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The Social Security Challenge
Social Security’s combined trust fund reserves are projected to be depleted around 2034—less than eight years from now—at which time its income would be able to pay only 81% of the benefits scheduled for its 80 million beneficiaries.
It is important that Congress immediately focus on this issue, because delay makes the solution more difficult, as it narrows the viable options to those that rely on increasing taxes. If Congress has not acted by 2034, Social Security will face:
- An automatic 19% cut in benefits to people already receiving them,
- The need to increase Social Security taxes by almost 25% immediately, or
- Some combination of reductions in benefits and increases in taxes.
Ensuring that Social Security stays financially strong means that Congress should evaluate different reform options with complex and wide-ranging impacts—options such as making higher levels of income subject to payroll taxes or raising Social Security’s normal retirement age, and then passing the reforms it chooses so they can become law. (There have also been discussions about much broader structural changes to the entire program, which are not addressed in the challenge.)
How would you do this?
In the Academy’s Social Security Challenge, develop your proposed reform approach by exploring a virtual town, where you’ll hear residents’ diverse views on reform ideas, learn about their impacts, and puzzle through choices. In the challenge finale, select and submit your approach from a range of possible reform options and see how well it works to keep Social Security financially strong.
The financial impacts shown in the challenge assume that Congress is adopting these reforms right now. The effectiveness of each reform in addressing the shortfall will decline each month that Congress doesn’t act.
The financial effects of the reform option provisions in the challenge come from the Office of the Chief Actuary (OCACT) at the Social Security Administration and are based on the most recent Summary of Provisions that Would Change the Social Security Program.
Learn More With Related Academy Resources
Policy Paper: An Actuarial Perspective on the 2025 Social Security Trustees Report
Infographic: Highlights from the 2025 Social Security Trustees Report
Issue Brief: The Relationship Between Social Security and Federal Government Deficits and Debt
Issue Brief: Noncovered Workers
Issue Brief: Significance of the Social Security Trust Fund
Issue Brief: Social Security and The Financially Disadvantaged
Policy Paper: Immigration and Social Security
Monograph: Individual Equity and Social Adequacy in the U.S. Social Security System
Issue Brief: Individual Equity and Social Adequacy-A Principle-Based Study of Social Security Reform Proposals
Issue Brief: Reforming Social Security Sooner Rather Than Later
Essential Elements: Raising the Social Security Retirement Age
Contingencies magazine cover story (March-April 2023)
Issue Brief: Social Security Reform: Benefit Formula Options
Issue Brief: Social Security Reform: Taxation Options
Issue Brief: Raising the Social Security Retirement Age
The following should be noted when interpreting results from the Social Security Challenge:
- The 75-year actuarial balance calculation used in the challenge does not consider significant revenue shortfalls expected at the end of the 75-year projection period, and thus the possible solutions illustrated in this game are not necessarily sufficient to achieve “sustainable solvency,” a concept discussed in the Trustees Report. To attain sustainable solvency, Congress would need to enact a reform that increases the Trust Fund ratio at the end of the 75-year period—for example, by increasing taxes, reducing benefits, or raising the retirement age when needed.
- The possible solutions assume immediate adoption of system changes rather than gradual implementation. If changes are implemented gradually, the required increases in tax revenue or reductions in benefit will need to be larger than noted in the challenge to achieve actuarial balance.
- The success of reforms depends on how actual future experience compares with the assumptions made by the Trustees. There is no mechanism in current Social Security law to maintain the program’s actuarial balance once it has been achieved. Thus, there is no guarantee that the System’s long-term financial challenges can be fully addressed for any specific length of time by enacting various reform options.
Reviews and Comments on the Social Security Challenge
“Great animation…. The best yet. … a great way to get today’s Gen X and younger crowd engaged, format-wise, while this is simple enough for any non-gamer like me to still have fun and learn something.”
Mary Johnson, Social Security and Medicare analyst at the Senior Citizens League, Alexandria, Va., reported in Financial Planning Magazine, March 21, 2023
“What I like about it is you can clearly see how many opportunities there are to actually resolve the issue … I also think they should send this out to all the elected officials in Washington.”
Ron Mastrogiovanni, CEO of Healthview Services, Danvers, Massachusetts, reported in Financial Planning Magazine, March 21, 2023
“If you had any doubt that there are numerous ways in which Social Security’s solvency can be restored, you should take the ‘Social Security Challenge.'”
Mark Hulbert, author, Retirement Weekly, Marketwatch, March 18, 2023.
“The generation stuck between baby boomers and millennials, known for its sense of irony in the face of life’s challenges, apparently has taken a liking to a new game built around Social Security’s upcoming funding problems.”
Vance Cariaga, author, “With Social Security Funds Running Out, Experts Seek Solutions from Everyday Americans,” GoBankingRates.com, March 22, 2023
“The American Academy of Actuaries has a great interactive game on how to fix Social Security. Give it a whirl for some fiduciary fun.”
John Waggoner, senior writer/editor/producer, AARP, on Twitter, March 27, 2023
“I am optimistic that The Social Security Challenge can help Americans think more clearly about the problem at hand and the compromises we must make.”
Emerson Sprick, Senior Economic Analyst, Bipartisan Policy Center, reported in The Street, April 3, 2023.