New Report Shines Light on Seniors’ Financial Struggles
A recent report by the National Council on Aging discovered that about one out of every three seniors (persons over the age of 65) is economically insecure. This means that he or she is living at or below 200% of the federal poverty level – that’s currently $25,760 per year for a single person. It’s not surprising so many older Americans are struggling when you realize that Social Security pays, on average, about $18,500 per year in retirement benefits – far below the federal poverty level.
The root of the problem is that Social Security benefits are modest at best. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Social Security benefits replace only about 40 percent of past earnings for someone who worked all of their adult life at average earnings. When you take into consideration that Medicare premiums are deducted from Social Security checks, the situation becomes even more dire. Something must be done to help hardworking Americans live a respectable life during retirement and not need to struggle to make ends meet.
A Simple Solution
One answer would be for Congress to enact the Social Security Expansion Act. This comprehensive piece of legislation seeks to reform Social Security by expanding and strengthening benefits proven to reduce senior poverty and improve retirement security. One of its key tenets is to increase the minimum benefit for lifetime low-wage earners based upon their number of years it the workforce.
In addition to increasing minimum Social Security benefits to provide higher payments to seniors and greatly reduce senior poverty, this bill would increase benefits for most recipients by about $65 per month, establish a more realistic annual cost-of-living adjustment based on the unique spending habits of seniors which is often affected by the increasing cost of healthcare, and guarantee the long-term solvency of the Social Security program.
If this is something you can stand behind, please join The Seniors Trust in calling on lawmakers to pass the Social Security Expansion Act. You are not alone – astonishingly, surveys shows unanimous support for its passage with 100% of respondents saying Congress should pass The Social Security Expansion Act to expand benefits and protect the financial security of retired Americans.
