Safety Nets

Cutting the Social Security COLA by Changing the Way Inflation is Calculated Would Especially Hurt Womenshows that women will be hit hardest by changing the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment from the CPI-W to the “chained CPI”.  This proposed change delivers a triple whammy to women.  Since women live longer than men, they face deeper cuts in their Social Security benefits under the chained CPI because the cuts get larger each year.  Women rely more on income from Social Security than do men, so these cuts would represent a greater share of their total retirement income.  And since older women are already more economically vulnerable than older men, these cuts will leave more of them unable to meet basic needs.

The report finds that single workers need $30,012 a year – nearly twice the federal minimum wage – to cover basic expenses. Single-parents require nearly twice the income ($57,756) to support two children, while dual-income households with children require $67,920.The largest expense for most BEST families is rent and utilities. Other large expenses include transportation, child care and taxes.

From the press release:

“The Public Costs of Births Resulting from Unintended Pregnancies: National and State-Level Estimates,” by Adam Sonfield and colleagues at the Guttmacher Institute, relied on state-level data from 2006 to estimate costs for each state, which were then added together to arrive at a national total. The study found that two-thirds of births resulting from unintended pregnancies—more than one million births—are publicly funded, and the proportion tops 80% in a couple of states. The cost of those births, and the potential gross saving from helping women to avert them, is estimated at $11.1 billion.

http://www.guttmacher.org/media/nr/2011/05/19/index.html