The leading options for a relatively painless "right-sizing" of Social Security include:
Repair options include raising the payroll tax, raising or eliminating the ceiling over which no Social Security taxes are paid, changing how COLA is calculated, raising the retirement age, and investing Social Security funds in the stock market.
If no action is taken and benefits are reduced on a proportionate basis when the trust funds become exhausted, total income of those at the lowest economic levels will be affected the most (in percentage terms), significantly increasing the number of individuals in poverty and therefore eligible for Supplemental ...
Social Security: The Options
Social Security has a long-known basic math problem: more money will be going out than coming in. Roughly 10,000 baby boomers are retiring each day, with insufficient numbers of younger people entering the work force to pay into the system and support them. And life expectancy is increasing.
Here are the four most promising ways to help save Social Security Now.
SSI amounts for 2021
The monthly maximum Federal amounts for 2021 are $794 for an eligible individual, $1,191 for an eligible individual with an eligible spouse, and $397 for an essential person.
As long as you remain alive, you continue drawing benefits based on your work record and how much you've earned over your lifetime. When you die, the benefits cease – there is no accrued balance that is paid out to your estate or to your survivors. Social Security does not pay benefits for the month of your death.
Social Security does not now—and is unlikely in the future to—provide enough income for a comfortable retirement. If Social Security is reworked by Congress to extend its life, younger workers and high-income earners will likely be the ones to pay for it.
The amount you are entitled to is modified by other factors, most crucially the age at which you claim benefits. For reference, the estimated average Social Security retirement benefit in 2021 is $1,543 a month.
The Social Security trust funds going broke.
It is true that the Social Security trust funds, where the money raised by Social Security taxes is invested in non-marketable securities, is projected to run out of funds by around 2034. The tax will still raise money each month, though.
The facts: As long as workers and employers pay payroll taxes, Social Security will not run out of money. ... Without changes in how Social Security is financed, the surplus is projected to run out in 2035. Even then, Social Security won't be broke. It will still collect tax revenue and pay benefits.
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