Advocacy

August 28, 2024

Celebrating 89 Years of Social Security: A Sacred Promise

For most of us, Social Security is – or will be -- essential for helping to cover daily living expenses and pay bills as we get older. The bottom line is that Social Security is your money, earned through a lifetime of hard work. Yet there are persistent misconceptions about its long-term financial stability and how it works. Here are facts behind five of the most stubborn Social Security myths.Myth #1: Social Security is going broke. The facts: Social Security will not run out of money, as long as workers and employers continue to pay payroll taxes. It’s a pay-as-you-go system: Revenue coming in from payroll taxes largely covers the payments going out. But Social Security does face longer-term funding challenges. For decades it collected more than it paid out, building a surplus that stood at $2.83 trillion at the end of 2022. But the system is starting to pay out more than it takes in, largely because the retiree population is growing faster than the working population and is living longer. Without changes in how Social Security is financed, the surplus is projected to run out in 2034, according to the latest annual report from the program’s trustees. Even then, Social Security will still be able to pay benefits from incoming payroll tax revenue. But it will only be enough to pay about 80% percent of scheduled benefits, according to the latest estimate. If Congress doesn’t take action in the next 10 years to protect and save Social Security, your Social Security could be cut by 20%—an average of $4,000 a year. The last time Congress took major action to shore up Social Security’s nearly depleted reserves was 1983.

The 2024 session of the Alabama Legislature opens on Tuesday, February 6. AARP Alabama has developed a series of priorities for this legislative session that are critically important to our more than 400,000 members, and all Alabamians age 50-plus.

Advocating for what is important to our members and giving you a voice at the state and federal levels is a priority for AARP Alabama. Your voice matters. We work with local organizations and town and city officials on making our communities more livable and greater places to age with dignity and purpose.

For the first time since AARP began publishing the Scorecard in 2011, more than half of Medicaid long-term care dollars nationwide for older adults and people with physical disabilities went to home- and community-based services instead of nursing homes and other institution.

Each November is National Family Caregivers Month. This is a month to recognize the challenges faced by family caregivers across the nation.

People with disabilities and older adults often lose the right to make major decisions about their own lives, as guardians or conservators step in. But under a new state law approved after an advocacy campaign by AARP Alabama and disability organizations, a less-restrictive option now exists.

When Alabamians need help making vital decisions due to disability, they now have access to an option that reflects a modern approach that is less restrictive than a traditional guardianship.

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