Post

With Social Security's trust fund sliding toward insolvency, one group wants to cap benefits for the wealthiest U.S. couples.

Some of America's wealthiest couples are collecting $100,000 in Social Security benefits — a six-figure payout that a new proposal says should be capped to help the retirement program avoid insolvency in 2032.

About 1 million individual Social Security beneficiaries receive at least $50,000 in annual payments, or more than $100,000 for a retired couple, according to an analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan think tank focused on fiscal and budgetary issues.

Although that represents less than 2% of the roughly 56 million people 65 or older who get Social Security, the CRFB's analysis projects that the share will grow over time, given the annual cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security benefits and as a growing number of Americans reach retirement age.

Capping Social Security payments at $100,000 for couples or $50,000 for single older Americans would save as much as $190 billion over a decade and close at least 20% of the program's solvency gap, the analysis found. The "six-figure limit" could be combined with other possible fixes — such as lifting the income exemption for Social Security taxes or boosting the payroll tax — to plug the program's funding hole.

"The wealthiest seniors are collecting from Social Security for the first time $100,000 in benefits," Marc Goldwein, senior policy director at the CRFB, told CBS News. "This is a program that, when you go back to its founding, was a measure of protection against falling into poverty. The fact that an income support program would pay six figures is a little silly."

The CRFB's proposal suggests indexing the $100,000 benefit threshold either to inflation or by using wages as a peg. That would guard against middle- and low-income households being affected by the proposed cap as the Social Security Administration issues cost-of-living increases.