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The Plight of Today’s Retirees: A Tale of Living on Social Security
A post on Business Insider yesterday outlined the difficulties faced by a 70-year-old retiree attempting to navigate retirement life and survive with Social Security benefits as her sole income source. Compounding the struggle is her inability to obtain employment to supplement her financial situation, making her situation a “depressing” reality. Read the story here.
What makes this saga even more critical is the simple reality that many seniors are facing similar financial situations. Of course, this does not bode well for the future of Social Security as the threat of insolvency and a substantial benefit reduction creep closer to reality. Social Security’s unfortunate financial problems have been known for the past three decades and have not benefited from serious legislative attention despite steady outcry from a wide range of sources. We’re within a decade of full depletion of the program’s financial reserves, followed by an estimated 20-25% across-the-board benefit cut. While the drumbeat continues to ramp up, many organizations are developing legislative roadmaps that could be followed to resolve the situation. Here’s one:
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 via slight program modifications, including cost of living adjustments and payments to high-income beneficiaries. AMAC also supports an increase in the thresholds where benefits are subject to income tax, along with indexing of these thresholds annually to account for inflation. The AMAC position also calls for eliminating the reduction in benefits for those choosing to work before full retirement age and advocates for improved savings tools for future retirees. AMAC is resolute in its mission that Social Security be preserved for current and successive generations and has gotten the attention of lawmakers in D.C., meeting with many congressional offices and staff over the past decade.