The Employment Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) has released another part of its ongoing study to determine the impact of potential changes to the Social Security system upon future retirees.
While many Western democracies that suffer from the same problems as the U.S. have taken steps to address the inadequacies of their current social security systems, nothing has as yet been done in this country.
Because various Social Security reform alternatives under consideration would phase in benefit reductions, the cuts for younger workers would be larger than the cuts that middle-age or older workers would experience, the EBRI says in the most recent component of its ongoing study, which builds upon results released in April. For example, the benefit cuts for those born in 1962 would range from a $300 decrease in annual benefits for beneficiaries with the smallest benefits to about $3,000 for those with the highest benefits. These annual reductions would grow steadily across age cohorts, reaching $2,200 to $10,370 for the 1997 birth cohort and from $3,790 to $18,360 for the 2022 birth cohort.
