{"id":16643,"date":"2011-11-18T02:21:03","date_gmt":"2011-11-18T07:21:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/?p=16643"},"modified":"2011-11-19T03:57:58","modified_gmt":"2011-11-19T08:57:58","slug":"vw-county-dependent-on-social-security-payments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2011\/11\/18\/vw-county-dependent-on-social-security-payments\/","title":{"rendered":"County dependent on Social Security $$"},"content":{"rendered":"

BILL BISHOP<\/strong> & ROBERTO GALLARDO\/<\/strong>special to The VW independent <\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"If Van Wert County residents didn\u2019t receive their monthly payments from the Social Security Administration, 8.5 percent of total personal income in the county would be lost, a total of $78,717,131 in 2009.<\/p>\n

Van Wert County is more dependent on Social Security payments than is the rest of the country. Nationally, 5.5 percent of total personal income in 2009 came from Social Security payments. In Ohio, 6.6 percent of all income comes from these payments.<\/p>\n

In Van Wert County, 5,960 people receive some form of Social Security payment, either an old age pension, a survivor benefit or a disability check, according to the Social Security Administration and the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Social Security beneficiaries represent 20.9 percent of the total county population.<\/p>\n

In rural counties and counties such as Van Wert with smaller cities, Social Security payments constitute a much larger chunk of the local economy than in urban areas. A greater percentage of people in rural America receive these payments than in urban counties, and so rural counties have higher average payments per resident.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn many rural places, Social Security is a very critical element of the local economic base,\u201d said Peter Nelson, a geographer at Middlebury College in Vermont. \u201cIt\u2019s less important to a place like Los Angeles because there is so much additional economic activity going on there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Total Social Security payments in Van Wert County amounted to $2,762 per person in 2009. The national average was $2,199 per person and in Ohio it was $2,383.<\/p>\n

Social Security payments in Van Wert County have been changing as a proportion of total income. These payments amounted to 4.1 percent of total income in 1970, 5.5 percent in 1980, 7.2 percent in 1990, 7.3 percent in 2000 and 8.5 percent in 2009.<\/p>\n

Social Security payments are particularly important to rural counties and small cities because the money is largely spent in the community. \u201cThe seniors who get these payments are primarily going to spend their money locally,\u201d said Mark Partridge, a rural economist at Ohio State University. \u201cAnd they are a key reason why some communities are still viable.\u00a0 If this money dried up, there wouldn\u2019t be a lot of these small towns.\u201d<\/p>\n

Social Security payments amount to 5 percent of the total income in urban counties. In counties with small cities, such as Van Wert County, these payments amount to 8.2 percent of total income, and in rural counties, Social Security totals 9.3 percent of all personal income. More than one out of five Americans living in small cities and rural counties received some kind of Social Security check in 2009.<\/p>\n

Judith Stallmann, an economist at the University of Missouri, explained that Social Security payments help generate the sales that keep a rural business afloat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe find that Social Security income can be the difference between success and failure for some local businesses,\u201d Stallmann said. \u201cIf you took away, say, 10 percent of the demand, would that local business be able to remain open? Often it\u2019s that 10 percent that keeps them going. Social Security is providing that margin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Social Security payments go to those over the age of 62 who have filed for benefits, to survivors of insured workers and to those with disabilities. The program is mainly funded by payroll taxes. In Van Wert County, 70.9 percent of recipients were retirees in 2009, 13.1 percent were survivors and 16.0 percent were disabled.<\/p>\n

Changes to Social Security are being discussed in Congress, which is looking for ways to balance the larger federal budget. If benefits are cut \u2014 or if the eligibility age is increased \u2014 rural counties and small cities would be disproportionately affected, according to Peter Nelson.<\/p>\n

\u201cCuts would have a bigger negative impact on rural places, absolutely,\u201d Middlebury\u2019s Professor Nelson said. \u201cThey are more dependent on Social Security.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BILL BISHOP & ROBERTO GALLARDO\/special to The VW independent If Van Wert County residents didn\u2019t receive their monthly payments from the Social Security Administration, 8.5 percent of total personal income in the county would be lost, a total of $78,717,131 in 2009. Van Wert County is more dependent on Social Security payments than is the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-02 07:15:07","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16643\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}