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Social Security trust fund projected to run dry in less than 10 years<\/p>\n
The main trust fund used to pay Social Security benefits is projected to be depleted by 2033 if lawmakers make no changes to the system.<\/p>\n
Straight Arrow News<\/p>\n
Americans are worrying more about Social Security, and the Trump administration may be partly to blame.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In an AARP survey<\/a> released July 22, only 36% of Americans voiced confidence in the future of the retirement trust fund, down from 43% in 2020.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Another July survey<\/a>, from the nonprofit Alliance for Lifetime Income, found that 58% of older Americans fear Social Security cuts because of recent news about potential changes to the program.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThese fears are not new. But I do think they are growing,\u201d said Jean Chatzky, an education fellow with the Alliance\u2019s Retirement Income Institute and CEO of HerMoney<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n How soon will Social Security run out of money?<\/p>\n Fears of a Social Security shortfall have loomed for decades. Lately, though, the agency\u2019s fiscal plight seems to be getting worse.\u00a0<\/p>\n New federal\u202fprojections,\u202freleased in June, show the combined Social Security trust funds will run short in 2034<\/a>. That date is one year earlier than the Social Security Administration reported a year ago.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n The Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund, which pays benefits to retirees and their families, is fully funded only until 2033.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I think that\u2019s close enough in the viewfinder for even older people to think, \u2018Holy moly, what\u2019s going to happen to me?\u2019\u201d Chatzky said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Americans young and old worry about Social Security<\/p>\n Younger Americans tend to worry more about Social Security than older Americans. In the new AARP survey, 25% of people ages 18-49 voiced confidence in the program\u2019s future, compared with 48% of those 50 and older.\u202f\u202f\u202f\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n The new report from the Alliance for Lifetime Income is striking, because it shows heightened Social Security fears among older Americans.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The industry group enlisted IPSOS to conduct a nationally representative survey of 3,502 adults ages 45-75. Among the findings:\u00a0<\/p>\n Trump, DOGE cuts have disrupted Social Security<\/p>\n Social Security has been in the headlines all year, and not just because of the coming shortfall.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Trump administration has thrown the agency\u202finto upheaval<\/a>, with a cascade of staff cuts, rule changes, website outages and leadership shuffles, a routine that played out across the federal bureaucracy under the cost-cutting eye of\u202fElon Musk<\/a>\u2019s Department of Government Efficiency. (Musk himself eventually bowed out<\/a>.)\u00a0<\/p>\n Both Trump and Musk sowed doubt in the integrity of the venerable benefits program. In a March speech before Congress, Trump spoke of \u201cshocking levels of\u202fincompetence and probable fraud<\/a>\u201d in Social Security. Around the same time, Musk\u202ftold podcaster Joe Rogan that Social Security was \u201cthe\u202fbiggest Ponzi scheme<\/a>\u202fof all time.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n Taken together, the events seemed to shake public confidence. New benefit claims<\/a> were up by more than 15% in March, compared with the same month a year ago.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFearmongering has driven people to claim benefits earlier, \u2018cause they\u2019re afraid they\u2019re not going to claim benefits at all,\u201d said Leland Dudek, acting Social Security commissioner at the time, in a March public meeting.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Is Trump undermining public faith in Social Security?<\/p>\n Some Social Security watchdogs say the Trump administration has eroded public faith in the program.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think there\u2019s really been a sea change since January 20,\u201d said\u202fNancy Altman<\/a>, president of Social Security Works, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting and expanding Social Security. \u201cI\u2019ve been working on this for half a century, and I\u2019ve never seen this kind of chaos and undoing of the administration of the program.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The notion that Social Security\u202ffaces a shortfall<\/a>\u202fsuffuses the national conversation about retirement. Older Americans wonder if their monthly checks will go down, rather than up, during their golden years. Many younger Americans have\u202fdoubled down on retirement savings<\/a>, partly for fear that Social Security won\u2019t fully support them.\u202f\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we find is, whenever Social Security is in the headlines, it strikes fear and anxiety into the hearts of so many, especially those who rely so heavily on Social Security,\u201d said\u202fRamsey Alwin<\/a>, CEO of the nonprofit National Council on Aging.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n Faith in the future of Social Security hinges partly on political party. The new AARP survey found that Republicans were more likely than Democrats to express confidence in the program\u2019s future, by a margin of 44% to 32%. During the Obama administration, by contrast, AARP found that Democrats voiced more faith in Social Security than Republicans.\u00a0<\/p>\n Social Security administrators, for their part, have sometimes blamed the news media for stirring up public doubt about the agency\u2019s stability. In March, they took the unusual step of posting a press release<\/a> to contradict media reports about the closure of Social Security field offices.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n AARP issued a rare rebuke of Social Security administrators<\/p>\n\n