{"id":175731,"date":"2025-08-26T01:09:27","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T01:09:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/175731\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T01:09:27","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T01:09:27","slug":"more-than-60-wouldnt-survive-financially-if-social-security-benefits-are-cut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/175731\/","title":{"rendered":"More Than 60% Wouldn&#8217;t &#8216;Survive Financially&#8217; If Social Security Benefits Are Cut"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> Key Takeaways<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A new Nationwide survey found that 61% of U.S. adults that currently receive or expect to receive Social Security said they wouldn&#8217;t survive financially\u00a0if they were forced to miss even half a monthly benefits payment.<\/li>\n<li>More than 80% of Americans are concerned about the long-term outlook of Social Security, and nearly 22 million U.S. reitrees rely on the program\u2019s benefits as their only source of income.<\/li>\n<li>Younger generations are particularly concerned about whether they will receive benefits when they are eligible, and financial advisors are cautioning some to plan for the worst.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_2-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block finance-sc-block-html mntl-sc-block-html\"> More than half of Social Security recipients said their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.investopedia.com\/social-security-recipients-cut-back-on-essentials-amid-rising-costs-11794864\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"internalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">current benefits don\u2019t cover their basic needs<\/a>. So any reduction in those benefits would be a serious setback.\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_4-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block finance-sc-block-html mntl-sc-block-html\"> The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.investopedia.com\/how-to-help-social-security-survive-11791212\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"internalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">future of Social Security<\/a> is on shaky ground. If Congress fails to reform the program, the funds that pay out benefits to millions of recipients will be\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.investopedia.com\/social-security-trust-fund-reserves-could-be-depleted-by-2034-what-that-means-for-benefits-11757456\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"internalLink\" data-ordinal=\"2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">depleted by 2034<\/a>.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>  A Small Hiccup Could Pose Big Problems  <\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_7-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block finance-sc-block-html mntl-sc-block-html\"> To illustrate just how challenging things are for retirees, Nationwide asked U.S. adults who currently receive or expect to receive Social Security what would happen if they missed half of a monthly payment. More than 60% said they could not survive financially.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_9-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block finance-sc-block-html mntl-sc-block-html\"> Roughly 74 million people received Social Security benefits in July. It\u2019s estimated that nearly 22 million U.S. retirees rely on the program\u2019s benefits as their only source of income.\n<\/p>\n<p>  Budgeting For The Unknown  <\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_12-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block finance-sc-block-html mntl-sc-block-html\"> More than 80% of Americans are concerned about Social Security&#8217;s long-term outlook, Nationwide found. Planning for the future is difficult when you\u2019re not sure what benefits, if any, will be available to you, said Shannon Benton, the executive director of The Senior Citizens League.\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_14-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block finance-sc-block-html mntl-sc-block-html\"> \u201cThere is definitely financial uncertainty across generations when it comes to Social Security,\u201d Benton said.\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_16-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block finance-sc-block-html mntl-sc-block-html\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.investopedia.com\/americans-are-losing-confidence-in-social-security-11777775\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"internalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Younger generations are particularly skeptical<\/a> regarding the future of the program: 38% of Gen Z and 34% of millennials said they don\u2019t expect to receive a dime of the Social Security benefits they have earned, according to Nationwide.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>  Less Certainty Requires More Savings  <\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_19-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block finance-sc-block-html mntl-sc-block-html\"> They\u2019re right to be concerned; certified financial planner Jason Fannon said he is telling younger generations to plan for their retirements as if Social Security won\u2019t be a reliable option.\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_21-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block finance-sc-block-html mntl-sc-block-html\"> \u201cIf I were a younger person, I would approach retirement as if it wasn&#8217;t going to be available to me,\u201d Fannon said.\u00a0\u201cI don&#8217;t think that&#8217;ll be the case, I think we&#8217;ll have Social Security, but it might look a little different. I would suggest not relying on it being there [for planning purposes].\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_23-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block finance-sc-block-html mntl-sc-block-html\"> Fannon said he is telling his clients in their 40s and 50s to beef up their savings in case benefits are cut. This includes maxing out their 401(k)s and IRAs if possible. This is the age range he suspects will be hit the hardest by reduced benefits, since the projected depletion date falls when many are close to receiving their benefits\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_25-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block finance-sc-block-html mntl-sc-block-html\"> \u201cPeople who are in their 50s can&#8217;t look at the Social Security calculator and say, \u2018This is what I&#8217;m going to have for retirement, because they don&#8217;t know,\u201d Benton said. \u201cIt could very well be cut quite a bit even by the time they retire.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Key Takeaways A new Nationwide survey found that 61% of U.S. adults that currently receive or expect to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":175732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[64,255,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-175731","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-personal-finance","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115092400526733851","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}