Declining home values, lost savings, and corporate pressures to cut pension costs are undermining retirement security for seniors. At the same time, job losses, pay cuts, and mortgage foreclosures are jeopardizing workers' dreams of a secure retirement. The recent stock market collapse has...

Social Security is best known as a retirement program, but it is also an important source of income security for families with children, including families of servicemembers who risk their lives in military service. When a member of the armed forces dies, his or her family may qualify for Social...

This report considers some of the payout issues that might arise from implementing a system of individual accounts, if such accounts were to become a part of federal retirement policy. Why is it important to examine "payout" issues? Because a central goal of retirement security policy is to...

Social Security is in excellent financial shape over the next decade; it is running surpluses while the rest of the federal government is running deficits. If the Trustees' "best estimates" for the next 75 years hold true, Social Security funds will fall short of benefit costs in about 2042. In that...

In January 2009, 51.1 million people, or about one in every six U.S. residents, received Social Security benefits. The benefits are financed by dedicated taxes on earnings paid by workers and employers, by income taxes that upper income beneficiaries pay on part of their Social Security...