Social Security provides benefits to more than 124,000 Vermonters, or about 1 out of 5 people living in Vermont, including more than 80,000 retirees, nearly 20,000 people with disabilities, more than 9,400 widows and widowers, over 9,700 children, and nearly 5,000 spouses.
Social Security lifts 44,000 Vermonters out of poverty, including 30,000 seniors.
Vermonters receive Social Security benefits totaling over $1.5 billion per year, an amount equivalent to 6 percent of the state's annual GDP (the total value of all goods and services produced).
Social Security Works for Vermont's Retirees
The median Social Security benefit received by a retired worker in Vermont is about $13,700 annually.
Without Social Security, the elderly poverty rate in Vermont would increase from 10.7% to about 48 percent.
Social Security Works for Vermont Women
Social Security provides benefits to 61,000 women in Vermont.
Social Security lifts 19,000 women in Vermont out of poverty. Without Social Security, the poverty rate of elderly women in Vermont would increase from about 13 percent to nearly 56 percent.
Social Security Works for Vermont Children
Social Security is the major life and disability insurance protection for more than 95 percent of Vermont's 129,000 children.
Social Security is the most important source of income for the 5,000 children living in Vermont's grandfamilies (households headed by a grandparent or other relative).
Social Security Works for Vermont's Working Families
Social Security is the most valuable disability and life insurance protection for most Vermont workers. Nationwide, an estimated 3 out of 10 working-aged men and 1 out of 4 working-aged women will become severely disabled before reaching retirement age. An estimated 1 out of 11 working-aged men and 1 out of 17 working-aged women will die before reaching retirement age.
A 30-year-old worker who earns about $30,000 and who has a spouse and two young children, receives Social Security insurance protection equivalent to private disability and life insurance policies worth $465,000 and $476,000, respectively.
