Correlation isn't causation.
Unfortunately, there's definitely a lifestyle difference between those two sets of people. You don't get into the bottom 1% of people by working a minimum wage job. In fact, you probably don't even get into the 1% by not working at all but accepting social programs. Such a person likely makes specific choices that will specifically put them there, and often those same choices will cause them to have the same problems under any economic system.
It's actually sort of shocking that the difference is only 14 years.