Elderly Less Likely to Have ECONOMIC PROBLEMS.

• Position: Brief Article

American adults generally experience less economic difficulties as they get older, even after they retire, an Ohio State University, Columbus, study revealed. The findings call into question official government statistics that say poverty increases among the elderly.

The study showed that 16% of adults under age 40 reported frequent difficulty paying bills during the past 12 months, compared to six percent of those age 60 and over. Overall, it found economic hardships are highest when people are in their 30s, then drop progressively through the 40s and 50s and into the 60s, then level off.

"Despite low income and high medical needs, we found that America's elderly enjoy lower levels of economic hardship than any other adult age group," notes John Mirowsky, who co-authored the study with Catherine Ross. Both are professors of sociology at the university. The elderly tend to have relatively healthy finances compared to younger adults because of their lack of dependent children and having stable health insurance through programs such as Medicare, accumulated wealth such as homes, and other factors.

Mirowsky and Ross analyzed data from surveys that assessed economic hardship by asking respondents how often in the past year they had trouble paying bills or didn't have enough money to buy household necessities or medical care. This contrasts with official U.S. poverty statistics, which use formulas based on income, number of people in a household, and predicted needs for food and housing to determine who is in poverty. U.S. Bureau of the Census statistics show poverty levels increasing from 7.6% of people age 45 to 54, to 11.5% of those 60 to 64. About 10.8% of those over 65 are below the poverty line.

"The government method sounds sensible, but it doesn't really get at how people are dealing with their economic situation," Mirowsky maintains. "One of the things we found is that there are people who are not poor by the government's definition, but who are having trouble paying their bills."

The biggest factor influencing whether people reported economic hardship was not their income level; it was the presence of...