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Show Social Security covers nearly half working women Almost half of the married women in the nation now work in jobs covered by social security, according to John Wainwright, social security district manager in Grand Junction. Over 22 million married women-47.1 of them-have jobs outside their homes compared com-pared to 43.6 percent 10 years ago, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Nine out of 10 jobs are covered by social security. "Working women build social so-cial security disability, survivors, surviv-ors, retirement, and Medicare protection for themselves and their families," Wainwright said. "More married women work now than in 1967 because be-cause families are smaller and there are more jobs for women wom-en and more day-care facilities for children." Monthly social security benefits ben-efits can be paid to a wife on her work record even if her husband keeps working, according ac-cording to Wainwright. "And," he said, "if a woman has worked long enough in jobs covered by social security secur-ity and then retires, becomes disabled, or dies, her children can be paid benefits on her record until they're 18-or until 22 if they're full-time students in school and remain unmarried." Full social security retire- ; ment benefits can start when the worker is 65, reduced . benefits at 62. Disability bene- '; fits can be paid to workers under 65 and their families when the worker is disabled and not expected to be able to : do any substantial work for a year or more. People retiring in 1977 generally gen-erally can get social security retirement payments with as '. little as 6Vi years of work covered by social security. To get social security dis- ' ability payments, disabled workers generally need 6Vi years of work covered by social security with at least 5 years of it in the 10 years before the disability began. "But workers disabled before 31 may be eligible for payments pay-ments with as little as l'z years of work covered by social security, depending on age. i Medicare starts for most people at 65, he noted. "But disabled people under 65 can ! get Medicare if they've been entitled to social security disability benefits for at least 24 consecutive months," he said. The Social Security Admin-. istration is an agency of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. |