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Shift Social Security’s start-up costs
Given that I have been thinking about unfunded “liabilities” in both Social Security and state and local pension plans, I was delighted that the Social Security actuaries recently released a new note on the program’s unfunded “obligations.” The measures used by the actuaries represent the difference between financial resources (scheduled taxes and the existing trust fund balances) and benefits scheduled under current law. This difference is referred to as an “obligation” rather than as a “liability” because the program has no contractual or legal obligation to pay benefits in excess of scheduled taxes. The difference between resources and scheduled benefits can be calculated on a “closed-group” or an “open-group” basis. Read more…