They come in just for short term rehab, but don’t have any progress and can’t go home,” said Michelle Hemphill, Villa Springfield marketing director. More than 60 percent of their residents are women. “We help them apply for Medicaid, but sometimes they have to cash in life insurance, sell property, or go down to living on $40 a month just to stay here.”

Many times, these women come with their spouse’s insurance and don’t realize what the benefits are and how quickly they run out.

“For that generation, it was the man’s job to deal with that,” Hemphill said.

Lucille King, 86, of Enon is a Villa Springfield’s resident, and one of about 37,030 women in the six-county region who are 80 and older. U.S. Census data shows that there are only about 20,905 male residents in the same age group.

For many women like King, Social Security is now her only source of income. King did work and paid into her husband’s retirement insurance, but when he passed three years ago, that money stopped coming.

Since women tend to live more years in retirement than men, they have a greater chance of exhausting all sources of income except Social Security, said Doug Nguyen, the Social Security Administration’s deputy regional communications director for six states, including Ohio.

In Ohio, Social Security dramatically reduces poverty rates for women 65 and older from 53 to 10 percent, according to the National Women’s Law Center. The poverty rate for male senior citizens is 6 percent in Ohio, but it would be 44 percent without the program.

Gender differences  in work trends

Women, on average, accumulate less income than men in retirement because they are more likely to work part-time jobs, interrupt their careers to care for elderly family members and take an extended break from work to raise children, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Women also earn about 77 percent of what men earn, according to census data.

As a result, women, on average, work 12 fewer years than men, which gives them less time to save money, receive promotions and raises and pay into Social Security, Cindy Hounsell, president of the nonprofit Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement.

Women also live longer than men, which means they often incur more medical costs and have more time to deplete their retirement savings.

The average life expectancy of women 65 years old is about 20 years, compared to 17.7 years for men of the same age, according to the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2008, 76 percent of women over the age of 85 were widowed, compared to only 38 percent of men, said the Federal Interagency Forum on Aging-Related Statistics.

Between 2007 and 2009, the average age of death in Montgomery County was 76.1 for females and 68.7 for males, according to Public Health — Dayton & Montgomery County.

Some turn to Medicaid until Soc. Sec. kicks in

When King first came to Villa Springfield in 2008, she was also dealing with the cost of care for her husband, who was in the hospital.

“But I was worse off than I thought I was, so I started applying for Medicaid,” she said.

And when her husband passed while she was at Villa, Medicaid allowed her to stay and get the care she needed, and Social Security is now her sole income.

Social Security is the only source of income for about 30 percent of unmarried women 65 and older, compared to 25 percent of unmarried men in the same age group. The estimates include widows.

Social Security represents about half of the total income for about 80 percent of unmarried women 65 and older, compared to only 65 percent of their male counterparts.

Expert: Plan ahead for longer life expectancy

Hounsell, with the Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement, said many women do not financially prepare for retirement, but even those who do often only save in expectation of living to 80 or 85. She said this means they run the risk of going broke when they live into their 90s or beyond.

“Women live longer and have chronic illnesses that are far more expensive,” she said.

Ashley Hartman, Villa Springfield director of social services, said planning for illnesses and care and looking at insurance and medicare early can help offset some of the largest costs.

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