Social Security’s retirement trust fund faces a funding shortfall a year
earlier than expected
[June 10, 2026]
By FATIMA HUSSEIN
WASHINGTON (AP) — Social Security ’s retirement trust fund is projected
to face a funding shortfall in 2032, a year earlier than last year’s
projections, according to an annual report released Tuesday, while
Medicare ’s hospital insurance trust fund will be unable to pay full
benefits in 2033, which is unchanged from last year’s estimate.
Rising healthcare costs and government spending have contributed to a
projected depletion date that is less than 10 years from now.
The looming challenge for the programs is a partial funding gap, not a
collapse. Even after trust fund depletion, the system will continue
issuing benefits, albeit at reduced amounts.
Last year, Medicare's hospital insurance trust fund go-broke date was
pushed to 2033 from 2036 the year before that, according to the report
from the programs’ trustees.
Meanwhile, Social Security’s combined trust funds — which cover old age
and disability recipients — will be unable to pay full benefits
beginning in 2034, unchanged from the 2025 report. After that, incoming
revenue would cover about 83% of scheduled benefits.
Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano said President Donald
Trump's administration is “committed to protecting and strengthening
Social Security” and “eliminating waste, fraud, abuse and ensuring
program integrity.”
The new funding shortfall is mainly the result of lower projected birth
rates, reduced immigration and reduced trust fund revenue due to the
costs of Republicans’ massive tax and spending bill that Trump signed
into law last summer, according to the report.
Nancy Altman, president of the Social Security Works advocacy group,
said the latest report takes “Donald Trump’s second term policies into
account: A tax bill that largely benefited the wealthy, economy-wrecking
tariffs, a needless war with Iran, and hostility to immigrants. All of
these have reduced the amount of money going into Social Security,
weakening the system’s finances.”
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A Social Security card is displayed on Oct. 12, 2021, in Tigard,
Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)
The trustees, who include the treasury secretary, labor secretary,
health and human services secretary and the Social Security
commissioner, say the latest findings show the urgency of needed
changes to the programs, which have faced dire financial projections
for decades. But making changes to the programs has long been
politically unpopular, and lawmakers have repeatedly kicked Social
Security and Medicare’s troubling math to the next generation.
AARP's CEO Myechia Minter-Jordan said in a statement that the latest
numbers “should be a wake-up call. Congress needs to act."
“Americans have worked hard and paid into Social Security their
entire lives, and they deserve to count on it when they retire,” she
said. “No family should see any cuts to what they’ve earned in
Social Security. ”
About 70.1 million people are enrolled in Medicare, the federal
government’s health insurance that covers those 65 and older, as
well as people with severe disabilities or illnesses.
Social Security benefits were last reformed roughly 40 years ago,
when the federal government raised the eligibility age for the
program from 65 to 67. The eligibility age of 65 has never changed
for Medicare.
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