Consequences to Increasing the Retirement Age
One of the most suggested “fixes” proposed for the Social Security insolvency issue is to simply raise the age of retirement. The thought is that this would save money by requiring people to wait a few extra years before they are able to start collecting benefits. There are many things that are overlooked when people think of this solution, though, and they are big drawbacks. The biggest drawback is that this proposal would hurt those that rely on Social Security the most. Poorer workers tend to retire earlier than richer workers due to health issues. They also tend to have lower life expectancy. This all adds up to them receiving lower benefits due to filing early for a shorter time period, resulting in only receiving a fraction of what they paid in to the system. For more information on this topic, visit this article by Sean Williams with The Motley Fool.