Hispanics’ Understanding of Social Security and the Implications for Retirement Security: A Qualitative Study

Hispanics’ Understanding of Social Security and the Implications for Retirement Security: A Qualitative Study

Lila Rabinovich, Janice Peterson, and Barbara A. Smith

Journal paper

Social Security Bulletin

2017

Hispanics constitute the nation's largest minority group, and the Census Bureau projects the Hispanic share of both the overall and the retirement-age U.S. population to increase substantially in the next three decades. Compared with other racial/ethnic groups, Hispanic adults have the lowest rates of high school and college graduation, are more concentrated in low-wage jobs, and have lower incomes and health insurance coverage. However, Hispanics’ life expectancy is greater than that of other population groups. These trends underscore the importance of effective outreach to Hispanics to improve their understanding of Social Security and to enhance their retirement security overall. In this article, we examine Social Security literacy and preferred ways of receiving information about the program. We assemble focus groups of three ancestries (Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban) and of English and Spanish speakers. We report the differences and the similarities in the results among these ancestry and primary-language subgroups.