{"id":365100,"date":"2026-03-25T22:24:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T22:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/365100\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T22:24:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T22:24:07","slug":"rich-couples-are-collecting-over-100000-in-social-security-a-new-proposal-would-cap-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/365100\/","title":{"rendered":"Rich couples are collecting over $100,000 in Social Security. A new proposal would cap that."},"content":{"rendered":"

Some of America’s wealthiest couples are collecting $100,000 in Social Security benefits \u2014 a six-figure payout that a new proposal<\/a> says should be capped to help the retirement program avoid insolvency in 2032.<\/p>\n

About 1 million individual Social Security beneficiaries receive at least $50,000 in annual payments, or more than $100,000 for a retired couple, according to an analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan think tank focused on fiscal and budgetary issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although that represents less than 2% of the roughly 56 million people 65 or older who get Social Security, the CRFB’s analysis projects that the share will grow over time, given the annual cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security benefits and as a growing number of Americans reach retirement age.<\/p>\n

How much would a six-figure cap save?<\/p>\n

Capping Social Security payments at $100,000 for couples or $50,000 for single older Americans would save as much as $190 billion over a decade and close at least 20% of the program’s solvency gap, the analysis found. The “six-figure limit” could be combined with other possible fixes \u2014 such as lifting the income exemption<\/a>\u00a0for Social Security taxes or boosting the payroll tax \u2014 to plug the program’s funding hole.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The wealthiest seniors are collecting from Social Security for the first time $100,000 in benefits,” Marc Goldwein, senior policy director at the CRFB, told CBS News. “This is a program that, when you go back to its founding, was a measure of protection against falling into poverty. The fact that an income support program would pay six figures is a little silly.”<\/p>\n

The CRFB’s proposal suggests indexing the $100,000 benefit threshold either to inflation or by using wages as a peg. That would guard against middle- and low-income households being affected by the proposed cap as the Social Security Administration issues cost-of-living increases.<\/p>\n

The $100,000 couple<\/p>\n

Couples who jointly receive more than $100,000 in Social Security benefits are those who have earned at least the Social Security taxable maximum income, which now stands at $184,500, for at least 35 years and who claim their benefits at their full retirement age, which is 67 this year.<\/p>\n

A maximum-earning couple, both age 67 and claiming this year, would receive $101,000 in annual benefits, or about $8,416 in monthly payments, according to the CRFB.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By comparison, the average monthly benefit for a retired worker is $2,071, according<\/a> to Social Security.<\/p>\n

If the retirement program’s trust fund becomes insolvent, all Social Security beneficiaries would face a benefit cut of about 20%, according to experts. Because millions of seniors rely on Social Security for all or most of their income, such a reduction would likely sharply drive up poverty among older Americans.<\/p>\n

AARP’s response<\/p>\n

AARP, a group representing Americans 50 or older, pushed back against the plan to put a lid on benefits for certain wealthy beneficiaries.<\/p>\n

“Proposals that focus on capping Social Security don’t address the problem in front of Congress: ensuring every American gets every dollar they have earned,” Jenn Jones, AARP vice president for financial security and livable communities, said in a statement. “What’s worse, ideas like this risk becoming a backdoor to broader cuts.”<\/p>\n

Older Americans also don’t want to see their benefits reduced after paying into the program during their careers, she added.<\/p>\n

\n Edited by<\/p>\n

Alain Sherter<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n

\n Go deeper with The Free Press\n <\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some of America’s wealthiest couples are collecting $100,000 in Social Security benefits \u2014 a six-figure payout that a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[72,176,61,60,174,175,1615],"class_list":["post-365100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-social-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}