More Americans are confident they will receive payments when they retire, despite persistent worries that Social Security may go bankrupt within the next ten years. A recent Gallup poll reveals that over the past ten or so years, confidence in Social Security’s future has increased throughout the age range. Approximately 50% of American adults who are not retired believe they will get retirement payments from the Social Security Administration. This represents a significant increase from the merely 33% who believed the same in 2010.
Growing Confidence Over Social Security Benefits
According to the results of the most recent Gallup poll, opinions towards Social Security among Americans, both retired and non-retired, are essentially unchanged from the 1980s through the 1990s and the early 2000s. It seems that optimism peaked in 2010 as well as 2015 and is currently typically increasing. The percentage of Americans who are not retired who stated they anticipate receiving Social Security benefits in retirement has increased from 37% in 2010 to 50%. Among non-retirees aged 50 and beyond, optimism is highest: 66% anticipate receiving benefits at retirement. Nonetheless, this group stood out because, since 2015, their confidence in getting Social Security has dropped by 3 percentage points.
With only 37% of non-retirees between the ages of 30 and 49 believing they will receive benefits, this group has the lowest expectations for Social Security earnings in retirement. That is still significantly more than the 25% of people who in 2010 felt optimistic about their retirement benefits. The opinions of the most youthful non-retired adults, who are between the ages of 18 and 29, also significantly improved about Social Security. From 34% in 2015 to almost 50% now, people believe they will receive benefits.
Those who have already reached retirement age also exhibit greater assurance over their Social Security benefits. The majority of pensioners (53%) believe they will continue to get their full benefits, despite 43% of them believing their payments will eventually be decreased. From 37% in 2010 who stated they expected to continue receiving full benefits, it represents a significant increase.
The Future
Though academics have some doubts, the public’s view of Social Security payouts may be more optimistic now. With the trust fund intended to finance Social Security hurtling into insolvency, lawmakers and economists have been sounding alarms for decades about the program’s viability. The public policy organization Committee to Have Responsible Federal Budget’s U.S. Budget Watch 2024 research estimates that users of Social Security would face a universal 23% drop in benefits if nothing is done to address the program’s budget problems. The majority of Gallup survey participants (61%) express a preference for increased Social Security levies over lower benefits from the federal government.
