For Immediate Release Contact: Jason Booms
August 17, 1999 (202) 667-6557
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE SOCIAL SECURITY KIND
New poll highlights the popularity of personal retirement accounts,
voter skepticism about the current Social Security system
(Washington, D.C.)– The 60 Plus Association commissioned Kellyanne Fitzpatrick and the polling company to conduct a nationwide telephone survey of 800 registered voters on the subject of Social Security and personal retirement accounts.* This survey was fielded August 9 — August 12, 1999 with a Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) phone facility and has a margin of error of +3.5% at the 95% confidence level.
Over a year ago, the polling company ™ conducted a poll for 60 Plus which indicated that 57% of voters believed their parents or grandparents would be better off if they had been allowed to invest the money they paid into Social Security into private (or personal) accounts. A plurality of voters said their money would be safer “under a mattress” than in Social Security.
Now, the results show that many voters think it is more or equally likely that intelligent aliens from another world, like the “second coming of Elvis”, will land on Earth and contact human beings than Social Security being there for them when they retire.
A plurality of voters (44%) believe that neither a hypothetical “first contact” nor getting what they paid into Social Security are likely to occur in the next century.
In fact, a plurality of Generation X voters (32%) are more likely to believe in an “E.T.”-like encounter than the notion that they will receive more in Social Security benefits than what they will pay into the system.
“These numbers reveal a staggering degree of apprehension about our current Social Security system,” said Jason Booms, director of research of the polling company ™.
“Voters want more retirement investment options. Forty-nine percent of non-retired voters favor taking a part of the money they would pay into the Social Security trust fund and investing it in a personal retirement account. Only 19% favor the current mandatory system,” continued Booms.
In addition, a plurality of retired seniors (44%) believes they would have saved more for their retirement if they had been allowed to invest part of the money which they paid into the Social Security trust fund into a personal retirement account instead.
The exact working of the questions was as follows…
Thinking ahead to the next century, which of the following events do you think is most likely to occur:
A) Intelligent aliens from another world will land on Earth and contact human beings.
OR
B) You will receive more in Social Security benefits than you paid into the Social Security trust fund.
22% ALIENS
36% SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS
4% BOTH (VOLUNTEER)
22% NEITHER (VOLUNTEER)
[ASK IF NOT RETIRED] Thinking about your retirement for a moment, which of the following options do you think would allow you to save the most for your retirement? [N=663]
A) Continuing to pay part of your paycheck to the Social Security trust fund.
OR
B) Taking the amount you would pay into the Social Security trust fund and splitting it in half, with half going into a personal retirement account and the other half for whatever you chose to spend it on.
49% SPLIT
19% STATUS QUO
6% BOTH (VOLUNTEER)
8% NEITHER (VOLUNTEER)
5% DEPENDS/NEED TO KNOW MORE (VOLUNTEER)
[ASK IF RETIRED] Thinking about your retirement for a moment, which of the following options do you think would have allowed you to save the most for your retirement? [N=138]
A) Paying a part of your paycheck to the Social Security trust fund.
OR
B) Taking the amount you paid into the Social Security trust fund and splitting it in half, with half going into a personal retirement account and the other half for whatever you chose to spend it on.
41% SPLIT
32% STATUS QUO
2% BOTH (VOLUNTEER)
4% NEITHER (VOLUNTEER)
6% DEPENDS/NEED TO KNOW MORE (VOLUNTEER)
In the July 1998 survey, voters were asked the following question:
“The sixty-third anniversary of the signing of the Social Security Act into law is coming up in August.
Thinking about relatives who have retired, if your parents or grandparents had been allowed to invest the money they paid into Social Security into private retirement accounts, do you think they would have been financially better off or worse off when they retired?”
Better off: 57% (Much Better Off: 25%)
Worse off: 26%
The subgroups most likely to say “better off” include: Baby Boomers (65%), full-time workers (62%) and women aged 18-to-44 (62%).
Another question, asked in a February 1998 national survey of voters, posed the following question:
“If you had a choice, would you prefer to continue to pay into the Social Security system now and leave your retirement benefits in the hands of the federal government, or place the Social Security money from now on under your mattress?”
Pay into Social Security system: 35%
Under the mattress: 46%
The subgroups most likely to prefer the easy-accessibility of a “personal mattress account” include: Generation X voters (56%), men aged 18-to-44 (54%), Independents (51%) and very conservative voters (53%).
“These findings clearly demonstrates that voters of all generations, ideologies, and backgrounds are willing to embrace personal retirement accounts,” said Booms.
Founded in 1995, the polling companyTM is a full-service public affairs and political consulting firm specializing in survey research, focus groups and strategic counsel for Republican and conservative clients.
For more information about the Social Security surveys, contact Jason Booms at (202) 667-6557. Information about the 60 Plus Association can be obtained by calling Hank Hough at (703) 807-2070.
* The sample was drawn utilizing a Random Digit-Dialing (RDD) method with the phone numbers generated by a computer to ensure that every registered voter in the nation had an equal chance to be surveyed in proportion to their representation in the population.
Geographic and gender representation were controlled to ensure that an accurate and representative number of each demographic group was surveyed.
The “Better Off” question was asked in a national omnibus survey of 800 registered voters conducted by the polling company ™ from July 26 — July 28, 1998. The margin of error of this survey was +3.5% at the 95% confidence level.
The “Social Security vs. Mattress” question was asked in a national omnibus survey of 1,000 registered voters conducted by the polling company ™ from February 17 — February 19, 1998. The margin of error of the February survey was +3.1% at the 95% confidence level.
