Social Security trust fund set to be depleted by 2035 estimates U.S. Treasury
John, new government estimates this afternoon show the Social Security trust funds that support retiree and disability benefits are set to be depleted by 2035. Now that is one year later than forecast last year, and at that time the fund would only be able to pay out about 83% of benefits. On the Medicare side, there’s a slightly better outlook. The hospital insurance trust fund that covers hospital stays will be able to pay 100% of benefits until 2036. That’s five years longer than previous estimates. Now the Treasury Department says that these upward adjustments are mostly due to a stronger than expected economy as compared to last year’s forecast. Americans are working, and they’re earning more money, and they’re therefore contributing more money through their taxes to these programs. Treasuries also assuming a lower long-term disability rate in these programs. So both increased revenue and reduced costs here are helping extend these timelines. Despite the improvement from last year, though, it’s still clear that these programs will have to start paying less than full benefits out to about 70 million recipients in just over a decade, unless Congress makes some sort of a change before then.