Sharing Stories on the Value of Social Security

Kimberly Thomas’ appreciation of Social Security can be traced back to her grandmother, a maid who commuted to the suburbs from Chicago.

“She stopped school in the ninth grade but had eight children,” Thomas says. Amazingly, on a small income, she was able to save some money. When she retired after her husband had died, she relied heavily on Social Security—and a very frugal lifestyle that included saving scraps of soap.

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“Social Security was her monthly stream of income—her only monthly stream of income,” Thomas says. “She knew how to make her money stretch.”

Thomas, 53, a Chicago-based financial planner and AARP volunteer, says Social Security is a vital base to anyone’s retirement plan. “So, if that is removed, Americans will literally be in a very, very, very tough situation.”

This summer, AARP Illinois will launch Real Illinois Stories: Why Social Security Matters. The hope is to collect one personal story from each of the state’s 102 counties to create a portrait of how Social Security touches communities. The counties will be colored in on an oversized map of the state as the stories come in, according to AARP Illinois Senior Director for Communications Vikki Ortiz.

“We hope this is a creative way to show that Social Security has a real impact on people in different ways—showing people from different economic, geographic, ethnic and other backgrounds,” she says.

Social Security is the concern most raised by the community and members to AARP Illinois, says Ryan Gruenenfelder, AARP Illinois’ senior director for advocacy and outreach. This summer, when AARP Illinois staff travel the state, they’ll ride in a van stamped with Social Security images.

“We simply want to hear from them,” Gruenenfelder says. “You know, the question is, ‘Why is Social Security so important to you?’

“And all of them have a story. They all raise it because they are really concerned about its future, and they realize how important it is to them personally with regards to their financial security and their ability to keep their house and buy their groceries,” he says.

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In Illinois, more than 2.3 million people receive Social Security payments, according to the Social Security Administration. That translates to $48.8 billion injected into the state’s economy each year. Social Security benefits not only go to retirees, but also to workers with disabilities, the widowed and children. Without Social Security, 32.8 percent of Illinoisans would live in poverty, according to the AARP Public Policy Institute. The average payment is $1,934 monthly, or just under $23,209 annually, for a retired worker.