wfn.org | Social Security reform could harm women speakers say

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

April 28, 1999	News media contact: Joretta Purdue*(202)546-8722*Washington
10-21-23-71B{238}

by Kelly C. Martini*

WASHINGTON (UMNS) - If not for Social Security, more than half of all women
receiving these benefits would be living below the poverty level, warned a
representative of the Older Women's League (OWL).

Speaking at an April 25 briefing for United Methodist Women from around the
country, Kathryn Stern Ceja, a senior development associate at OWL, urged
women to evaluate carefully the proposals for changes in the program.

"Women in the Social Security program are not a special interest group," she
said. "They are a majority. Sixty percent of all Social Security recipients
at age 65 are women, and that figure increases to 72 percent by the age of
85."

On the average women receive 25 percent less in Social Security payments
that men do because most women have held lower paying joys in service and
clerical field and because most women have taken an average of 11.5 years
out of the workplace to be primary care givers, according to a General
Accounting Office report used in testimony before the House of
Representatives Feb. 3, 1998.

"We need Social Security more," Ceja said. "For many of us, it's our sole
source of income" because many women do not receive pensions. "We have less
money. We live longer. And our return is smaller."

She asserted that the current Social Security system has benefited women by
providing life-time benefits with cost-of-living increases. Supplemental
payments provide assistance for those with lower earnings. It protects women
workers if they become disabled. Older widows or widows with young children
receive benefits if their partner was a participant in the system.

Ceja predicted that privatization of the Social Security system would send
women into poverty. She said women have much smaller savings than men.
Individual accounts would not be indexed to inflation as Social Security
payments are now, and they would be dependent on volatile investment
markets.

"How long are we going to see this boom in the stock market?" she asked.

Edie Rasell, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute, said that even
if Social Security reform is not enacted, the current system is not in
crisis.

The 75-year projection that Social Security trustees are required to publish
indicates that annual income will exceed payments until 2022, when the
government will need to start cashing treasury bonds set aside for that
purpose, she said. In 2034, all treasury bonds will have been spent and tax
revenues will cover 72 percent of benefits. By 2075, income is expected to
cover 67 percent of benefits.

"This is a sign of a very strong program," Rasell said. "It just needs some
fine tuning to ensure we get 100 percent of the benefits."

She suggested that the government avoid privatization and any benefit cuts.
Instead, taxing all earnings, not just those below $72,600, would eliminate
three-quarters of the funding shortfall and make the payroll tax fairer, she
said. To eliminate the remaining shortfall, Rasell proposed using 25 percent
of the federal budget surplus each of the next 15 years.

United Methodist Women, an organization of 1 million women within the United
Methodist Church, fosters spiritual growth, develops leaders and advocates
for social justice. Members raise more than $20 million dollars a year for
programs and projects related to women, children and youth in the United
States and more than 100 countries around the world.

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*Martini is executive secretary for communications with the Women's
Division, Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church.

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