Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 18, 1993 TAG: 9306180140
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Those are the principal findings of the largest federal study of Americans approaching retirement ever undertaken, covering 12,600 people. It was released Thursday by the National Institute on Aging, the University of Michigan and the Alliance for Aging Research.
"This study is a snapshot of the reality of an older America," said Daniel Perry, Alliance director.
"Millions of Americans in their 50s face an uncertain future," said a spokesman for the NIA, an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. NIA funded the study, which was conducted by the University of Michigan.
The university's F. Thomas Juster, who headed the study, said the findings are not uniformly gloomy. The "fifty-something generation," is "mostly in pretty good shape physically and economically." But he said substantial blocs are not, especially among minority groups.
Juster said that "clearly, most of these people are better off" than their counterparts the same age were decades ago. But it is not certain that they are better prepared to face retirement.
"My hunch is that people at the lower end of the income distribution are worse off than they would have been 15 years ago. It's certain that those at the upper end are better off now than 15 years ago." He said that is because since the 1970s the earnings of the lowest paid have declined while those of the highest paid have risen.
Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that handles medical research, said the evidence of a high incidence of disability among those about to retire is a strong argument to "redouble our efforts on behalf of medical research and prevention."
The survey was taken from early 1992 to early 1993 and was designed to provide information on how to handle the problems of the baby-boom generation when it reaches retirement age. The same people surveyed in 1992 will be resurveyed over the next 12 years.
Among the study's key findings:
Median household income was $37,500 per year. Net assets, including equity in a home and cars, totalled about $80,000. But Juster said "two of every 10" households interviewed had no net assets.
Two of every five people interviewed had no expectation of receiving pension income of any type other than Social Security; expectations were greatest among whites and high-income people.
Two of every three said their health was excellent or good; but 20 percent described themselves as disabled, and in many cases that was given as a reason for early retirement. One-third of the disabled worked.
by CNB