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On June 2, 2022, the Social Security Board of Trustees released its annual report on the program’s financial and actuarial status. In 2021, Social Security paid benefit payments to about 65 million beneficiaries and the total cost of the program was $1,145. According to the report, the combined assets of the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) and Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Funds are projected to be depleted in 2035 (one year later than projected last year). Should this occur, Social Security would be able to pay only 80% of scheduled annual benefits after 2035 through the end of the projection period in 2096. 

Furthermore, the OASI Trust Fund is projected to be depleted in 2034 (the same as last year’s estimate) with 77% of benefits payable at that time. However, the trustees dramatically revised their estimates for the lifespan of the DI Trust Fund. The DI Trust Fund is not projected to be depleted during the 75-year period ending in 2096. According to the report, the significant change in the reserve depletion is mainly due to the continuing favorable trends in the disability program. Since 2010, disability applications have been declining and the amount of disabled-worker beneficiaries receiving payments has been decreasing since 2014. 

​Over the 75-year long-range period from 2022 to 2096, the actuarial deficit of the combined OASI and DI Trust Funds decreased from 3.54% in 2021 to 3.42% of taxable payroll. Expressed in relation to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the annual cost of Social Security benefits is projected to increase from 5.0% of GDP in 2022 to a peak of about 6.2% in 2077, and declines to 5.9% by 2096. In the 2022 report, changes were made in legislation, methodology, regulation, economic, demographic, and programmatic assumptions, and recent observed experience. 

The trustees recommended that lawmakers address the trust fund deficits soon in order to gradually phase-in the necessary changes to allow workers and beneficiaries time to adjust to them as well as to protect future generations.

The report is available here.