This story was originally published by Public News Service.
By Terry Dee, producer
Public News Service
June 22, 2026
Cuts to the federal budget for Social Security are fueling worries that the government will run out of money in a few years.
About 1.5 million Indiana residents receive Social Security. The federal program provides financial protection to retired or disabled people, their survivors and their dependents, and the payments are a primary source of income for many.
AARP Vice President for Government Affairs Bill Sweeney said Social Security has enough money to continue paying benefits for the next 100 years, but lawmakers still need to address the program’s finances.
“It’s not about having to redo Social Security from scratch; the issue is, they need to plug about a 22% hole in Social Security, and that’s very doable,” Sweeney said. “That’s very much in line with some of the big bills we’ve seen Congress pass in the last couple of years.”
When Social Security trust funds are depleted, the program will not go bankrupt, but by law, it can only pay out what it collects in taxes. Without legislative changes by Congress, incoming tax revenues will cover about 83% of scheduled benefits.
An AARP report names three factors negatively affecting the trust funds: declining fertility rates, lower immigration figures and President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
The monthly payments Hoosiers receive depend on their lifetime earnings and retirement age. Sweeney said the fate of Social Security lies in the hands of voters, who should be clear about what matters most to them. Whoever is elected, he said, will help decide the future of benefits.
“The people who we elect are going to be the people going into the United States Senate and having to decide this in 2032,” Sweeney said. “Asking questions of our politicians and the candidates who are running for office, what their plan is, are they thinking about it, and do their ideas for how to fix Social Security align with what we want them to be focused on?”
AARP surveyed its members age 50 and older about what they thought should be done. Eighty-one percent of respondents said Congress should not cut Social Security in order to save it.
In 1983, Congress increased the payroll tax and gradually raised the full retirement age from 65 to 67.
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