The date when the Social Security trust fund will be unable to pay 100% of benefits just got moved up.
Projections in the latest annual Social Security Trustees report, released Tuesday , moved the date when the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Fund reserves run out up by three months, to the fourth quarter of 2032. At that point, it will only have enough to pay 78% of scheduled benefits, if no changes are instituted before then.
Social Security is a pay-as-you-go system, with money coming in primarily from payroll taxes and then flowing out to pay benefits. Reserves that had built up over time are close to being depleted. As the population shrinks from lower fertility rates and less immigration, fewer people are paying into the system.
Over 70 million people received social security benefits in April 2026, netting an average of $1,932.80 each month, according to the Social Security Administration .
“Washington is sleepwalking into a retirement crisis, allowing our nation’s most important trust funds to go insolvent at the expense of over 70 million beneficiaries who count on these programs,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, in a statement. “Politicians have known about and neglected these programs for 40 years now.”
When Social Security’s old age and disability funds are combined, the year full benefits are projected to fall is in 2034, unchanged from last year. Medicare’s hospital insurance trust fund won’t have enough funds to pay full benefits by mid-2033, three months earlier than projected.