One reason for this disparity is Social Security. Married people who have never been divorced get an average of $22,607 per year from the federal retirement program, while single people divorced after 50 qualify for an average of $12,092. Also, women tend to end up worse off than men after a late-in-life divorce. The poverty rate for single men divorced after age 50 is 11.4 percent, while almost 27 percent of women divorced after 50 are poor.
One way out of such dire economic circumstances may be remarrying. For people who get divorced after 50 and then remarry, the poverty rate is just 3.3 percent. Of course, second and third marriages are much less likely to last. So those who remarry risk ending up divorced all over again—and at an older age.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.