Retirees Get 265% of What They Paid Into Social Security—but Will Young Americans?

Workers born in the 1960s are on track to receive Social Security benefits worth more than 2.6 times the taxes they personally paid into the program, according to a new analysis.The findings, from the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), arrive as Social Security’s retirement trust fund approaches a looming insolvency crisis that could trigger a 22% cut to scheduled benefits.The issue is already surfacing in Senate races across the country, as candidates elected this year could still be in office when Congress is forced to shore up the program or allow its reserves to run dry.“Social Security is YOUR money,” Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, a Democrat, said in a post on X earlier this month. “You paid in—and you should be able to count on those benefits.”But the new analysis complicates that popular framing. It found that beneficiaries exceed everything they personally paid in Social Security taxes after only three years of retirement. After roughly six years, they exceed the combined contributions made by both the worker and their employer.As insolvency approaches, the findings raise a much bigger question: Who will absorb the cost of maintaining a retirement sy...