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By Russell Gloor, National Social Security Advisor at the AMAC Foundation, the non-profit arm of the Association of Mature American Citizens <\/p>\n
Dear Rusty:\u00a0I am 67 and 9 months old, collecting a modest SS survivor benefit with plans to collect my own much larger benefit at age 70.\u00a0\u00a0I was confident this plan was a good one; but recent turbulent events make me nervous that cuts could come to Social Security at any time without warning. Would it be prudent to file for my own Social Security as soon as possible so that my benefit might be \u201cgrandfathered\u201d in before any sudden and drastic cuts occur? I do not\u00a0generally panic, but these are unprecedented times. I would be quite comfortable with the benefit listed on my 2024 statement for my current age; I was just hoping to maximize the benefit by waiting.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
When I go to the Social Security website to view my 2025 annual statement to see the personalized monthly retirement benefit estimates for ages 68, 69, and 70, that section no longer shows. This omission makes me uncomfortable. Can I find out what my current benefit estimate would be for ages 68, 69, and 70? Or should I just rely on the 2024 statement?\u00a0\u00a0Signed: Nervous in Portland\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dear Nervous:\u00a0Please do not be nervous that recent \u201cturbulent events\u201d pose a threat to your future Social Security benefits.\u00a0Those events do not, in any way, jeopardize your future Social Security benefits, because Social Security is completely separate from all other federal political issues and finances.\u00a0The primary problem with Social Security became an issue long before the current administration took office.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Trustees of Social Security have been warning Congress for decades that Social Security\u2019s finances require Congressional attention.\u00a0The fact\u00a0is that\u00a0Social Security revenue (as predicted decades ago) became insufficient to pay all benefit obligations in about 2021. Since that time, money from Social Security\u2019s reserved funds (Trust Funds)has been used to pay full benefits to all.\u00a0\u00a0In 2020, there was\u00a0nearly\u00a0$3 trillion\u00a0in SS reserved funds, but that has now dwindled to about\u00a0$2.5 trillion\u00a0as reserves are used to supplement SS payments. And that problem continues. The Trustees of SS now predict that the reserves will be fully depleted in about 2032, at which time \u2013 lacking program reform by Congress \u2013 Social Security will be forced to pay out only what it receives in revenue. And that would mean an estimated cut of about 23% to everyone\u2019s monthly SS benefit.\u00a0In the unlikely event that\u00a0happens, wouldn\u2019t a 23% reduction to your larger age 70 benefit be better than a 23% cut to your lower age 68 benefit?\u00a0<\/p>\n
No one wants those cuts to happen \u2013 least of all politicians \u2013 because it would amount to political suicide (seniors are, after all,\u00a0a very large\u00a0voting bloc).\u00a0\u00a0Thus, we believe that Congress will act to reform Social Security to prevent any general benefit cuts from happening. It will, however, require Congressional bipartisanship because the reforms needed for Social Security are\u00a0likely unsavory\u00a0to some. Those reforms may include SS tax increases and changes to the basic structure of the SS program to align it with today\u2019s demographic reality.\u00a0The program needs reform, which Congress has, unfortunately, neglected to provide for many years.\u00a0\u00a0And this neglect will\u00a0likely also\u00a0continue, at least through the forthcoming mid-term elections.\u00a0It seems the nature of Congress\u00a0is to wait until the last possible moment to offer corrective legislation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what to keep in mind: Congress already knows how to reform Social Security to avoid any future benefit cuts \u2013 they just lack the bipartisanship to\u00a0accomplish\u00a0that reform. For our part, the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC) has offered to Congress a commonsense reform plan via its \u201cSocial Security Guarantee (SSG)<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0AMAC\u2019s proposal has received a positive reception in Congressional circles, and we are optimistic that the proposal will provide financial stability to the program for generations. AMAC continues to advocate for SS reform in Washington, D.C. on a regular basis, even more intensely as the depletion of the SS Trust Funds grows closer.\u00a0<\/p>\n We do not suggest changing your strategy for claiming Social Security benefits based upon fear the program will cut benefits.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0because it\u2019s\u00a0unlikely that all benefits will be cut because we believe Congress will eventually enact reform.\u00a0\u00a0And even in the unlikely event that Congress neglects to reform the program by 2032, the percentage of reduction to a higher monthly SS benefit amount would be better than a similar reduction to a lower benefit amount. In other words, your original plan is still a prudent one.\u00a0<\/p>\n Regarding\u00a0your question about your estimated benefits, I expect your most recent SS statement\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0include future benefits because you are already collecting SS survivor benefits.\u00a0You can contact SSA at 1.800.772.1213 to obtain the future SS retirement estimates you seek.\u00a0<\/p>\n This article is intended for information purposes only and does not represent legal or financial guidance. It presents the opinions and interpretations of the AMAC Foundation\u2019s staff, trained and accredited by the National Social Security Association (NSSA). NSSA and the AMAC Foundation and its staff are not affiliated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration (amacfoundation.org\/programs\/social-security-dvisory<\/a>) or email us at\u00a0ssadvisor@amacfoundation.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n \tDiscover more from JoCo Report<\/p>\n Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Russell Gloor, National Social Security Advisor at the AMAC Foundation, the non-profit arm of the Association of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[114,268,85,46,266,267],"class_list":{"0":"post-412198","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-personal-finance","13":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}