Social Security Burns Through Reserves

Social Security Burns Through Reserves

The US public pension system will exhaust its reserves in 2033, three years earlier than previously estimated, as the gap between income and payments continues to grow, according to an official report Monday.

Projections show that Social Security, which currently sends crucial retirement and disability payments to about 55 million people, will not be able to meet all of its obligations to Americans 21 years from now.

While the assets of the Social Security system, the so-called trust fund, hit $2.7 trillion at the end of last year, the shortfall between the fund’s tax income and payments made during the year rose to $148 billion — and is expected to increase 11.5 percent this year.

They added that the shortfall would “continue throughout the short-range period and beyond.”

A parallel report showed the resources of Medicare, the government’s health benefits program, will exhaust its surplus funds by 2024, unchanged from last year’s report.

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