behind closed doors: financial inequalities within older couples
DESCRIPTION
Behind Closed Doors: Financial inequalities within older couples. DEBBIE PRICE & RACHEL STUCHBURY DINAH BISDEE AND TOM DALY BSG 2009, 2 nd – 4 th SEPTEMBER INSTITUTE OF GERONTOLOGY [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
DEBBIE PRICE & RACHEL STUCHBURYDINAH BISDEE AND TOM DALY
BSG 2009, 2nd – 4th SEPTEMBER
INSTITUTE OF GERONTOLOGY
[email protected]@kcl.ac.uk
[email protected]@kcl.ac.uk
Behind Closed Doors: Financial inequalities within
older couples
2Background – ‘Behind Closed Doors’
Project
How do the financial resources of men and women differ within and between older couples? What are the drivers of difference? Quantitative Study
How do older couples view, manage and negotiate about money? What (if any) are the implications of within-couple unequal ownership of financial resources for the well-being of older people and their families? Two Qualitative Studies – focus groups and couple/individual
interviews
What ageing and ageist discourses and practices are prevalent in the formulation of government policy relating to money? How do these relate to the money practices of older couples? Policy Study
www.householdmoney.co.uk
Project Website
Portal for information on older people and later life:finance, care, health, housing, advice, wills and end of life issues
Findings
Outputs
Web Survey
Researcher Blogs
Public views
About the project
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Within couple financial inequality
Understanding human behaviour; challenging the social order; influencing policy
Feminist critique of the family: men have financial resources and women are dependent
Implications for power, control and gender relations within and outside the household:
• Women’s access to resources and decision making among older couples will be limited
• Women will be satisfied with unequal access to resources• Women will sacrifice consumption within households• Women may experience poverty within non-poor households• Power and control within the household is connected to power and
control outside the household
Implications for well being in widowhood/after divorce & vulnerability to poverty and social exclusion
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Research Questions (Project)
Present a nationally representative statistical picture of financial inequality between and within older couple households, investigating how different sources of income in later life contribute to or ameliorate financial inequality within households;
Through multivariate analysis, investigate the correlates of later life inequality and consider whether within-couple inequality in later life is associated with measures of quality of life;
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Outline
Data considerations & epistemological issuesCouple descriptives & financial decision
makingGendered financial inequality of partnered
older peopleFinancial inequality within partnerships
Exploratory analysis of correlates
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ELSA
People aged 50 and over and their younger partners, living in private households in England.
Sample drawn from households that had previously responded to the Health Survey for England (HSE) in 1998, 1999 or 2001.
Fieldwork: March 2002 and March 2003. Repeated interviews, historical data added.
Wave 1: approx 12,000 people; IFS derived financial variables (with imputed data)
Project spec: analysis of Wave 1 of ELSA; hope in future to add histories, and act as baseline data for longitudinal analysis
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Data Collection: Income and Assets
Research questions require that information about income and assets is collected separately for men and women in a couple, but:
“Later in the interview, I would like to ask some questions about finances generally, for example income and savings. Can I just check, do you and name keep your finances totally separate?”
If person is living as part of a married or cohabiting couple and has indicated finances are shared between the couple, questions go to respondent on behalf of the couple. If person is living as part of a married or cohabiting couple and has indicated finances are not shared between the couple, questions go to each respondent separately.
Asset information – only collected at benefit unit level even though wide disparities in ownership between partners Even apart from gender issues within the household, increasingly
important for understanding financial well being in later life, especially increasing prevalence of second & subsequent marriages where spouse may not inherit
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Epistemological Issues
Project raises epistemological issues with the way data on assets, wealth has been collected and reported
• Relatively few couples would say finances were “totally separate” – powerful norm to present ‘jointness’ within partnerships
• Joint does not mean joint, covers a whole range of arrangements including some that are quite separate
• Couples unaware of each others’ finances• Secret money
But income: at least attempts are made to collect separate data Assets: information not collected for each couple unless they have declared
finances “totally separate” • in analysis, income from assets has been apportioned equally between partners – no other options
‘Benefit Unit’ discourse pervades data collection
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ELSA: focus on benefit unit
Individual section on work and pensions collects information from individuals about their work and pension income Not used in IFS derived financial variables, which focus on benefit units
Income and assets section (used in IFS derived financial variables) collects information largely from one person in the couple about either
individual or joint income (but not about individual occupational or personal pensions, broad brush on work income);
if couple did not say that there income is totally separate, one person only answers and then all assets are considered joint assets (whether individually or jointly held); income from assets is also considered joint regardless of how held.
In IFS derived variables, all assets and income from these are attributed to both parties if one person is answering for both.
Large amounts of imputed data (but clearly flagged and transparent) Data can’t be used to examine individual asset ownership within couples,
except for couples who answer separately; query individual income where proxy answers, and income from assets can’t be apportioned.
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Older Couples
4,503 heterosexual couples (9,006 people)• 4,025 with financial data about both partners
1,960 couples where one partner is over 65• 1, 817 with financial data about both partners
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Ages Percentage
Both under 60 40%
Man under 60, woman 60 – 64 2%
Woman under 60, man 60 – 64 9%
Both 60 – 64 6%
Man under 60, woman 65+ 1%
Woman under 60, man 65+ 4%
Man 60 – 64, woman 65+ 1%
Woman 60 – 64, man 65+ 7%
Both 65+ 31%
Marital Status of ELSA Couples
All Where woman <60
Where woman 60-64
Where woman 65+
First marriage for both 67% 57% 70% 80%
Remarriage for both 9% 10% 9% 7%
First marriage for one, remarriage for other
9% 12% 6% 5%
Married, status not known for both
7% 12% 12% 7%
Cohabiting, both divorced 2% 3% 2% 0.5%
Cohabiting, other combinations 7% 6% 1% 1%
100% 100% 100% 100%
n= 4,501 2,365 670 1,466
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Source: ELSA, Wave 1, 2002/3, couples where at least one member is over 50
Living Arrangements% all Where
woman under 60
Where woman 60 – 64
Where woman 65+
Couple only 71.8% 56% 85% 92%
Couple and grandchild/ren 0.6%
Couple, adult child/ren and grandchild/ren
1.0%
Couple, their parent/s, adult child/ren & grandchild/ren
0% (1 cp)
Couple with adult child/ren (all over age 30)
4.4% 3% 7% 6%
Couple with adult child/ren (one/some under 30)
20.9% 38% 5% 1%
Couple and their parent/s 0.5%
Couple with parent/s and adult child/ren (one/some under 30)
0.3%
Couple with their parent/s and adult child/ren, all over 30
0% (1 cp)
Other 0.4%
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Source: ELSA, Wave 1, 2002/3, couples where at least one member is over 50
Separate or Joint Finances of Couples?
Under 60 60 – 64 Over 65
MEN IN COUPLES
Separate 17% 16% 18%
Joint 83% 84% 82%
100% 100% 100%
WOMEN IN COUPLES
Separate 18% 18% 17%
Joint 83% 82% 83%
100% 100% 100%
n= 1900/2365 731/670 1871/1466
No significant differences
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Source: ELSA, Wave 1, 2002/3
Who answered the Income & Assets Section?
Where couples declared joint finances, who answered for the couple?
Man answered IA 65%
Woman answered IA 35%
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Gendered issues of power and control 94% of cases: at least one of the couple answered the
financial questions; 5% missing; 1% other household member answered
Source: ELSA, Wave 1, 2002/3
Organisation of Money (Individuals)
Man looks after all except
woman’s personal spending
Woman looks
after all except man’s
personal spending
Man looks after,
woman gets
housekeepin
g
Woman looks after,
man gets house
Keeping
Share and
manage jointly
Keep finances complete
ly separate
Some other
arrangement
Declared Separate (18%)
21% 14% 31% 19% 14% 74% 15%
Declared Joint (82%) 79% 86% 69% 81% 86% 26% 85%
100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
All individuals (100%) 14% 22% 6% <1% 55% 2% <1%
n=8339 1200 1833 472 36 4564 208 26
Note: only one person answers this for the couple, even if finances totally separate – if separate, about half men, half women answer (‘first person to answer IA”)Data notes: need to ‘decode’ all answers as where finances are ‘joint’ the same answer can’t be attributed to both partners as it refers to the other in the ELSA dataset; where couples have ‘separate’ finances, they are coded as missing in the ELSA data if the other person was asked the questions, need to match couples, attribute, and ‘decode’ these answers; cannot compare answers given by partners within a couple
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Source: ELSA, Wave 1, 2002/3
Who has final say in big financial decisions?
Man Woman Equal say
Declared Separate Finances (18%) 21% 28% 15%
Declared Joint Finances (82%) 79% 72% 85%
100% 100% 100%
All individuals (100%) 18% 10% 73%
n=8,366 796 1490 6050
P<0.001Note: only one person answers this for the couple, even if finances totally separate – if separate, about half men, half women answer (‘first person to answer IA”)Data notes: need to ‘decode’ all answers as where finances are ‘joint’ the same answer can’t be attributed to both partners as it refers to the other in the ELSA dataset; where couples have ‘separate’ finances, they are coded as missing in the ELSA data if the other person was asked the questions, need to match couples, attribute, and ‘decode’ these answers; cannot compare answers given by partners within a couple .
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Source: ELSA, Wave 1, 2002/3
Distribution of income from private and occupational pensions for those in receipt, couples 65+
Outliers for men into the hundreds of thousands of pounds
72% of men in couples in receipt of some private or occupational pension income
28% of women in couples in receipt of some private or occupational pension income
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Source: ELSA, Wave 1, 2002/3
Distribution of income from paid work or business for those in receipt, couples 65+
Outliers for men up to £60,000
11% of men aged 65+ in couples in receipt of some income from paid work or business
7% of women aged 65+ in couples in receipt of some income from paid work or business
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Source: ELSA, Wave 1, 2002/3
Distribution of weekly income from state pension for those in receipt, couples 65+
94% of men aged 65+ in couples in receipt of some income from state pension
93% of women aged 65+ in couples in receipt of some income from state pension
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Source: ELSA, Wave 1, 2002/3
4% of men aged 65+ in couples in receipt of some income from state income support
1% of women aged 65+ in couples in receipt of some income from state income support
Income support is assessed at benefit unit level, but paid to the claimant
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Distribution of weekly income from state income support for those in receipt, couples 65+Source: ELSA, Wave 1,
2002/3
Gender differences in annual net income from private/occ pensions & paid work, men and women,
65+, in couples
Median, for those in receipt Median Gap Women as % of Men
Men Women
Net private/occ pension £4,104 £1,770 £2,334 43%
Net earnings/profits £3,334 £2,666 £668 80%
Pens+Earn £4,674 £2,052 £2,622 44%
Percentage in receipt
Net private/occ pension 72% 29%
Net earnings/profits 11% 8%
Pens + Earn 75% 34%
Source: ELSA, Wave 1, 2002/3
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Gender Differences in Net Weekly Income
All income, weekly, net, men and women in couples
Median Median gap
Median women's income as % of
men's
AGE Men Women
60 - 64 £212 £ 98 £115 46%
All 65+ £180 £69 £110 39%
n=
65- 69 £198 £77 668/600 £121 39%
70 - 74 £178 £67 544/429 £112 38%
75 - 79 £167 £60 368/252 £106 36%
80 - 84 £ 151 £56 193/125 £94 38%
85+ £159 £81 77/35 £ 78 51%
Source: ELSA, Wave 1, 2002/3Note: includes individual income from paid work, private and occupational pensions, state pensions, income support, state benefits, income from assets and all other sources of income. All income is measured at the individual level (although one partner often answers for both), except income from assets, which has been apportioned equally between partners.
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Quintiles of Individual Income, 65+ in Couples, according to sex
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Source: ELSA, Wave 1, 2002/3Couples where at least one member is over 65
Components of Net Weekly Income25
Source: ELSA, Wave 1, 2002/3Couples where at least one member is over 65
Relative Importance of Income Components
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Source: ELSA, Wave 1, 2002/3, couples where at least one member is over 65
Inequality of income within couples, (1+=65+)
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Source: ELSA, Wave 1, 2002/3Couples where at least one member is over 65
Distribution of Income Inequality within Couples
Percentile of share of joint income
Men
5th 40%
10th 48%
20th 56%
25th 59%
50th (Median) 70%
75th 80%
80th 82%
90th 87%
95th 91%
Percentile of share of joint income
Women
5th 9%
10th 13%
20th 18%
25th 20%
50th (Median) 30%
75th 41%
80th 44%
90th 52%
95th 60%
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Source: ELSA, Wave 1, 2002/3Couples where at least one member is over 65
Income inequality within couples, 65+
Women’s share of joint income*
Between 0% and 20% 24%
Between 20% and 40% 49%
Between 40% and 60% 22%
Between 60% and 80% 4%
Between 80% and 100% 1%
100%
n= 1,817Source: ELSA, Wave 1, 2002/3* Where at least one member of the couple is over 65
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Income quintile, age and within couple inequality
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Source: ELSA, Wave 1, 2002/3Couples where at least one member is over 65
Social class, age and within couple income inequality
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Source: ELSA, Wave 1, 2002/3Couples where at least one member is over 65
Man’s Social Class and Income Inequality
Her Male Partner’s Social Class, col %
Income share of woman
I II III IV V All
Between 0% and 20%
37 33 21 17 17 24%
Between 20% and 40%
43 44 50 53 53 49%
Between 40% and 60%
16 19 23 26 25 22%
Between 60% and 100%
4 4 7 4 6 5%
100 100 100 100 100 100%
n= 255 393 324 540 269 1,781p<0.001Source: ELSA, Wave 1, 2002/3
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Woman’s Social Class and Income Inequality
Her own Social Class, col %
Income share of woman
I II III IV V All
Between 0% and 20%
6 21 27 24 24 24%
Between 20% and 40%
41 40 49 54 51 49%
Between 40% and 60%
44 32 20 19 21 22%
Between 60% and 100%
9 8 4 4 4 5%
100 100 100 100 100 100%
n= 255 393 324 540 269 1,781p<0.001Source: ELSA, Wave 1, 2002/3
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Educational qualifications, age and within couple income inequality
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Source: ELSA, Wave 1, 2002/3Couples where at least one member is over 65
Woman’s Education and Income Inequality
Her own Educational Qualifications, col %
Income share of woman
Higher Educational Qual
School Leaving Educational Qual
Foreign or other
None All
Between 0% and 20%
22 31 23 23 24%
Between 20% and 40%
42 41 53 54 49%
Between 40% and 60%
27 24 23 20 22%
Between 60% and 100%
9 5 3 4 5%
100 100 100 100 100%
n= 396 510 119 765 1,790p<0.001Source: ELSA, Wave 1, 2002/3
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Health, age and income inequality within couples
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Source: ELSA, Wave 1, 2002/3Couples where at least one member is over 65
Marital status, age, and income inequality within couples
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Source: ELSA, Wave 1, 2002/3Couples where at least one member is over 65
Woman’s Marital Status and Income Inequality
Income share of woman
Married, first
marriage
Re-married,
2nd or subs.
Cohabiting
All
Between 0% and 20%
25% 24% 7% 24%
Between 20% and 40%
51% 24% 36% 49%
Between 40% and 60%
21% 42% 48% 22%
Between 60% and 100%
4% 9% 10% 5%
100% 100% 100% 100%
n= 1,524 228 42 1,794p<0.001Source: ELSA, Wave 1, 2002/3
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Further Work
Understanding the role that different components of income play in within-couple financial inequality
Multivariate modelling of financial inequality within couples in later life Possibly adding lifecourse history data from Wave 2
Testing whether within couple financial inequality is related to quality of life outcomes e.g. marriage quality, health
Understanding the drivers of financial inequality between couples in later life
Considering explanations and implications arising from the qualitative strand of the project
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Conclusions
The financial contributions of men and women within older couples are very unequal, especially state pensions, private pensions and earnings from paid work
Older couples are poorer, but at all ages from 65 to 85, median partnered women’s income is about 38% of partnered men’s
Older partnered women dominate the lower individual income quintiles, and older partnered men the higher; private pensions are the main driver of difference
Within older couples, at all ages, women contribute about 30% to the couple’s joint income A quarter of women contribute between 0% and 20%, and only 5% more than 60%
Social class, education and marital status all play a (small?) part in explaining income inequality within the household; age, health and income quintiles seem to have little impact Multivariate analysis will help to understand the mechanisms at work
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Conclusions
The data suggests that gendered financial inequality within couples is a lifelong condition that men and women must find ways of accommodating
A substantial body of work on younger couples suggests that such inequality has implications for power, control and access to resources within relationships, as well as impacts on wider society
Through our qualitative work we hope to contribute to understanding the importance of age and ageing in these debates
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