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GAO-24-107240 1 (2024-07-31)

handle is hein.gao/gaoqoj0001 and id is 1 raw text is: JULY 2024 GAO-24-107240 United States Government Accountability Office SOCIAL SECURITY SERIES PART 3: Options for Reform Introduction Social Security is a fundamental source of income for millions of retirees and their families.' In light of Social Security's importance to retirement income, we have developed a three-part series of reports to shed light on the serious financial challenges the program faces and a range of policy options for addressing these challenges. The first report in our series, issued in May 2023, describes the financial challenges the program faces, which-if not addressed-are projected to render the program unable to pay full scheduled benefits starting in 2033.2 At that point, if no action is taken to reform the program to shore up its finances, Social Security revenue is projected to be able to pay retirees just 79 percent of their scheduled benefits. The Social Security Trustees and groups such as the American Academy of Actuaries have also stressed the urgent need to address the program's financial challenges given the impact that changes to the program would have on beneficiaries.3 The second report in our series, issued in November 2023, lays out criteria we developed that policymakers may wish to consider when evaluating potential reforms to Social Security.4 The criteria in that framework include examining: * The extent to which a proposal achieves sustainable solvency (i.e., the extent to which a proposal improves Social Security's finances); * How a proposal addresses the goals of equity and income adequacy; * The extent to which a proposal accounts for demographic, economic, and societal changes; and * How readily a proposal could be implemented and administered. This report, the final report in our series, focuses on a range of Social Security reform options based on proposals introduced in Congress, identified in literature, or suggested by Social Security experts. Social Security reform proposals often combine several distinct reform options into a comprehensive package.5 Many of the options policymakers and experts have proposed would directly address Social Security's financial challenges. Other options might pursue nonfinancial goals that would, in isolation, worsen the financial challenges. Such nonfinancial goals could include changing the distribution of benefit payments and revenue collections across society or modernizing the program's structure to reflect demographic, economic, or societal changes. The individual reform options that are included in a reform package can interact with one another, and these interactions can affect both the financial and societal outcomes that a reform package would produce. GAO-24-107240 I Social Security Reform Series Options for Reform

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