Category: Social Security

More Than An Insolvency Date: What Else To Know About The Social Security And Medicare Trustees’ Reports

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ebauer/2021/09/01/more-than-an-insolvency-date-what-else-to-know-about-the-social-security-and-medicare-trustees-reports/

Excerpt:

This year, Social Security’s deficit is unusually high due to lower revenues and higher benefits: 1.75%. In 2040, the deficit climbs to 3.70% rather than 3.54%. In 2080, the deficit stands at 4.87% rather than 4.59%.

Put another way, if there were no Trust Fund accounting mechanism now, the OASI program would have been able to pay 93% of benefits. This would drop to 76% in 2035 – 2040 – 2045, then drop further to being able to pay 70% of benefits.

What’s more, this year, the actuaries changed several assumptions. They assume that by the year 2036, fertility rates will increase to 2.00 children per woman, an increase from the 2020 report’s assumption of 1.95. They also assume a long-term unemployment rate of 4.5% rather than 5%. At the same time, they calculate alternate projections with more pessimistic assumptions, including a continuingly low fertility rate (1.69), a higher rate of mortality improvement (that is, longer-lived recipients), a higher rate of unemployment (5.5%), and others. In these alternate calculations, the 2040 deficit becomes 6.47% rather than 3.7% (benefits 64% payable), and the 2080 deficit becomes 12.39% rather than 4.87% (benefits 50% payable).

Also consider that, at the moment, there are 2.7 workers for each Social Security recipient (2.8 in 2020). This is forecast to drop to 2.2 in 2040 and ultimately down to 2.1. But if the population trends are those of the pessimistic scenario, then that 2.1 would drop to 1.5 by the year 2080.

Author(s): Elizabeth Bauer

Publication Date: 1 September 2021

Publication Site: Forbes

Social Security Costs Expected to Exceed Total Income in 2021 as Covid-19 Takes Financial Toll

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/social-security-costs-expected-to-exceed-total-income-in-2021-as-covid-19-takes-financial-toll-11630436193

Excerpt:

Trustees for the Social Security trust fund in an annual report released Tuesday said the program is expected to pay benefits that exceed its income in 2021, the same as it anticipated last year at the outset of the pandemic.

While the pandemic had a significant impact on the program, the trustees said, they expect Social Security’s reserves to be depleted by 2034, only one year sooner than they estimated in their April 2020 report. Once the reserves are exhausted, benefits would be reduced automatically unless Congress steps in to shore up the program, which lawmakers have done previously.

The trustees now project elevated mortality rates related to the pandemic through 2023, and expect lower immigration and child-bearing this year and next, compared with their 2020 estimates. They also expect the pandemic has lowered worker productivity and thus economic output permanently.

Author(s): Kate Davidson

Publication Date: 31 August 2021

Publication Site: Wall Street Journal

Privatizing the Social Security Trust Fund? Don’t Let the Government Invest

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/ssp6.pdf

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Excerpt:

Given Social Security’s dire financial condition, there is growing interest in attempting to harness the power of private capital markets to bail out the faltering system. However, despite its surface attractiveness, allowing the government to invest funds from the Social Security trust fund in private capital markets would be a terrible mistake that would have severe consequences for the U.S. economy.

…..

Allowing the government to invest the trust fund in private capital markets would amount to the “socialization” of a large portion of the U.S. economy. The federal government would become the nation’s largest shareholder, with a controlling interest in nearly every American company. Government ownership brings with it serious problems of government control and is a threat to the efficiency and competitiveness of the U.S. economy.


Moreover, experience in other countries has shown that government investments seldom achieve the rates of return
seen in private investment. Attempts by the government to manipulate the markets could further undermine returns and threaten general market stability.

Author(s): Krzysztof M. Ostaszewski

Publication Date: 14 January 1997

Publication Site: Cato Institute

The Time Has Come To Talk About Senior Poverty In America

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2021/07/09/the-time-has-come-to-talk-about-senior-poverty-in-america/

Excerpt:

If 40 million Americans were suffering from the same severe problem, you might think it would be the subject of considerable media attention, a host of government programs, infusions of business capital and a hot topic of national conversation.

That is certainly what I thought several years ago when I began researching the reality that nearly half of all people of over 55 — one in seven Americans — had no money saved and risked heading into poverty or certainly into dire conditions that would make their lives desperate for decades to come.

…..

The average Social Security check is a meager $1,543 a month and about 40% of older Americans rely entirely on Social Security for their income.

Author(s): Joe Seldner, Next Avenue

Publication Date: 9 July 2021

Publication Site: Forbes

The Social Security shell game

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: http://exclusive.multibriefs.com/content/the-social-security-shell-game/civil-government

Excerpt:

According to The Senior Citizens League, the sleight of hand behind it is a formula for calculating the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) that has robbed seniors of 33% of their buying power since 2010.

Since then, annual COLA increases have averaged a meager 1.375%. That means the average recipient has received a COLA increase of less than $20 a month. For many, the con job is even more vexing because much of that gain is taken back with increases in Medicare premiums.

These annual COLA adjustments are based by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on a formula that uses the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers — a lengthy descriptor that’s usually abbreviated as CPI-W. Therein lies the problem — this index does not accurately reflect the rising costs that most affect seniors — such as medical care and drugs, food/staples and rent. Even the most modest estimates suggest these costs are increasing at a rate of somewhere between 5% and 10% annually.

Author(s): Dave G. Houser

Publication Date: 5 March 2021

Publication Site: Multibriefs

Cut Spending For The Rich Before Raising Their Taxes

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.manhattan-institute.org/cut-spending-rich-raising-their-taxes

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Excerpt:

Members of Congress have increasingly demanded large tax hikes on upper-income families to finance large spending increases on top of soaring baseline deficits. But even the most aggressive tax hikes on the rich would make only a small dent in the long-term budget deficits, and they would significantly harm the economy. Before considering any new taxes, lawmakers should first reduce federal spending benefits for high-income families. This bipartisan strategy would achieve both the redistributive goals of the left and the spending restraint goals of the right.

Such upper-income spending cuts have several advantages over new taxes: 1) they will not harm economic growth, 2) they increase future policy flexibility, 3) they are better targeted, and 4) they promote political compromise.

Several programs target spending to wealthy Americans. This report focuses on three of the largest: Social Security, Medicare, and farm subsidies, where basic reforms could save upward of $1 trillion in the first decade, and substantially more in future decades.

Author(s): Brian Riedl

Publication Date: 20 May 2021

Publication Site: Manhattan Institute

How Does Your State Treat Social Security Income?

Mary Pat Campbell
How Does Your State Treat Social Security Income?

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Excerpt:

Thirteen states tax Social Security benefits, a matter of significant interest to retirees. Each of these states has its own approach to determining what share of benefits is subject to tax, though these provisions can be grouped together into a few broad categories. Today’s map illustrates these approaches.

Author(s): Janelle Cammenga

Publication Date: 26 May 2021

Publication Site: Tax Foundation

Chicago Boys’ Free-Market Pension Model Is Unraveling in Chile

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-10/chicago-boys-free-market-pension-model-is-unraveling-in-chile?sref=htOHjx5Y

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Excerpt:

Chile’s privately run pension funds are in a battle for survival, reeling under the impact of billions of dollars of withdrawals as politicians and social movements attack a system once viewed as a model for the world.

Chileans have taken out more than $30 billion from their retirement savings in the past year and congress has authorized a third wave of withdrawals that could drive the figure to more than $50 billion. That would leave the pension funds with about $180 billion of equities and fixed-income assets. Many lawmakers are now calling for the whole system to be dismantled.

…..

Created during the dictatorship of August Pinochet on the advice of free-market economists known as the Chicago Boys, the private pensions Chileans are required to fund are a bedrock of the country’s system. The savings they have generated over the past four decades have given local credit markets and the peso a stability that is the envy of serial defaulters such as Argentina or Ecuador, and prompted countries including Peru and Colombia to adopt similar structures. Yet, many complain that the funds have failed to provide decent pensions.

Distrust in the system, and a need for cash, meant Chileans rushed to pull money out of their savings accounts as the pandemic forced the government to shutter much of the economy.

Author(s): Eduardo Thomson

Publication Date: 10 May 2021

Publication Site: Bloomberg

U.S. Retirees’ Experience Differs From Nonretirees’ Outlook

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://news.gallup.com/poll/350048/retirees-experience-differs-nonretirees-outlook.aspx

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Excerpt:

The differences in reliance on income sources between those who are already retired and those who are not yet retired are likely attributable, at least in part, to apprehension about the Social Security system, as well as the rise of 401(k)s accompanied by a decline in work-sponsored pension plans.

57% of retired U.S. adults say they rely on Social Security as a major income source, and 38% of nonretirees expect it to be a major source for them.

Likewise, 36% of retirees and 19% of nonretirees say a work-sponsored pension plan is or will be a major income source.

Nonretirees are most likely to say a 401(k) or other retirement savings account will fund their retirement (49%). Meanwhile, 35% of retirees mention 401(k)s as a major funding source of their retirement.

Author(s): Megan Brenan

Publication Date: 18 May 2021

Publication Site: Gallup

The Best Reason to Take Social Security Long Before Age 70

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.fool.com/retirement/2021/05/18/the-best-reason-to-take-social-security-long-befor/

Excerpt:

Delaying Social Security may mean scoring a higher monthly benefit — but it doesn’t necessarily mean snagging a higher lifetime benefit. In fact, if you pass away at a somewhat young age, you’ll actually lose out on lifetime income by delaying your filing until 70.

Let’s imagine you’re entitled to a monthly benefit of $1,500 at an FRA of 67. If you were to claim that benefit at age 62, it would shrink to $1,050, whereas delaying it until 70 would let it grow to $1,860.

But if you were to pass away at the age of 78, which is considered relatively young given today’s life expectancies, here’s what you’d be looking at in terms of lifetime income:

Filing at 62 would leave you with $201,600

Filing at 67 would leave you with $198,000

Filing at 70 would leave you with $178,560

Author(s): Maurie Backman (TMFBookNerd)

Publication Date: 18 May 2021

Publication Site: Motley Fool

Social Security Sees Slowdown in Retiree Rolls Amid Covid Deaths

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-03/social-security-sees-slowdown-in-retiree-rolls-amid-covid-deaths

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Excerpt:

The rate of growth in retired Americans who collect Social Security has slowed down sharply, and the drop may be due in part to the disproportionate number of deaths from Covid-19 among the elderly.

The number of people who received retirement benefits from the Social Security Administration rose 900,000 to 46.4 million in March, the smallest year-over-year gain since April 2009.

While the Office of the Chief Actuary at the government agency said it is still too early to assess the impact from Covid-19, the year-over-year change appears to reflect excess deaths. About 447,000 people who died from the virus were 65 or older, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or about 80% of total deaths.

Author(s): Alexandre Tanzi

Publication Date: 3 May 2021

Publication Site: Bloomberg

MassMutual Explores Near-Retiree Knowledge of Social Security Retirement Benefits During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.argus-press.com/news/national/article_5ecdc18f-9144-582e-9fd1-aeb1c64c8d90.html

Excerpt:

Just over one-third (35%) of near-retirees (age 55 to 65) failed and another 18% earned a grade of D on a basic knowledge quiz about Social Security retirement benefits, while only 3%, received an A+ by answering all 12 true/false statements correctly, according to the latest MassMutual Social Security consumer poll.

Even more startling, over a quarter (26%) of individuals age 60 to 65 have no idea of the full retirement age.

There is good news, however, and an improving trend.

A large majority (83%) are very knowledgeable about the consequences of receiving Social Security benefits before reaching their full retirement age. A whopping 94% know that if they take benefits before full retirement age, their benefits will be reduced as a result of filing early while 86% know that if they receive benefits before their full retirement age and continue to work, their benefits may be reduced based on how much they make.

Publication Date: 6 April 2021

Publication Site: Argus Press