The Nomenclature of Social Security Retirement Benefits – Qualitative Exploration of Alternate Terminology

This project report presents findings from the qualitative component of a study to examine American’s understanding of Social Security terminology regarding retirement, and to test responses to alternate names for those terms. Phase 1 of this study was a short survey of 1,260 respondents of the Understanding America Study (UAS) panel, which assessed whether the terms “Early Eligibility Age” (EEA), “Full Retirement Age” (FRA) and “Delayed Retirement Credits” (DRC) were well understood by respondents. The study’s second phase, which is the focus of this report and described in more detail below, consists of qualitative interviews with a small number of respondents selected from the UAS panel. The third and final phase of the study will be an experiment run through the UAS to test participants’ responses to and understanding of alternate names for Social Security retirement-related terminology.