Social Security’s Role in Economic Security: Evidence and Insight from an Analysis of Multiprogram Participation

We use the 2014 and 2018 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation to assess multiprogram participation — the number of public programs or subsidies that an individual is a beneficiary of at a given time. Our aim is to understand the combined reach of the 16 programs that constitute the country’s social welfare system. We start by mapping participation across age and income groups, and then use regressions to identify what predicts participation or lack of participation among those same groups. We end with a comparison of household income shares from private income, from all public benefits aside from Social Security, and benefits from Social Security. There is no normative assessment of whether more program participation is good or bad, however, we do find evidence of a fractured system and Social Security as a bedrock of household income among the poor.