Social Security Reform

Adjusting Social Security for Increasing Life Expectancy: Effects on Progressivity
Excerpt:"Using data from the Health and Retirement Study to investigate how earnings relate to mortality risk and health limitations, this project explores the possibility of constructing a flexible [Full Retirement Age] that could preserve or even enhance the progressivity of Social Security benefits."(Center for Retirement Research at Boston College)

[Opinion] No One Fix for Social Security
Excerpt:"Personal accounts are a valid choice, and one I've supported in the past and continue to support. But accounts aren't exclusive to tax increases or benefit cuts; they don't, as I'll explain, reduce the need for these other choices."(Andrew C. Biggs of the American Enterprise Institute, via National Public Radio)

[Opinion] Retiree Ponzi Scheme, the U.S. Social Security System, Is $16 Trillion Short
Excerpt:"If we re-label Social Security'payroll'taxes as'general revenue wage taxes,'Social Security's fiscal gap increases by $60 trillion, and the fiscal gap of all other government activities falls by $60 trillion, leaving the overall $202 trillion gap unchanged. Even by the Trustees'measure, there's a massive problem. Coming up with $16 trillion requires permanently raising revenue or cutting benefits by 26 percent, starting now. In other words, the program is 26 percent underfunded."(Laurence Kotlikoff via Bloomberg L.P.)

Earnings Sharing in the U.S. Social Security System: A Microsimulation Analysis of Future Female Retirees
Excerpt:"As part of an ongoing effort to analyze the distributional implications of potential policy reforms to the U.S. Social Security system, we consider the widely discussed reform of earnings sharing. Such an approach has been viewed as a way to'update'Social Security's family benefits based on marital status and as a means to make the system more marriage neutral."(Social Science Research Network)

Social Security Cuts Weighed by Entitlement Commission
Excerpt:"In addition to raising the retirement age, which is now set to reach age 67 in 2027, specific cuts under consideration include lowering benefits for wealthier retires and trimming annual cost-of-living increases, perhaps only for wealthier retirees, people familiar with the talks said."(The Wall Street Journal)

[Opinion] New Study Identifies Revenues for Doubling of Social Security Payout
Excerpt:"Despite Social Security's new role as a de facto national retirement plan, many budget deficit hawks are calling for cuts to it to decrease America's indebtedness. But that would only make things worse for retiring Americans. The real problem with Social Security is that it is not robust enough to play this role as retirement security of last resort . . . . The bigger problem is that its payout is so meager."(CommonDreams.org)

[Opinion] Mr. President, It's Time to Climb the Social Security Actuarial Learning Curve
Excerpt:"The Democratic doctrine requires doing everything possible to preserve Social Security in its current form. That includes using sentimental rhetoric to trumpet good news while obscuring any bad news, such as acknowledging that this year the vaunted program will pay out more than it takes in. The Republican doctrine requires not lifting a finger to get in the way of Democrats'preservation effort."(Amity Shlaes via Bloomberg.com)

August Recess Has Democrats Pummeling Republicans for Wanting to Trim Social Security, and Republicans Hammering Democrats for Favoring Tax Increases
Excerpt:"A bipartisan deficit commission is set to issue recommendations Dec. 1, and the Bush tax cuts are scheduled to expire at year's end. Many economists say any strategy for lowering the deficit would likely require some form of tax increases and a cut in benefits under entitlement programs such as Social Security, among other things."(The Wall Street Journal)

[Opinion] The Social Security Program Is Under Attack
Excerpt:"Rumor has it that President Obama's deficit commission may call for deep benefit cuts, in particular a sharp rise in the retirement age."(The New York Times; free registration required)

Quick Answers to Common Questions about Social Security
This Q&A was developed to accompany the Academy brief,'Social Security Finances: Findings of the 2010 Trustees Report."(National Academy of Social Insurance)

Social Security Jitters? Better Prepare Now
Excerpt:"[E]ven if it's not clear yet what, if anything, will be done to Social Security and when, we thought it would be useful to look at a worst-case possibility -- to assume that benefits will not continue to be as generous. This is especially important as pensions continue to fade away."(New York Times; free registration required)

Medicare Stronger, Social Security Worse in Short Run, Report Finds
Excerpt:"Medicare will remain financially solvent for 12 additional years, until 2029, because of the cost-cutting measures in President Obama's recently enacted health care legislation, the program's trustees projected on Thursday."(New York Times; free registration required)

[Opinion] The Social Security'Problem'Can Be Solved
Excerpt:"Fact is, there is no Social Security crisis. The system isn't broke. There's financial trouble down the road but it's manageable. Yet the title of the House Ways&Means subcommittee on Social Security hearing on July 15 got to the essence of the matter: Social Security at 75 Years: More Necessary Now Than Ever."(Bloomberg Businessweek)

[Opinion] Social Security's Finances Stable in the Short Term, but Most Experts Agree Program Needs to Be Bolstered for the Long Term
Excerpt:"[R]ven if it's not clear yet what, if anything, will be done to Social Security and when, we thought it would be useful to look at a worst-case possibility -- to assume that benefits will not continue to be as generous. This is especially important as pensions continue to fade away."(The New York Times; free registration required)

Workers with Low Social Security: Implications for Reform
Excerpt:"To meet long-term, low-wage workers'needs, policymakers could adjust Social Security's bend points or replacement percentages; create a new minimum benefit; or adjust current law's special minimum benefit so it provides support greater than the poverty level."(Urban Institute)

Adjusting Social Security Benefits for Changes in the Cost of Living
Excerpt:"This brief examines different price indices that might be used to adjust Social Security benefits for changes in the cost of living."(Urban Institute)

[Opinion] Fact Sheet: Raising Social Security's Retirement Age (PDF)
2 pages. Excerpt:"[Raising the retirement age] would promote work at older ages, improve the system's solvency by shortening retirements andreducing lifetime benefits, and better target benefits to the oldest Americans. It could, however, create hardship for workers with health problems unless Congress improves the disability safety net."(Urban Institute)

[Opinion] The Right Reason for Saving Social Security
Excerpt:"The system won't'go belly-up,'as some scare-mongers allege, but it will require dramatic adjustment either in benefits, revenues or both."(The Brookings Institution)

[Opinion] House Committee Hearing on Social Security at 75 Years: More Necessary Than Ever (PDF)
10 pages. Excerpt:"The best way to assess the affordability of Social Security in the future is to compare benefits scheduled under current law with the size of the entire economy at the time benefits are due to be paid."(National Academy of Social Insurance)

The Impact of Social Security Cuts on Retiree Income (PDF)
22 pages. Excerpt:"This paper assesses the cuts implied by three common proposals for reducing Social Security benefits: 1) Adopting a'progressive price'indexation (PPI) formula for the basic benefit structure, 2) Accelerating and extending the increase in the normal retirement age, and 3) Reducing the annual cost-of-living adjustment.It calculates the implied cut in benefits and projected income for various age groups and income quintiles of retirees and near-retirees."(Center for Economic and Policy Research)

Lifetime Earnings Patterns, the Distribution of Future Social Security Benefits, and the Impact of Pension Reform
Excerpt:"This paper describes an analysis of career earnings patterns developed for predicting the impact of Social Security reform. We produce estimates of age-earnings profiles of American men and women born between 1931 and 1960, obtained from Social Security earnings records. We forecast future individual earnings and estimate the shape and prevalence of nine stylized earnings patterns of U.S. workers."(Urban Institute)

[Opinion] President's Deficit Commission Not Likely to Agree on Tax Increases, But May Recommend Social Security Reform
Excerpt:"One reform that could win bipartisan support would, over time, raise the Social Security retirement age to 70."(The Wall Street Journal)

Lawmakers Defend Social Security's Chief Actuary in Clash with S.S. Commissioner
Excerpt:"In interviews and in letters to the administration, lawmakers said they relied on the actuary, Stephen C. Goss, for objective analysis of proposals to change Social Security. And they made clear that he should not be reassigned or demoted as Congress prepared for a re-examination of the program . . . ."(The New York Times; free registration required)

White Paper from Congressional Budget Office: Social Security Policy Options [July 2010] (PDF)
67 pages. (Congressional Budget Office)

European Union Might Raise Retirement Age to 70
The proposal was made by the executive of the EU. Details are forthcoming in a paper to be issued today (Wednesday). (AP via New York Times)

Social Security Policy Options (PDF)
Excerpt:"This CBO study examines a variety of approaches to changing Social Security, updating an earlier work, Menu of Social Security Options, which CBO published in May 2005."(U.S. Congressional Budget Office)

[Opinion] House Leaders Offer Common Sense on Social Security
Excerpt:"In short, Mr. Boehner and Mr. Hoyer are talking about sensible adjustments that would achieve significant debt reduction at modest social cost."(The Washington Post; free registration required)

[Opinion] Should We Raise the Retirement Age?
Excerpt:"On the face of it, lifting the retirement age [for Social Security and Medicare] makes sense. Americans are living longer, so they could retire later and still enjoy their golden years. Except??'only some of us are living longer."(The Century Foundation)

[Opinion] Will Obama Panel Cripple Social Security with'Minor'Tweaks?
Excerpt:"The instrument causing Social Security advocates anxiety today is the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, which President Obama created in February to address the long-term budget deficit. Everything, including so-called entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security, should be on the table, he said, prompting some progressives to worry that he's plotting to offer Republicans cuts in Social Security in exchange for their agreeing to tax increases."(Los Angeles Times)

Is 67 the New 55 for Retirement?
Excerpt:"There are fierce arguments looming over whether taxes should be raised or Social Security benefits should be cut, either outright or through an increase in the retirement age."(National Public Radio)

[Opinion] A Brief History of Attacks on Social Security
Excerpt:"[T]his commentary is about ideology. It is to remind readers that the same attacks on Social Security have been going on -- in different guises -- for at least four decades."(The Century Foundation)

Social Security Reform: Changes to the Benefit Formula and Taxation of Benefits, June 2010 Update (PDF)
8 pages. Excerpt:"To protect the program's solvency, policymakers have been considering various reform options including raising the age atwhich unreduced benefits are paid, reducing benefit payments, and increasing tax income. . . . [T]his issue brief focuses on two possible options for reform: changing the benefit formulas for workers or spouses and changing the federal income tax treatment of Social Security benefits."(American Academy of Actuaries)

[Opinion] Deficit Hawks Should Listen to the Public on Social Security, and Learn the Facts
Excerpt:"Deficit hawks plotting to cut Social Security to reduce the deficit are seriously misguided. The truth is that Social Security contributes not a single penny to the deficit. Indeed, it is the poster child for fiscal responsibility."(The Century Foundation)

Distributional Effects of Alternative Social Security Reforms: Details Matter
Excerpt:"Using a microsimulation model, we show distributional effects of illustrative benefit-cut and revenue-enhancement options on retirees. Results show that impacts differ greatly for workers in different generations and age groups and with different lifetime earnings."(Urban Institute)

Models of the Actuarial Balance of the Pay-As-You-Go Pension System: A Review and Some Policy Recommendations
Excerpt:"This paper reviews the two main methods used by government Social Security departments to draw up the so-called actuarial balance of the pay-as-you-go pension system, focusing especially on results, methodology and actuarial issues. The specific models studied are those in the United States, Japan and Sweden, and their main differences and similarities are highlighted."(Social Science Research Network)

Mass Protests Against Raising French Minimum Retirement Age to 60
Excerpt:"The current government, struggling to bring its swollen deficit under control, says it has no choice but to raise it."(New York Times; free registration required)

[Opinion] New Approaches Needed for Funding Old Age
Excerpt:"Following the global financial crisis, troubled retirement systems around the world face new challenges that may result in sharply reduced income for retirees -- as well as the possibility that younger workers will need to work much longer . . . ."(Knowledge@Wharton)

The Social Security Fix-It Book (PDF)
28 pages. Excerpt:"A review of the program, its financing problem, and the leading proposals for eliminating the shortfall. Everything the earnest but overburdened citizen needs to know. Cheerfully narrated and handsomely presented in 28 pages.'(Center for Retirement Research at Boston College)

[Opinion] Social Security and the Budget
Excerpt:"In contrast to rising health care and interests costs, Social Security's growing benefits relative to taxes received represent only a modest part of the nation's major fiscal problems. Nonetheless, Social Security serves as the flagship of social welfare policy, and it places increasing demands on the economy as annual benefits grow, life expectancies increase, and the baby boomers retire."(Urban Institute)

Social Security Modernization: Options to Address Solvency and Benefit Adequacy (PDF)
99 pages. The report was prepared by committee staff with assistance from the Congressional Research Service, the Government Accountability Office and the Social Security Administration. (U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging)

Social Security and the Federal Budget (PDF)
14 pages. Excerpt:"This primer is intended as a resource for those who worry that the sudden concern about deficits may be a ploy to cut Social Security and other key social insurance programs. Are we really on a collision course with an entitlements iceberg, or is it just a question of fixing our health care system and ensuring that high-income taxpayers pay their share?"(Economic Policy Institute)

Distributional Effects of Raising the Social Security Payroll Tax (PDF)
6 pages. Excerpt:"This policy brief analyzes the lifetime tax effects of two options for addressing the Social Security system's long-range solvency by raising the Social Security payroll tax rate."(U.S. Social Security Administration)

[Opinion] Only a Brave Few Acknowledge an Entitlement Crisis
Excerpt:"A recent debate on'Fox News Sunday'illustrated the differences between the few politicians who are, and the many who are not, willing to face facts. Marco Rubio, the former speaker of Florida's House of Representatives who is challenging Gov. Charles Crist for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination, made news by stating the obvious. Asked how the nation might address the projected $17.5 trillion in unfunded Social Security liabilities, Rubio said that we should consider two changes for people 10 or more years from retirement."(The Washington Post; free registration required)

Social Security, Benefit Claiming and Labor Force Participation: A Quantitative General Equilibrium Approach
Excerpt:"We build a general equilibrium model with endogenous saving, labor force participation, work hours and Social Security benefit claiming, in which overlapping generations of individuals face income, survival, and health expenditure risks in incomplete markets. We use the model to study the impact of three Social Security reforms: reductions in benefits and payroll taxes, an increase in the early retirement age from 62 to 64, and an increase in the normal retirement age from 66 to 68."(Center for Retirement Research at Boston College)

The Next Big Issue? Social Security
Excerpt:"While its looming problems are not of the scale of those afflicting Medicare, it now stands as the likeliest source of the sort of large savings needed to bring projected annual deficits to sustainable levels, many budget analysts agree. And, they say, packaging future reductions in the retirement program that Democrats zealously defend with tax increases that Republicans typically oppose would have the makings of a grand compromise to shrink the debt."(The New York Times; free registration required)

Recession Has Pushed U.S. Social Security System Into the Red Sooner Than Expected
Excerpt:"For the first time in a generation, America's largest social program is spending more on benefits than it's collecting in taxes. And that has fueled talk once again about the need for Social Security reform. In a January poll by the Pew Research Center for the People&the Press, Social Security ranked as respondents'biggest concern after jobs, the economy and terrorism. Two-thirds said it should be a top priority for the president and Congress."(AARP)

[Opinion] Proposal for Reducing the Federal Deficit: Make 2011 Be a'No COLA'Year
Excerpt:"I propose that we designate 2011 as the No COLA year. Under this proposal, in 2011 no cost-of-living adjustments would be implemented in the federal budget or tax law. When COLAs resume for 2012, any inflation which occurred in 2010 will be permanently disregarded. In a spirit of universal sacrifice, the suspension of COLAs in 2011 would be across-the-board. . . . The alternative of doing nothing is worse and will, in the long run, result in greater taxes and more disruption to entitlement and other spending programs."(Prof. Edward Zelinsky via OUPblog.com)

Robert J. Myers, Actuary Who Shaped Social Security Program, Dies at 97
Excerpt:"In 1934, in the depths of the Great Depression, Mr. Myers was unexpectedly offered a six-week stint on the Committee on Economic Security, a Roosevelt administration panel that was drawing up blueprints for America's first comprehensive social insurance programs. The six-week job turned out to be a career that spanned decades and placed Mr. Myers at the center of America's great debates about the government's role in the economy and how to create public safety nets affordably."(New York Times; free registration required)

Social Security and the Boomers'Retirement
Excerpt:"Social Security's surplus is now expected to last until 2037 . . . . In addition, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported in September that the program will be operating at a deficit in 2010 and 2011 -- the Congressional Budget Office sees costs exceeding tax revenues by $10 billion this year and by $9 billion next year. The onsalught of ominous data carries with it a flood of dire media reports. . . .'Alarmists who claim that Social Security won't be around when today's young workers retire misunderstand or misrepresent the . . . projections,'Kathy Ruffing, of the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, told CNBC."(On Wall Street)

[Opinion] Bipartisan Commission To Tackle Social Security and Medicare Reform Issues
Excerpt:"In the wake of the failure by Congress to agree to a binding commission to restore fiscal stability by recommending changes to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, President Barack Obama has established by executive order the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform."(Wolters Kluwer)

Tough Times Require Strong Social Security Benefits: Views on Social Security
Excerpt:"Plagued by higher unemployment rates, fewer assets, and worries about paying their monthly bills, African Americans and Hispanics are especially supportive of strengthening Social Security. For example, when given a choice between cutting taxes and government spending or strengthening Social Security in response to the economic crisis and large deficit, two in three Americans (66%) ? including 73 percent of African Americans, 67 percent of Hispanics, and 66 percent of whites ? support strengthening Social Security over cutting its benefits."(National Academy of Social Insurance)

Call for Proposals: Innovative Projects to Strengthen Social Security for Vulnerable Populations
Excerpt:"The Ford Foundation has asked the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI) to serve as a regranting agent as part of its work on improving long-term economic security for low-income individuals. The purpose of the project is to support constituency building, education outside of the beltway, and user-friendly, research-based information to strengthen the adequacy of Social Security for vulnerable groups . . . ."(National Academy of Social Insurance)

The Research Contrtributions of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College (PDF)
Excerpt:"This article reviews the CRR's research contributionsover its 10-year history and their implications for Social Security and retirement income policy in three major areas: (1) Social Security's long-term financing shortfall, (2) the adequacy of retirement incomes, and (3) labor force participation at older ages as a means to improve retirement income security."(U.S. Social Security Administration)

The Retirement Research Consortrtium: Past, Present, and Future (PDF)
7 pages. Excerpt:"A series of articles in this issue of the Bulletin commemorate the research and policy accomplishments of the three centers of the RRC. Each of the following three articles, one by each center of the RRC, highlight that particular center's contributions to research and policymaking on Social Security and retirement. In this introductory article, we provide an overview of the RRC from SSA's perspective, a brief history of its development, a discussion of the aims of the consortium,and some thoughts on its future."(U.S. Social Security Administration)

Fixing Social Security: Adequate Benefits, Adequate Financing
Excerpt:"The purpose of this report is to help analysts, policymakers, journalists, constituent organizations, and interested citizens consider how to bring SocialSecurity into long-range balance in ways that address concerns about benefit adequacy. The report outlines approximately 30 options for putting Social Security's finances into 75-year balance and more than 10 ways to make Social Security more adequate for those who rely on it. All options have long-range cost estimates from Social Security actuaries. Benefit adequacy options in the report target such financially vulnerable groups as: The oldest beneficiaries (over 85 years); Widowed spouses of low-earning couples; Low-paid workers generally; Workers with gaps in paid work due to childcare; and Students in college or vocational school who have lost parental support due to death or disability. Other adequacy options would increase benefits across the board for current and future beneficiaries."(National Academy of Social Insurance)

Few Options Remain to Repair Social Security System
Excerpt:"Some people have said that, given the weight of its other financial obligations, the federal government will be forced to renege on its Social Security obligations. But experts, both liberal and conservative, say that scenario is highly unlikely.'The problem is really the government as a whole is in a deficit position. That doesn't mean they won't meet that particular commitment, but the question of how we're going to meet all of our commitments fiscally is kind of up in the air,'said Eric Toder, an institute fellow at the Urban Institute in Washington.'I don't think that's one they're likely to default on.'Still, people paying into the system now are highly likely to get less than is being promised."(The Tribune-Review Publishing Co.)

Issue Brief on Understanding Assumptions Used to Evaluate Social Security's Financial Condition (PDF)
This issue brief describes the major assumptions used in projections of Social Security's financial condition and how variations in the assumptions affect the results. (American Academy of Actuaries)

Social Security's Future and Your Retirement
Excerpt:"By 2037, the trustees reported, the surplus in the Social Security trust fund will be completely spent, which is four years sooner than the estimate in last year's trustees report. At that point, Social Security tax collections would be sufficient to pay only 76% of promised benefits, according to the trustees'estimate. [Vanguard] asked Olivia S. Mitchell, Ph.D., one of the world's foremost authorities on pensions and retirement, to explain Social Security's looming funding shortfall and the implications it has for future retirees."(The Vanguard Group, Inc.)

Americans Agree on How to Fix Social Security, According to Survey
Excerpt:"A survey conducted jointly by the Rockefeller Foundation and the National Academy of Social Insurance found that 90% of Americans are concerned about the program's ability to pay benefits for the next generation. Because these same people believe strongly that workers should have financial security in their retirement, most want Social Security's finances strengthened. . . . The most striking finding in the survey is that most Americans are willing to pay higher payroll taxes to preserve the Social Security program. When asked to respond to the statement:'It is critical that we preserve Social Security for future generations, even if it means increasing working Americans'contributions to Social Security,'77% of those surveyed said they agreed . . . ."(Economic Policy Institute)

Social Security Reform: How Different Options Might Affect Future Funding (PDF)
Pages 13-18 of 20 pages. Excerpt:"This article analyzes various potential reform provisions that have been widely discussed that would affect the benefit levels and program revenues of Social Security. This analysis also discusses the potential impact of these provisions on the financial status of the OASDI program. The provisions discussed are those that would: Lower the scheduled increase in future benefit levels by changes to the benefit formula. Change the contribution and benefit base (amount of earnings that are taxable and used for the calculation of benefits under OASDI) and the taxation of benefits. Increase the retirement age. All of these approaches have been part of various comprehensive reform proposals over the last two decades."(Employee Benefit Research Institute)