Guyanese Online

A ‘now hiring’ sign is seen outside a restaurant in Arlington, Virginia.

When Covid-19 hit the US, Rios was one of thousands of workers in the food service industry who were furloughed, and was only recalled back to work a few months ago. While receiving unemployment assistance, Rios and her husband had to rely on food banks to have enough food to eat, and because she lost her health insurance along with her job, she had to skip cancer treatments until she was able to get Medicare, but still paid hundreds of dollars out of pocket for treatments.       

‘I can’t live on $709 a month’: Americans on social security push for its expansion

Her situation means that at a time when many might assume she should be enjoying a well-earned rest, she is still forced to work.

“At 75 years old, I’m forced to still have to work to try to make ends meet. The healthcare the company provides is way too expensive and they’ve yet to provide a more affordable health insurance plan,” said Rios, who pays about $200 a month for her health insurance. “ It’s also very important for people to be able to have a pension too, to be able to retire with dignity so people aren’t forced to be in a position where I am right now, 75 years old and still having to work”.

She even recently went on strike with her co-workers for 10 days, fighting for higher wages, more affordable healthcare and a pension.

Media reports of older workers have often been framed as feel-good stories, such as a viral news report of an 89-year-old pizza delivery man who received a $12,000 tip raised by a customer out of remorse, as he works 30 hours a week because he can’t afford to retire on social security benefits alone. Or an 84-year-old woman who started a new job as a motel housekeeper in Maine in July 2020. Or an 81-year-old woman in Ohio who volunteered to start working at her favorite restaurant in November 2021 because it shut down temporarily due to an inability to hire and retain enough staff.

But the grim reality is millions of Americans are working into their senior years because they can’t afford not to have a job.

Over the next decade, the number of workers ages 75 and older is expected to increase in the US by 96.5%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with their labor force participation rate projected to rise from 8.9% in 2020 to 11.7% by 2030, a rate that has steadily increased from 4.7% in 1996.

By 2040, the US population of adults ages 65 and older is expected to increase to 80.8 million from 54.1 million in 2019.

The number of workers who retired during the pandemic was about 2 million more than expected. 50.3% of US adults ages 55 and older said they were out of the labor force due to retirement in the third quarter of 2021, compared to 48.1% in the third quarter of 2019, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center. Though in recent months, the unretirement rate of US workers has gradually increased toward pre-pandemic levels.

As the ageing US population grows, participation in retirement plans has declined since 2000. Nearly half of all families in the US have no retirement savings at all and inequality among Americans based on retirement savings is greater than income inequality. Over 15 million adults ages 65 and older are economically insecure, with incomes below 200% of the federal poverty line, with Black, Hispanic and women ages 65 and older more likely to live in poverty.

“I have no savings, no assets, I don’t even own the home I’ve been renting for 15 years,” said Dr Lisa Natale, 65, a chiropractor in Hawaii who put herself through school as a single mother. “There’s no way I could afford to retire.”

With the average estimated social security retirement benefit in 2021 at $1,543 a month, even with a 5.9% cost of living adjusted increase for 2022, millions of Americans who rely on social security benefits are forced to continue working past retirement age in order to make ends meet.

Kathy Luebbe, a 69-year-old teacher in the Cincinnati, Ohio, area, has continued working through retirement age because social security benefits and her partial pension only provide $2,600 a month, which is not enough to cover her bills and student loan payments.

“I have to work just to keep paying my regular bills,” said Luebbe.

Ted Newman of Columbus, Ohio, is a retired state government employee, but continued working full-time through his retirement, along with his wife, for the past eight years.

“I have been working full-time for the last 8 years since retiring, and my wife also. Her yearly salary went almost completely to pay student debt and I worked to have extras for the home,” said Newman.

When Covid-19 hit, his wife stopped working and he shifted to part-time due to health conditions. They paid about $1,000 toward parent plus loans for their daughter’s tuition for years, but still owe the principal of the loan.

“Now our income is cut in half and our loans will be coming due again in 2022,” added Newman. “I can’t live long enough to pay the debt and plan to let it go to default because I can’t afford to pay it any more.”

As the US population ages, with millions of Americans having no retirement savings, the number of older Americans with student debt, either for themselves or for children, is on the rise.

Nearly 9 million Americans ages 50 and older still have student debt, and the amount owed by this demographic is growing faster than any other age group. In 2015, 40,000 Americans had their social security retirement benefits garnished for student loans.

Jane Switchenko, 63, of Massachusetts, and her 68-year-old husband cannot afford to retire, in part because of parent plus student loans they took out for their children to attend college.

“My husband and I must work until we die. Parent plus loans take over $1,000 a month, every month, for a decade now and we continue to see a rising balance,” said Switchenko. “Not only can we not retire, we cannot afford to fix our old house – we are desperate for new windows, have a leaking chimney and need new electrical work done.”

She added: “We work hard. We are frugal, but we’re getting up there and have nothing to look forward to because of these loans. We have five grandchildren and don’t know what we’ll be able to buy for Christmas.”

• This article was written with the support of a journalism fellowship from the Gerontological Society of America, the Journalists Network on Generations and the RRF Foundation for Aging