Industry News

On August 4, 2022, the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) released its issue brief, Staying Optimistic: Elderly Americans’ Retirement Expectations Remain Uninterrupted Despite COVID-19 Impact. The brief reports on the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the working and financial situations of Americans in 2020. In addition, it discusses their decisions on retirement and Social Security claiming ages. Based on EBRI’s 2020 Health and Retirement Study (HRS), COVID-19 significantly affected elderly Americans’ work and financial situations. However, their retirement expectations remained unchanged.

According to the 2020 HRS, about 60% of the respondents reported that their work was affected by COVID-19; 55% had to stop working entirely; 15% lost their job permanently; and about 20% indicated that their work became harder or more risky or dangerous. However, about 76% of the respondents reported that their financial situation remained the same and 60% stated that their household spending remained unchanged in 2020.

Although many HRS respondents indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic affected their work and financial situations, most elderly American adults did not significantly adjust their retirement expectations, including planned retirement age and Social Security benefit claiming age. 

The report summary is available here.