Retiree Notes: Busting the myth that all Americans are living longer

Photo: Sub-chapter 86 members enjoy the outdoors together.

Busting the myth that all Americans are living longer

Over and over, Americans have been told that the age of access to a full pension or Social Security benefit should be increased because Americans are living longer. 

But not everyone has the means to live as long as some statistics suggest. In the United States, life expectancy is based on wealth, access to health care, demographic factors and location.

“The simple fact is that not all Americans are living longer,” said AFSCME Retirees Chapter 31 President Larry Brown. “If we let this myth propagate, anti-worker and anti-retiree forces will try to use it to increase the age of access to retirement benefits.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the average life expectancy has risen steadily every year since the 1960s until 2012, when it reached a plateau of 77. 

In 2019, the number reached a high of 78 years before the pandemic struck and dropped the average by 1.5 years. Life expectancy in the U.S. has yet to return to its pre-pandemic level. 

Even with our relatively high average, American life expectancy is still behind those of other wealthy nations. A report from the National Academy of Sciences showed that across every demographic group, Americans die at younger ages than citizens of other wealthy countries.

And a recent report from the CDC shows that life expectancy is lower for individuals who are lower on the socioeconomic ladder, a gap that has continued to widen in recent decades.

Poorer Americans tend to have shorter life expectancies due to a variety of economic factors, including a lack of reliable and affordable health care, medicine, and healthy food.

“When Social Security benefits are measured on a lifetime basis, low earners, who show little to no gains in life expectancy over time, are projected to receive increasingly lower benefits than those with high earnings”, the report says.

As a result, commonly discussed changes to Social Security that involve increasing the retirement age would affect low earners disproportionately, the report concludes.

Even so, extremists in Congress continue to introduce proposals that would increase the age of eligibility for all Americans (such as H.R. 5779, sponsored by Republican Congressman Mark Huizenga of Michigan, to create a Fiscal Commission with the goal of squeezing every possible dollar of savings out of Social Security and Medicare without consideration for the adequacy of benefits).

“It’s more important than ever for us to set the record straight that not all Americans are living longer,” Chapter 31 President Brown said. “When they talk about increasing the age of access to Social Security, what they’re really saying is that they don’t want the lowest-earning retirees to have a full retirement.”

Fraud schemes against seniors growing more common

A newly released report from the FBI found that elder fraud crimes occurred more frequently last year than in any other year and accounted for $3.4 billion in total reported losses. Schemes targeting seniors in the U.S. increased 14% from 2022 to 2023.

In all, more than 100,000 complaints of fraud perpetrated against individuals over 60 years of age were reported to federal law enforcement last year, the most of any age group.

Among the most common were individuals falsely acting as tech support, fake investment sales and romance schemes. Investment scams are the costliest type, investigators reported.

The average amount lost in 2023 was $33,915, with nearly 6,000 victims losing more than $100,000 each.

There are ways to protect yourself from falling victim to one of these scams. 

• Appoint a trusted contact to have view-only access to your accounts and investments. A trusted loved one could notice suspicious activity on your accounts that you may not have caught.
• Sign up for a service that tracks your bank accounts and credit cards. Services like LifeLock can detect suspicious activity on your accounts and can help protect your identity if it becomes compromised.
• Maintain close contact with your loved ones. They’ll be able to tell if something is wrong.

The Illinois Attorney General works with the FBI and other agencies to find and take legal action against those who prey on seniors. The Attorney General’s office provides a Senior Citizens Consumer Fraud Helpline. To contact the hotline, please call 1-800-243-5377 or email [email protected].