Social Security checks are projected to be cut by $540 a month in six years

Por Graig Graziosi — – World RSS Feed

The trust fund that maintains the reserve money used to cover differences between earned income and annual Social Security benefits will be insolvent in six years if action is not taken

Graig Graziosi in Washington, D.C. Thursday 24 September 2026 17:55 BST

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Those who do – or soon will – rely on Social Security may find their checks lighter by up to $540 come 2032.

The latest figures from the Congressional Budget Office show that the trust fund responsible for covering Social Security shortfalls will be running out of its reserves around 2032.

Senators Bill Cassidy and Dick Durbin are among a group of lawmakers attempting to find a bipartisan solution to ensure American seniors don’t start the coming decade in dire financial straits.

In an op-ed published in The Washington Examiner late last month, Cassidy and Durbin warned that Social Security will face a steep 26 percent cut if it goes insolvent in 2032.

Under that kind of cut, someone expecting to receive an average $2,086 per month benefit would lose $542 per month in 2032.

Social Security recipients could see a 26 percent cut to their benefits when the program’s reserve trust fund becomes insolvent in 2032 ( AFP/Getty )

The senators said in their op-ed that there are potential solutions to the problem, but that Congress refuses to hear them.

“There is no shortage of ideas for strengthening Social Security. Some would adjust benefits, others would raise revenues, and still others would seek to grow the resources available to the program. Reasonable people can disagree about the best approach,” they wrote. “What is indefensible is refusing to debate seriously any approach at all while the program moves closer to insolvency. Congress does not lack the proposals; it lacks the willingness to consider them.”

According to the senators, there is even opposition to them establishing rules for considering solutions to the Social Security issue.

“Currently, a bill to establish a process for reviewing proposals is being considered, but even setting up a process to consider proposals has opposition!” they wrote, but noted that “telling Americans that the issue is too politically difficult to discuss is certainly not a plan.”

Social Security is built on earned wages. The trust fund that is projected to run out in 2032 was established as a reserve to help cover the differences when the costs to maintain the payouts exceeded the money collected via payroll taxes, but the reserves are quickly running out.

Debates over the Social Security issue in the past often trend toward either raising taxes on earned income, cutting other benefits, or increasing the retirement age. Some progressive lawmakers and advocates have also suggested taxing the unearned income of the nation’s top earners to ensure that the ultra wealthy are equitably contributing to the program.

“There are only two options for Social Security’s future: make the wealthy contribute their fair share, including on unearned investment income. Or cut Social Security’s hard-earned benefits,” Nancy Altman, president of the Social Security Works advocacy group, told MarketWatch. “Every candidate running for Congress needs to tell voters which of those options they support.”

Cassidy, Durbin, and a group of similarly concerned lawmakers that includes Senators Thom Tillis, Tim Kaine, John Cornyn, Angus King, and Alan Armstrong, are proposing the bipartisan Protecting Retirement Opportunities and Maintaining Income Security for Everyone (PROMISE) Act to get moving on a solution to the 2032 problem.

The PROMISE Act would require the Social Security Advisory Board to collect public input and come up with legislation that would keep the Social Security reserve fund solvent for at least 50 years.

Once the SSAB comes up with a fix, the proposal would be sent to the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee to consider and amend it before sending it off for a final vote.

It’s not so much a solution as much as it is a framework for finding one, but that distinction is not lost on the senators.

“History is not going to remember whether Congress voted on a bill merely to set up a process by which to consider a solution,” they wrote. “It will remember whether Congress acted before retirees faced unnecessary reductions to the benefits on which they depend.”