With new Social Security reform proposed, it is eminent that this will effect the Black community somewhere down the line, and where it pertains to Black single female-headed households, maybe getting married would be a better option.

Not to suggest that marrying for benefits is a wise choice, but understanding that marriage is always a better option than being single for many reasons. Raising children, companionship, even business and tax breaks, are all reasons for abandoning the "independent" mind-set and settling with a mate.

Because Social Security is a mandatory government garnishment from one's wages, when a couple marries, the system benefits the couple more than it does a single or divorced person because of prolonged benefits after a spouses' death, depending on how long they are married.

According to studies, "women are much more likely than men to live in poverty at older ages. Recent research show that increasing survivor benefits in Social Security would raise income for older and widowed women, but if these increases are not capped much of the additional resources would go to high-income women. In addition, these reforms would not benefit women who never marry."

Extending benefits to the surviving spouse would help keep more women - who have longer life spans - out of poverty at an elderly age, and vise-versa in a man's case. Plus, when there are two people sharing life, there is a better chance that more money can be saved in personal accounts instead of depending on Social Security at all.

Divorce, is another obstacle leading into old age. If a person divorces after years of marriage, there is a greater chance they will live in poverty unless they remarry or have a lucrative investment plan to fall back on. And since the divorce rate in America has doubled in the last two decades, there are more people as a whole falling to poverty in their old age.

More research says, "Fully one in five older divorced women lived in poverty in 2000. It is projected that the share of older women who are divorced will grow over time, rising from 13 percent for those born between 1931 and 1935 to 20 percent for those born between 1956 and 1960…One-third of divorced women in the younger group will not be able to collect Social Security benefits through their former husbands' employment, because their marriages will not have lasted 10 or more years. It is predicted that divorced women will continue to receive lower income in retirement than other groups."

In the case of single women it gets worse. Again, unless that woman has a sound financial plan for her retirement, as in savings outside of Social Security, it is a good chance she will end up in a state of poverty. "Single mothers face special economic challenges in old age, because they often have limited employment histories and cannot rely on husbands for financial support."

Young Black women who are single today and are confident in themselves, as their own sole provider should consider her options as to what would be reasonable in the long-term. As Black people, we must try harder to stay together not only for the sake of family, but also for the sake of the family's financial future.

Our children depend on us to lay aside a comfortable footing that would provide them with the financial means to meet life's challenges. To throw aside the future with the visions of independence and self-sufficiency is a gamble. Marriages work better all around. Though the woman's movement was strong during it hey-day, time has proven through numbers that poverty has become the result.

"Research shows that women who spent at least 10 years raising children outside of marriage are five times more likely to live in poverty at older ages than women who were continuously married when their children were young. However, recent increases in employment among young single mothers are likely to improve their future retirement prospects."

Improvement in retirement for young single mothers is a situation unknown because only time can unveil what has happened in the past. And since now we are living on the onset of high rates of single mothers and new Social Security reform, no research can yet determine what the outcome will be. Marriage is always the safer alternative because companionship is stronger than aloneness.

Source From: http://www.urban.org/

© 2005 by CR Hamilton