Government Urges Seniors to Delay SSI

• Author: Jessica Williams
• Posted: 2024-04-09

The federal government of the USA recently began reworking social security (SSI) as it pertains to those Americans who are retired from the workforce. In this very confusing and lengthy bit of SSI maintenance, there were two main points of focus from it to concern yourself with, if you're an American citizen. First up on the list, the government announced that people in the workforce can actually retire earlier, should they want to, stating that all an American needs is 10 years in the workforce to draw SSI. That seems to undermine seniors who worked their entire adult lives, by having the government just allow millions of more people to draw from that pool. Though that leads into the second point: The government also asks people to delay their retirement by 10 years.

What is the point of such a contradictory statement by the government? Why would they announce that people can retire 10 years earlier while also urging people to wait 10 extra years before they retire? Well, it all has to do with the federal government's plan to dip into the SSI pool to pay for immigration. By telling people that they can draw SSI 10 years earlier, the government is simply trying to reassure people that there is money available. Though by urging people to work an additional decade before retiring, they're also sending the message that the money in that pool may need to be diverted to other areas.

This is no surprise to people who actually pay attention to how the American government spends money. They can typically only account for just over 50% of money they spend. Where does the rest of it go? The government committee that the government creates to investigate the government's handling of money has no idea where that money's at. They just assure everyone that the government is doing its level best.

Drawing Less, but Earlier

The one big caveat of accepting an earlier SSI draw is that you would only be receiving a portion of a full payout. As you might imagine, this isn't going to be a very large stipend at all. Even with a full SSI draw, you're looking at around $1,200 a month, equivalent to $300 a week - basically what unemployment pays out to people. So realizing that an early retirement would result in less than you would earn from working, the government hopes this keeps people in the workforce for those extra years.

A Taxing System

The fact of the matter is that the social security pool is constantly in trouble. While this is supposed to be a pile of money set aside for senior citizens who are retired, along with people who have disabilities, the fact is that this is just some placeholder rhetoric. It's something politicians tell people to get their votes. In reality, social security is used for all sorts of different budgetary shortfalls, from tossing more money at the military to funding a variety of infrastructure projects. When the government passes trillion-dollar spending bills, they don't add anything to social security and instead wait for a specialized session of Congress to handle that money, where people start adding hundreds of unnecessary pages to a huge bill that nobody reads. Because it's for America's seniors and the disabled, it passes every time, and everyone gets their pet projects.

The Wrong Demographic

America's seniors looking to live their lives by getting back what they put in are simply the wrong demographic for a modern, woke American government. Illegal immigrants who claim to have been separated are going to get $450,000. As a taxpayer who worked your entire life to help keep this country running, you might pull $1,200 a month by the time you retire, which will likely be worth far less. People receiving $1,200 in 2021 are only receiving the equivalent spending power of receiving $800 in 2000. Just imagine how far that $1,200 will take you when you retire.

No one is doing anything about this. America's elderly are the wrong demographic. You constantly hear about racial justice, black lives matter, immigrant fairness, healthcare, college debt forgiveness, etc. None of those groups have put into America what its retired seniors have, yet all of those groups take precedence over America's seniors.

The government of the United States announces some new type of person covered by SSI all the time. What they never seem to announce is that seniors will be making more money, and that's not likely to change any time soon.