Social Security and it Challenges
There are a lot of difficulty and
challenges around Social Security
system right now. Social Security will
be there in the future, and it will be there for you today if you
need it.
There
are a lot of difficulty and challenges around Social Security
system right now. Social Security will
be there in the future, and it will be there for you today if you
need it. It will look different in the future, but it will continue
to be there and will evolve into what's needed for American workers
and their families. You may have to contribute more, and you may be
taxed on all of your benefits, but there will still be benefits.
Social
Security and Medicare make up the largest part of our national
budget. Social Security provides a minimum foundation of protection
for retired workers and for workers who face a loss of income due to
a disability or the death of a family wage earner. Social Security
was never meant to be the sole source or retirement income for
retirees.
The
baby boomers, 76 million of them, will begin to retire in 2010, and
as with everything else this group has done, it will have a big
impact on the Social Security system and will put a strain on it. At
that tine, there will be more retires and fewer workers paying into
the system. Social Security is a pay-as-you-go system with most of
the taxes being paid today going to fund current benefits. Excess
funds are credited to the Social Security trust fund.
There
is about $900 billion currently in the trust fund, but benefit
payments are projected to exceed taxes in 2015, and the trust fund
will be exhausted in 2037. If this does happen, the SSA will only be
able to pay about 72 percent of benefits owed, using dollars that
are coming in from workers paying into the system. Now, this is if
nothing is done about the situation. Many people want the government
to use our current budget surplus to mend the Social Security
problems, while others want to privatize Social Security. The judges
are still out on this, but there is time to fix the problem.
Social Security and it
Challenges