It's a question Social Security Finance Committee trustees ask themselves every year - and one the American public asks all the time...
On July 22, the trustees answered with the release of their annual report. It was chock-full of likely scenarios, projections, and one big shocker....
According to the report: The funds supporting retirement and Medicare benefits are likely to run out by 2034.
It's important to note the trustees' estimates vary on a year-to-year basis (slightly, at least). Last year, they concluded trust fund depletion would occur in 2033.
But as it currently stands, when today's 48-year-olds will reach full retirement age, they will not have access to retirement/Medicare benefits unless something is changed, according to the Social Security Finance Committee's official report.
While the benefits shortage of 2034 seems rather distant, there is a nearer-term crisis involving disability benefits.
You see, disability funds - which also fall under Social Security's umbrella - are facing steep cuts up to as much as 19% by the close of next year, according to calculations reported by The Denver Post on July 23.
There is an "easy fix," according to The Denver Post: Congress could shift tax revenue from Social Security's much larger retirement fund into the disability fund, as it has done in the past.
But that course of action would, in turn, shorten the old-age fund expiration timeline. It would also require Congress to agree (currently the move is still being debated and doesn't seem to be a favored solution).
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According to a July 22 report in The Washington Examiner, by 2029, the number of retirees claiming Social Security benefits will rise from less than 50 million today to 71 million. And by 2034, the amount of Medicare beneficiaries will grow from 56 million to 80 million.
The solution to this brewing disaster has yet to be settled. Much will be determined by Congress over the next two decades. Changes will likely come, states The L.A. Times in their July 22 article on the trustees' finding, in the form of payroll tax rates revision - which hasn't been addressed by Congress since 1993.
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