Social Security

Social Security is entering a new era. Starting next year, benefits will be sustained not only by current payroll taxes but also by withdrawals from reserves accumulated over the last three decades. In about 15 years, however, the Social Security trust funds will be depleted. At that point, the earmarked revenues will cover only about […]

America is facing a looming crisis as generations of workers who mostly participated in do-it-yourself savings plans — or no plan at all — approach retirement. Though a few high-income households have amassed small fortunes in tax-favored retirement accounts, such as 401(k)s and IRAs, at least half of working households are expected to see a […]

Until now, the debate appeared to have been bookended by competing visions of the former and current chairmen of the House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee — Sam Johnson (R-Texas) and John Larson (D-Conn.). The Social Security 2100 Act, proposed in 2019 by Larson and others retains benefits and substantially increases the income rate. […]

Various policy developments and long-term economic, social, and demographic trends raise worrisome questions about the financial security of future retirees. An erosion in employer-sponsored defined benefit pension coverage and the increase in Social Security’s full retirement age could shrink future benefits. Stagnating employment and earnings for men could threaten future retirement security, because retirement benefits […]

Social Security benefits play a vital role in reducing poverty in every state, and they lift more Americans above the poverty line than any other program. Without Social Security, 22.1 million more Americans would be poor, according to analysis using the March 2018 Current Population Survey. Although most of those whom Social Security keeps out […]