FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Citing the newly released annual report of the Social Security Board of Trustees, the President of the Sixty Plus Association, Saul Anuzis, expressed alarm that seniors will soon have their monthly Social Security substantially decreased.
“The news for seniors and their families is terrible,” Anuzis said.
The Trustees report stated that the Old Age and Survivors Trust Fund “fails the test of short-range financial adequacy” and that under intermediate assumptions the Trust Fund reserves “are projected to become depleted in 2033, at which time income would be sufficient to pay only 77 percent of scheduled benefits.”
To protect seniors from benefits cuts, Anuzis advocates passage of the Social Security Guarantee Act, to require the Secretary of the Treasury to issue those at or near retirement age a certificate as an ironclad right to their full benefits.
“Within the federal budget, seniors should not be left out in the cold. Social Security should be fully guaranteed for all American Seniors,” Anuzis said.
“How many seniors can survive on only 77% of their current benefits?,” Anuzis asked. “Furthermore, this crisis is much sooner than 2033,” he said.
“What the Trustees call ‘reserves’ are the special-issue, non-negotiable bonds that the
Trust Fund received when the money from payroll taxes was diverted to the general fund and used for non-Social Security purposes. These are not the same kind of bonds held by banks, foreign governments, and the public. They are not real assets that can be used to pay benefits. They are just IOUs from the government to itself,” Anuzis said.
As of December 31, 2024, the federal government owed the Social Security Trust Fund
$2.538 trillion.
“No one knows where this money will come from to repay the Trust Fund,” Anuzis said.
The government has repaid the Trust Fund, $59 billion in 2021, $40 billion in 2022, $70 billion in 2023, and $103 billion in 2024.
However, to make up the shortages from payroll taxes, the projected amounts that must be repaid increase dramatically: $209 billion in 2025, $212 billion in 2026, $244 billion in 2027,
$280 billion in 2028, $318 billion in 2029, $358 billion in 2030, $399 billion in 2031, and $441 billion in 2032.
“It is very likely that, to avoid making these huge repayments to the Trust Fund, some politicians will advocate lowering Social Security benefits. If somehow these amounts owed the Trust Fund are fully repaid, then there will be no more ‘reserves’ starting in 2033 and the amounts raised by payroll taxes will be enough to pay only 77% of current benefits,” Anuzis explained.
Attached to this press release are survey results from millions of letters mailed to Seniors showing their overwhelming demand for and support of the Social Security Guarantee Act. Please feel free to quote the results in your article.
