EMF23-01: Growing Older and Getting By, With and Without SSI: Qualitative Evidence from the American Voices Project

For decades, qualitative researchers have asked low-income younger adults how they make ends meet. Yet, we know comparatively little about the daily economic lives of an increasingly policy-relevant group: low-income older adults. To date, no qualitative scholarship broadly examines poverty experiences in later life, what leads to them, and how low-income older adults navigate the safety net. One important safety net program is Supplemental Security Income (SSI), but its strict financial and disability eligibility requirements mitigate its poverty-reducing potential. This project uses nationally representative, secondary qualitative interview data from the American Voices Project (AVP) to examine how low income older adults with and without SSI make sense of their economic trajectories and circumstances, deal with the hardships they experience, and understand the role of public programs in their day-to-day lives. I analyze interview data from 40 low-income adults ages 50 and older and compare findings between SSI recipients and non-recipients. In light of recent policy proposals to reform SSI, the findings from this research will be relevant to policymakers wishing to understand how low-income older adults get by, with and without SSI.