Changes Americans would make to close Social Security’s financing gap

It’s no secret that Social Security faces a long-term financing gap.

If nothing is done by 2035, 83% of combined benefits will be payable if Congress does not act sooner to prevent that shortfall, according the latest projections from the program’s trustees.

What’s more, new legislation, the Social Security Fairness Act — which increases benefits for more than 3 million workers who also receive public pensions — is expected to move that depletion date six months sooner.

A new survey asked more than 2,200 Americans — most of who expect Social Security to be an important part of their monthly retirement income — how they would solve the problem.

Most respondents, 85%, said they would prefer benefits remain the same or are even increased — even if that means raising taxes for some or all Americans, according to the survey from the National Academy of Social Insurance, AARP, the National Institute on Retirement Security and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in collaboration with Greenwald Research.

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“They’re willing to pay more, not to get extra benefits for themselves, but just to close the financing gap to prevent indiscriminate across the board benefit cuts,” said Tyler Bond, research director for the National Institute on Retirement Security.

Meanwhile, 15% of respondents said they would prefer tax rates not increase, even if that means benefits are reduced.

The survey used a tradeoff analysis to let respondents pick the policy changes they would not only prefer to see — but also for which they would also be willing to pay.

The results found a combination of changes was preferred by most respondents, regardless of their political affiliation, income, age or education.

The most popular policy option with respondents was eliminating the payroll tax cap for individuals earning more than $400,000.

For 2025, employees and employers pay taxes toward the program on up to $176,100 in earnings. Once high earners hit that cap, they stop contributing Social Security payroll taxes for the year.

The change would reapply payroll taxes starting at $400,000 in earnings. Individuals affected would not receive additional benefits.

A second policy option that was nearly as popular was raising the payroll tax rate. Currently, employees and employers each pay 6.2% toward Social Security. The change would raise that to 7.2%.

Other changes favored by respondents aim to make benefits more generous by adjusting the annual cost-of-living adjustment to more accurately reflect the spending habits and inflation affecting older Americans; providing a caregiver credit for people who stop working to take care of children under age 6; and providing a bridge benefit to workers in physically demanding jobs to help soften cuts for claiming early.

The least popular change was to reduce benefits for people with higher incomes. That would affect individuals with $60,000 or more in annual retirement income excluding Social Security, and married couples with $120,000 or more.

Taken together, the changes would close Social Security’s funding gap and result in a minor 1% surplus, according to NIRS’ Bond.

Notably, other changes that have been suggested elsewhere — raising the retirement age, across-the-board benefit increases and changing taxation of benefits — were not selected by the survey respondents.

The new report coincides with another report released by NIRS this week that analyzed Social Security polling over more than four decades and found public support for the program remains strong.

“Not only do people consider Social Security a really important program, but they really want to make sure we’re spending enough on the program so that it can be there when people are ready to collect their benefits,” Bond said.

Notably, confidence that Social Security benefits will still be available tends to increase as people get closer to retirement age, he said.