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Senirs’ Growing Reliance on Social Security Benefits
The steadily eroding financial future of Social Security is popping up more frequently these days in a wide range of media outlets, and there’s no doubt that Congress’s strategy of kicking the can down the road is nearing its end. The proverbial “road” only extends to 2033, a mere eight years from now. And folks are beginning to be aware of the implications of no corrective action—a drastic reduction in the monthly benefits relied on by millions of America’s seniors.
But how large is the senior population segment that will fare the worst in an insolvency situation, when benefits are slashed 20% or more? According to The Senior Citizens League (TSCL), it’s huge. Fully two-thirds of the senior population relies on Social Security for more than half of their income in retirement. This estimate was drawn for responses to TSCL’s 2024 Retirement Survey and was discussed in a post on seniorsleague.org yesterday by Alex Moore, which you can read in full here.
Meanwhile, while corrective action continues to be deferred, many organizations are busily developing approaches to address the problem. Among these is the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC). AMAC believes that social security must be preserved and modernized and has developed its Social Security Guarantee to accomplish that mission through slight modifications to cost-of-living adjustments and benefit calculations for high-income beneficiaries, coupled with gradual increases to the full (but not early) retirement age. AMAC supports an increase in the threshold where benefits are taxed and then indexed for inflation and calls for eliminating the reduction in benefits for those choosing to work before full retirement age. Summaries of the AMAC position–the AMAC Social Security Guarantee–can be viewed at AMAC.us.