Confidence in Retirement Planning Holding Steady…But Social Security Concerns Rising - NAPA-net.org; AMAC
Based on the results of the 35th annual Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS), conducted by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and Greenwald Research, it appears that Americans ages 25 or older continue to feel confident about financial success in retirement. As explained in a NAPA-net.org post by Ted Godbout, “For workers, their confidence remains unchanged from January 2024 to January 2025, but among retirees, this is an increase from 74% last year.”
That’s the good news, but the survey of 2,767 Americans ages 25 or older earlier this year also indicated a growing fear that “federal government programs for retirees such as Social Security and Medicare will be cut,” reports Godbout, quoting Craig Copeland, director of Wealth Benefits Research at EBRI. With Social Security reported by 87% of survey respondents to be a source of their retirement income, it becomes understandable that the continued lack of congressional attention to the program’s steadily eroding financial picture would create angst among current and future retirees.
So, what’s the answer to the concerns expressed by many older Americans in discussions about Social Security? There are solutions, with many recommendations having been submitted to Congress for actuarial evaluation over the past few decades, yet no progress has been made toward a remedy. As an example of the leading thoughts on reforming Social Security, the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC, Inc.) believes Social Security must be preserved and modernized to meet the demands of 21st-century economics. AMAC’s position is that this can be achieved without payroll tax increases through relatively slight program modifications, including changes to the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) process and modifications to the formulas for calculating payments to higher-income beneficiaries. Changes to the age for maximizing benefits are included in AMAC’s position, along with (1) an increase in the thresholds where benefits are subject to income tax; (2) indexing of these thresholds annually to account for inflation; (3) improved survivor benefits, (4) eliminating the reduction in benefits for those choosing to work before full retirement age; and (5) improved savings tools for future retirees, including a savings account that builds estate value. AMAC is resolute in its mission to preserve Social Security for current and future generations and has garnered the attention of lawmakers in D.C., meeting with numerous congressional offices and staff over the past decade.