U.S. Social Security trustees project reserves will be exhausted in 2034, leaving income to cover 83% of scheduled benefits, while the agency’s commissioner has emphasized a separate effort to curb fraud.
Fox Business reported Oct. 27 that Social Security Administration Commissioner Frank J. Bisignano described eliminating fraud, waste and abuse as the program’s “first solution.” The outlet also reported that Bisignano said the agency had reviewed its entire database. The administration’s public releases document record corrections but do not confirm that review.
In an Oct. 20 release, the Social Security Administration (SSA) said nearly 15% of active Social Security numbers had been corrected. It reported adding 17 million previously missing death dates and updating about 25 million records that lacked citizenship information. Bisignano said accurate records “prevent fraud across federal programs.”
That release also said the agency was still correcting 8.5 million records with inaccurate citizenship status. An Oct. 23 announcement called the cleanup complete and repeated several of the figures, but did not explain the status of those 8.5 million records. The releases give no exact total for corrected records or estimate of fraud prevented or savings.
The 2026 trustees’ report concerns the program’s finances. It projects that the combined Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance trust funds will be depleted in the third quarter of 2034. Because the funds cannot borrow, current law would limit payments to incoming revenue once reserves are exhausted, leaving less than the full scheduled benefits payable.
The Old-Age and Survivors Insurance fund alone is projected to run out in the fourth quarter of 2032, when income would cover 78% of scheduled benefits. The Disability Insurance fund is projected to pay full benefits through 2100.
The trustees attribute the imbalance to demographic change, with the beneficiary population growing faster as smaller generations enter the workforce. They urged lawmakers to address the shortfall early enough to phase in changes, including increased revenue, reduced scheduled benefits or a combination of both.
