‘We are rapidly running out of time’ Watchdog sounds Social Security alarm after 22% cut confirmed for 2032

Trustees now project the retirement fund will be depleted in 2032 and the combined system in 2034, putting pressure on the 2026 Senate class to act.

The new Social Security Trustees report released Tuesday confirms that the program is on track for automatic, across-the-board benefit cuts once its main retirement trust fund runs dry in the early 2030s, escalating pressure on lawmakers as voters overwhelmingly demand a plan to avert reductions. The projected shortfall would hit during the terms of senators elected this November, forcing the 2026 class to confront the program’s deepest financing challenge in four decades.

Under the Trustees’ latest projections, the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund can pay full benefits only until the fourth quarter of 2032. At that point, ongoing payroll tax income would cover only 78% of scheduled benefits, effectively imposing an automatic 22% cut on retirees if Congress does nothing. 

The report also finds that if the retirement and disability trust funds are viewed on a combined basis, the overall Social Security (OASDI) fund would be able to pay full benefits until the third quarter of 2034, after which incoming revenue would be enough for just 83% of promised benefits—roughly a 17% across-the-board cut. These projected reductions would apply under current law, without any new congressional action.

The Trustees’ findings mark the closest the program has come to automatic benefit cuts since bipartisan reforms were enacted in 1983. Those reforms, signed into law by President Ronald Reagan, stabilized Social Security for decades and were followed by the re-election of many of the lawmakers who backed them, a reminder that politically difficult fixes can be survivable.

The report lands in a political environment where voters are already signaling near-unanimous concern about the security of benefits. According to a recent Peterson Foundation poll, conducted in late May by Democratic firm Global Strategy Group and Republican firm North Star Opinion Research, 95% of voters say they are more likely to support a candidate with a plan to address the national debt that is now as large as the U.S. economy itself, including 96% of Democrats, 91% of independents, and 97% of Republicans.

Those numbers suggest Social Security is becoming less a niche “entitlements” debate and more a front-line electoral test, particularly in Senate races where the winners will serve through the 2032 and 2034 depletion dates. Strategists in both parties say the combination of specific deadlines and clearly quantified cuts in magnitude could make evasive answers on Social Security harder to sustain on the campaign trail.

Michael Peterson, president of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, said the reports “make clear that we are rapidly running out of time” to secure the future of Social Security and Medicare. Both are “essential programs that form the backbone of economic and retirement security for millions of Americans” and Washington has ignored repeated warnings from the Trustees for decades, he noted.

“It’s important to recognize that the Senators we elect this year will be in office when Social Security becomes unable to pay out full benefits, so this must be a central campaign issue,” Peterson said.

The Trustees’ projections also sharpen earlier analytical alarms. Earlier this year, Fortune reported that Social Security was “six years from insolvency,” highlighting Penn Wharton Budget Model estimates that the trust fund would be depleted by 2032 and that, absent action, benefits would have to be cut. The new official figures validate that basic timeline for the retirement fund while adding a new marker in 2034 for the combined system, turning what had been a think-tank scenario into the government’s own baseline.

At the same time, recent reporting has underscored operational strains inside the agency itself. A June story in The Conversation detailed staffing pressures and a more difficult disability-claims process, raising questions about how Social Security is functioning for some of its most vulnerable beneficiaries even before any formal benefit cuts take hold. Together, the financing and administrative challenges point to a system under stress from both directions: money and management.

Limited policy solutions

Policy experts say lawmakers face a familiar but narrowing menu of options. They can raise more revenue—for example, by lifting or eliminating the cap on earnings subject to payroll tax, increasing the payroll tax rate, or broadening the tax base. They can reduce the growth of benefits, potentially by changing the benefit formula for higher earners, adjusting cost-of-living calculations, or gradually raising the full retirement age again. Or they can pursue a package that mixes smaller moves on both sides. The Trustees stress that acting sooner would allow changes to be phased in gradually, rather than forcing abrupt adjustments once the funds hit their depletion dates.

Insolvency does not mean Social Security disappears entirely; even after the trust funds are depleted, ongoing payroll taxes would still finance the bulk of benefits. But the Trustees report highlights the flip side of that reassurance: starting in late 2032 for the retirement fund and 2034 on a combined basis, current law would still impose immediate, across-the-board cuts that retirees would feel in their monthly checks unless Congress intervenes.

The 1983 reform episode looms large over today’s debate, both as precedent and as political cover. Then, leaders from both parties accepted visible tradeoffs—higher taxes, a later retirement age—to preserve the program’s long-term viability, and voters ultimately returned them to office. Today’s report implicitly poses the same test: whether current lawmakers, facing a similar math problem on a tighter timeline and in a more polarized environment, will again assemble a bipartisan fix before automatic cuts take effect.

In a statement, Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, urged leaders to act before it’s too late.

“Politicians have known about and neglected these programs for 40 years now. But the problem is much worse now. Thanks to decades of inaction, solutions like eliminating the taxable maximum or progressive price indexing benefits are no longer close to enough to restore solvency,” MacGuineas said. “And thanks mainly to the tax cuts in the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ and worsening demographics, Social Security’s projected shortfall is a full 16% worse than last year’s. Medicare’s shortfall is 33% worse. “

For now, the numbers are no longer abstract. The Trustees have stamped specific dates—2032 for the main retirement fund and 2034 for the combined system—and explicit cut sizes on the looming shortfall, setting up a high-stakes question for Congress and 2026 candidates alike: not whether to touch Social Security, but how—and how quickly—they are willing to do it.

“This crisis is both highly predictable and fully avoidable, as there are many well-known solutions available,” Peterson said. “Now is the time for responsible, bipartisan leadership to strengthen Social Security and Medicare, ensuring the stability of these programs for generations of Americans to come.”

For this story, Fortune journalists used generative AI as a research tool. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com