The Social Security trust funds continue to face financial pressure that could lead to reduced benefit payments in the future.
Last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act gave seniors who collect Social Security a tax reduction, which accelerated the shortfall, according to the Social Security Administration Board of Trustees’ annual report, released today. Lower fertility rates and reduced immigration also contributed to the speedier decline, the trustees reported. The funds have generally been under more pressure as the population ages and more Baby Boomers retire and claim their Social Security benefits.
For more stories like this, sign up for the PLANADVISERdash daily newsletter.
According to the report, the main trust fund holds enough money to pay full benefits to retirees and other beneficiaries until 2032, when benefit payments would have to be reduced, one year earlier than projected by last year’s report and two years earlier than projected by the 2024 report.
The combined asset reserves of the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance trust funds are forecast to have enough revenue to pay 83% of benefits due at that time, a 2-percentage-point increase from last year’s projection. Combining the two funds would allow the SSA to pay full benefits until 2034, although the funds could not be combined without a change in federal law.
According to the report, the OASI Trust Fund is projected to become depleted in the third quarter of 2032, one year sooner than projected in last year’s report, covering 78% of benefits after depleting fund assets. The DI Trust Fund reserves are not projected to be depleted over the next 75 years.
The combined reserves of the trusts declined to approximately $2.56 trillion. Meanwhile, the total annual cost of the program continues to exceed its income throughout the 75-year projection period. Expenses began exceeding income in 2021.
Total trust fund income, including interest, to the combined OASI and DI funds was $1.45 trillion in 2025: $1.32 trillion from net payroll tax contributions, $58 billion from income taxation of benefits and $69 billion in interest, according to the SSA.
Total expenditures from the combined funds amounted to $1.61 trillion in 2025. There were 70 million beneficiaries of the funds at the end of calendar 2025, the SSA reported.
The Social Security Administration’s board of trustees typically includes six members—the Social Security commissioner; the secretaries of health and human services, treasury and labor; and two public trustees appointed by the president. Currently, there are two vacant positions, as there were at the time of last year’s report.
The current trustees are Bisignano; Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent; Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.; and Acting Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling. The remaining two spots are subject to Senate confirmation; only one may be a Republican, as they may not both belong to the same political party. President Donald Trump has not put forward nominations for either of the two open positions.
Bisignano is set to testify on Wednesday before a joint session of two subcommittees of the House Committee on Ways and Means. The Subcommittee on Social Security and the Subcommittee on Work and Welfare are focused on SSA staffing levels, recent cuts to the federal workforce and ongoing customer service backlogs.
