A group of retirees may soon no longer get Social Security benefits, which was a surprise hit this week. A lot of Americans save some of their money while they are working to make sure they have a steady stream of income after they retire.
With interest rates staying high and prices going up due to inflation, many retirees are relying more than ever on Social Security, a very important program that was made just for them. The monthly payments for the program range from just over $1,000 at the low end to about $4,500 at the high end.
Some American retirees could be without Social Security benefits in 2025
In 2024, about 64 million people across the country will get Social Security benefits, which will help them stay financially stable. But not all seniors are so lucky. The Social Security Administration (SSA) says that 3.3% of older Americans will never get benefits.
This is a small but significant number. These people were labeled as “never recipients,” which means that even if they were older or eligible, they would not get benefits.
Several types of people who do not get benefits belong to certain groups. A lot of these people came to the US as immigrants after they were already adults.
The SSA says that 88% of people who are labeled as “never beneficiaries” are either immigrants who came late or people who do not work very often. There are people in the United States who came after age 50 and have not made enough money to get benefits.
These people are called “late-arriving immigrants.” They often do not make the minimum Social Security payments needed to qualify because they do not work as long.
Another group of workers who have trouble qualifying are those who do not work very often. Because these people may not have had steady work their whole lives, they may not have put enough money into the system to be eligible for Social Security.
Also, even if they make a lot of money, some Americans may rely on pensions or other sources of retirement income instead of Social Security because they work in fields that are not covered by it, like government jobs. People who are eligible for benefits sometimes do not live long enough to receive them, which adds to the number of “never beneficiaries.”
“Never beneficiaries” are at higher risk of becoming poor in retirement
At the moment, Americans who are labeled as “never beneficiaries” are likely to be poor when they retire. People who do not get Social Security benefits are much more likely to have money problems, even though they are an important safety net for many retirees.
Social Security numbers show that 54.3% of people who have never received benefits live below the poverty line, while only 5.8% of people who do receive benefits do. This huge difference shows how important these payments are for keeping seniors out of poverty.
Also, if an American makes a mistake when applying for Social Security benefits, they might not get the benefits they are legally entitled to. It can be hard to figure out how to use the Social Security system because there are so many rules about who can get benefits and how they are calculated.
When filing, one mistake could lead to a mistake that costs a lot of money. File errors are a big reason why some Americans do not get the Social Security benefits they have worked hard for.
If Americans make mistakes when they apply for Social Security benefits, they could lose at least $100,000 in benefits over the course of their lives. This is especially true for people who depend on these payments a lot in retirement.
One popular but controversial way to get the most out of your benefits is to put off getting Social Security. People who want to increase their retirement income might be interested in monthly benefits, which go up by 8% every year they are delayed.
This plan could go wrong if the person dies before getting the delayed benefits or if Social Security changes during that time. More than that, bigger benefits might mean higher taxes, which would cancel out the benefits of waiting.
Also See :- Even if you are exempt from filing taxes with the IRS, know this – you may be in for a surprise