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Social Security - FAQs
Q. Will Social Security be there when I retire?
A. Yes. Social Security will be able to pay 100% of benefits for nearly 40 years, even if no changes are made; after 2042, payroll contributions will cover 73% of promised benefits, according to the Trustees of Social Security. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects that Social Security will be able to pay full benefits even longer, until 2052, and 81% of benefits after that. Steps should be taken to strengthen Social Security to ensure adequate benefits for future generations, but with some adjustments, the program can continue to serve women and families for the next century and beyond.
Q. Will my Social Security benefit be enough to live on when I retire?
A. Social Security benefits will vary depending on your earnings history and, if you were married for at least 10 years, that of your spouse or ex-spouse. The Social Security Administration can help you estimate future benefits. But keep in mind that Social Security benefits were designed to provide a secure basic income in retirement, not to be your sole source of income. And even with Social Security, nearly one in five elderly women living alone—widowed, divorced, and never-married women—is poor. The National Women's Law Center is working to improve Social Security and related policies to reduce poverty among elderly women, and encourages all women to save for retirement and consider pension benefits when they decide where to work.
Q. As a woman, why should I care about Social Security?
A. Women are a majority of Social Security recipients and depend more on Social Security income than men do. Women on average live longer than men, and enter retirement with smaller savings and less pension income than men because they generally earn lower wages and take more time out of the labor force to care for children and other family members. So, Social Security's special protections—guaranteed lifetime benefits, adjustments for inflation, progressive benefit formula that helps lower earners, and benefits for the spouses and survivors of workers who retire, are disabled, or die—are especially important to women.
Q. How would shifting from Social Security to private accounts ("privatization") affect Social Security and my retirement?
A. Diverting payroll taxes from the Social Security Trust Fund into private accounts would make Social Security's financial situation worse, not better. Social Security would have less money to pay benefits to current and future retirees and other families that depend on Social Security. And private accounts—which depend on how much an individual has to contribute and how well her investments perform—cannot duplicate the special protections offered by Social Security. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently analyzed a privatization plan developed by the commission appointed by President Bush. CBO projected that under this plan, future retirees would have less income from the combination of their private account and reduced Social Security benefit than they would have from the current Social Security system.
