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Social Security Benefits Are Modest
Some lawmakers and opinion leaders mistakenly portray the program’s benefits as lavish.
Social Security
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Policy Basics
Social Security provides monthly benefits to retired workers and workers with disabilities, their dependents, and their survivors.
We examine Social Security’s effects on poverty and on particular demographic groups. We also analyze Social Security reform proposals to determine their likely impact on the program’s long-term solvency and its effectiveness in reducing poverty and hardship.
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Policymakers Should Prevent Recession-Related Social Security Benefit Drops
The next COVID-19 relief bill should fix an unintended benefit “notch” under which, due to the pandemic and resulting recession, Social Security benefits will be significantly lower for workers...
SSA Needs More Funding to Support Essential Services
As policymakers turn to 2021 appropriations to fund the government, they should ensure that the Social Security Administration (SSA) has enough funds to meet daunting workloads that have become even...
Greenstein: CBPP Adds Its Voice to Calls for Justice and Systemic Reform
We at the Center stand with the countless organizations, activists, community groups, religious and civic leaders, and others in calling for justice for George Floyd — and for fundamental, systemic...
What the 2020 Trustees’ Report Shows About Social Security
Absent the COVID-19 pandemic, the near-term outlook for the Social Security trust funds would have changed very little in the past...
2020 Social Security and Medicare Trustees Reports Do Not Reflect Effects of Pandemic and Recession
The annual reports released today don’t provide an up-to-date picture of Social Security’s and Medicare’s financial...
Next Step on Stimulus Rebates: Automatic Delivery for People Receiving SSI and Veterans’ Benefits
April 3, 2020: We’ve updated this post.
It’s welcome news that Treasury and the IRS will use the authority that Congress gave them to automatically provide stimulus payments to Social...
Social Security Beneficiaries Shouldn’t Have to File a Tax Return to Get Stimulus Rebate
The Secretary of the Treasury and IRS Commissioner should make a clear public statement that seniors and people with disabilities who receive Social Security won’t have to file a...
President’s Budget Would Hurt People With Disabilities
President Trump’s 2021 budget would make it harder for millions of people with disabilities to afford such basics as food, housing, and health care by cutting tens of billions of dollars from...
Trump Budget Would Hurt Older Americans
Older Americans are among the many groups that President Trump’s proposed 2021 budget would seriously harm. While running for president, Trump repeatedly promised not to cut Social Security,...
Social Security Disability Insurance Still Shrinking
Applications and benefit awards for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) fell again in 2019, new data show, adding to the significant declines since 2010 (see graph). Total SSDI enrollment...