‘You’ll recoup only the money you paid into Social Security, plus interest.’
This myth is based on misconceptions about how the program works. No, there’s no account with your name on it just sitting around somewhere.
Rather, the taxes you pay into the system fund retirement, disability and survivors benefits for millions of existing retirees. Your taxes may be supporting your parents right now. Your children’s taxes will support you in your old age.
Any surplus funds not used to pay benefits and administrative expenses are held in reserve and are invested in U.S. Treasury securities. Social Security expects it will have to start dipping into its reserves to help pay benefits starting in 2020.
4 thoughts on “12 Myths About Social Security Finally Debunked”
when i die will my wife collect my ss
I am a 65 year old male that will be eligible for social security in a few months. My wife of 43+ years is drawing teacher retirement after a 35 year career. As we understand it, she will not be eligible for any of my survivor SS benefits or any of her own SS earnings. She has worked many, many hours of SS paying jobs during her college days, summers off and in the 5 or so years since her retirement from teaching. Do we understand this correctly and, if so, is there any course of action we can take to change that?
VJ, Bishop, TX
yOU HAVE ANSWERED SOME QUESTIONS I HAD. THANKS
When my husband recently passed, I was unaware that I could get his social security which was three times the amount than mine. After being told to go after his social security amount instead of mine, I went back to ask for his and now I’m dealing with a very slow system. I’ve been to the social security office three times this week already and still no change in my benefits to collect my husbands benefits.I have been to two different social security offices and nothing is happening. They keep promising the change will take time, but I wonder if will ever happen. What else can I do that I haven’t already done?