Social Security’s financial operations are handled through two federal trust funds — the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) trust fund and the Disability Insurance (DI) trust fund. Here are the president’s exact words from that interview: “This is not just a matter of Social Security checks. In January 2019, 68 million Americans received some Social Security … It also disburses benefits for the blind and disabled. While the American people diligently paid into the Social Security Trust Fund, Congress systematically took the money and spent it on just about every government program out there. There's more bad news for retirement security following the coronavirus pandemic. Benefits to retired workers and their families, and to families of deceased workers, are paid from the OASI Trust Fund. Nada. All the money allocated to the Social Security administration in the form of payroll taxes has been used to purchase government-backed IOUs. The Social Security Trust Fund is America's retirement fund. Social security is $1.1 trillion a year. … The short answer is simple: when the Social Security Trust Fund is depleted, there will remain enough money to pay 80% of promised benefits. The amount of money the federal government has borrowed from the Social Security trust fund, the Medicare trust fund and other government agencies just crossed the $5 trillion mark. The Social Security Trust Fund is, in fact, worth roughly $2.6 trillion. The names of the two funds are the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and the Disability Insurance Trust Funds. This statistic is cited repeatedly, with the intent, by some, to generate urgency in solving the problem, while others use it to reassure their audience: “don’t worry, even if nothing’s done, the cut won’t really be that bad.” Theres no question the Social Security retirement trust fund will run out of money, and the current recession will make that happen faster than previously forecast. That’s true, it was. The Social Security Act limits trust fund expenditures to benefits and administrative costs. Since its inception, the money you and I have paid into Social Security went into the trust fund and then the money not paid-out was immediately loaned to the Federal Government. Such a practice creates a federal budgetary obligation (as part of the national debt or intra-governmental debt) to the Social Security Administration, which Congress can choose to avoid paying back by enacting legislation." So the fund had a surplus it was “saving”. While investment magazines and news outlets say that the mismatch between revenues will force Social Security to dip into its trust fund to disburse benefits, the reality is that there is no hard cash stored anywhere. This immediately set up a red flag among some on the net that money set aside in the Social Security Trust Fund was not actually there and politicians have been lying to us about the program’s supposedly “responsible management.” The President seems to disagree. Hasn’t been since about 1963, I think. The Social Security Trust Fund is the collective name for The Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund (OASI Trust Fund) and the Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund (DI Trust Fund). By law, Social Security cannot contribute to the federal deficit, because it is required to pay benefits only from its trust funds. There is no trust fund. Unfortunately, there is rampant confusion about how the Social Security trust funds operate. At its most basic, a trust fund of any kind is designed to hold investments on behalf of beneficiaries, who then receive distributions from that fund according to a scheduled or structured agreement. There's a dedicated payroll tax set at 12.4% total -- with half paid by employees and the other half paid by employers. Zilch. It would be just as unpopular, and unlikely, if there were no trust fund. No money is kept in the trust fund. The short answer is simple: when the Social Security Trust Fund is depleted, there will remain enough money to pay 80% of promised benefits. Like I … And even that fund won't last forever. We’re talking about a trust fund that doesn’t actually have any money in it. … The larger of these funds is the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund, which holds in trust special interest-bearing federal government securities bought with surplus OASI payroll tax revenues. Benefits to disabled workers and their families are paid from the DI Trust Fund. But there is a file cabinet in Parkersburg, West Virginia filled with those special bonds the Treasury issued to replace the money in the Social Security Trust Fund. Social Security Trust Fund: An account used by the United States federal government to record excess contributions paid into the Social Security system. Under the law, Social Security is financed by this designated tax, and any surplus money that isn’t paid out in benefits is used to buy U.S. government bonds held in the Social Security Trust Fund. An Investopedia article clarifies, "Sometimes funds in the trust fund are used for purposes other than providing Social Security benefits. This is a lie. Social Security taxes and other income are deposited in these accounts, and Social Security benefits are paid from them. There are two separate Social Security trust funds, the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund pays retirement and survivors benefits, and the Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Fund pays disability benefits. And the Democrats, blame the Republicans, saying that Social Security … Particularly, at the end of 2014, we were told the trust fund owned over $2.8 trillion in assets. Social Security is going to keep cutting checks because doing otherwise would be really unpopular. The dollars were spent the minute the government collected taxes. The short answer is simple: when the Social Security Trust Fund is depleted, there will remain enough money to pay 80% of promised benefits. Remember, that $2.8 trillion sum is book assets, not actual dollars. But there is more to the story than that. The Social Security Trust Fund … The status quo is safe at the moment. Somewhere between Social Security going "on-budget" in 1969 and today, Americans believe the program's spare cash was raided, used to fund … Republicans like to blame the Democrats and point out that Social Security money was spent on Obamacare. There isn’t one dollar in the Social Security trust fund. The Social Security Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) trust fund, which pays benefits to retired workers and their survivors, will run short of money in 2031, according to a new forecast from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The "Social Security Trust Fund" comprises two separate funds that hold federal government debt obligations related to what are traditionally thought of as Social Security benefits. Instead, Social Security will have to start to draw down from the trust fund itself to help pay for benefits. according to www.ssa.gov. I think SS will be funded for a while, but the entire economy is being sucked dry. Everything social security is paid out of the general fund. Zip. That's one year earlier than CBO's 2019 projection, and three years earlier than the projection issued in April by Social Security's trustees. The Social Security trust fund has never been “put into the general fund of the government.” It is a separate account, and always has been. In Washington, the Democrats often accuse the Republicans of “raiding” the Social Security Trust Fund. We’re now $32 trillion in debt. Social Security's funding stream right now is a very safe one. No, and its even worse than you think. This statistic is … In the past, there was more being paid into the social security trust fund than it was paying in benefits. And even that fund won't last forever. [ 4 ]