Restoring Financial Sustainability to Social Security Program

Social Security provides retirement benefits to millions of individuals and families, as well as benefits to survivors, other dependents, and disabled workers. The total long-term financing shortfall currently facing the Social Security program is significant and growing over time, yet action to restore financial stability has yet to be taken. Raising retirement ages for those who can work longer has the potential both to improve program solvency while encouraging behavior that would help support a stronger economy over the long term. Social Security Administration (SSA) actuarial projections suggest that gradually raising full retirement eligibility to age 70 would reduce the Social Security Trust Fund 75-year imbalance by about a third, saving hundreds of billions of dollars over the long term. GAO has recommended that Congress review retirement eligibility ages for federal programs, including those for Social Security, Medicare, and private employer pension plans, although no action has been taken. Also, taking narrower actions, such as requiring IRS to collect additional information on existing pension reporting forms, would enable SSA to more accurately manage its benefit offset programs and could generate hundreds of millions of dollars. Such a measure was considered in prior Social Security legislation but was not included in the final bill.

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Social Security: Issues Regarding the Coverage of Public Employees

GAO-08-248T, November 6, 2007

Summary (HTML)   Highlights Page (PDF)   Full Report (PDF, 16 pages)   Accessible Text

Retirement Decisions: Federal Policies Offer Mixed Signals about When to Retire

GAO-07-753, July 11, 2007

Summary (HTML)   Highlights Page (PDF)   Full Report (PDF, 79 pages)   Accessible Text   Recommendations (HTML)

Social Security Reform: Implications of Different Indexing Choices

GAO-06-804, September 14, 2006

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21st Century Challenges: Reexamining the Base of the Federal Government

GAO-05-325SP, February 1, 2005

Summary (HTML)   Full Report (PDF, 94 pages)   Accessible Text