Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano said on CNBC’s Squawk Box on Monday, October 12, 2026, “It’s 90 years old, and it’ll be around for another 90 years.” The trustees’ latest report, issued in June, projects that the main trust fund will be depleted in 2032.
Both statements can be true at once, because depletion in the trustees’ terms means a cut to scheduled benefits, not an end to payments. Fox Business reported the interview on October 13, and the trustees’ figures are published on SSA’s own site.
What the commissioner said, and what he declined to say
Bisignano, who is also the IRS chief executive, called Social Security “a long journey.” He said President Trump has promised to protect and preserve the program and made that a mandate for him. On who decides the program’s future, he said “it will be the White House and Congress and the trustees,” and noted that he is one of the trustees.
He declined to discuss changes to benefits or to the taxes that fund them, saying there “will always be questions.” The interview came before the announcement of the 2027 cost-of-living adjustment. On the agency’s own work, he said that with “30 million records that are wrong” the job is “fix the place.” Fox reported that about 10 percent of the erroneous records have been cleaned up.
What the trustees project for 2032
The Board of Trustees issued its 2026 report on June 9. According to SSA’s announcement of the report, the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance trust fund, the retirement fund, will be depleted in the fourth quarter of 2032, with 78 percent of benefits payable at that point. The combined retirement and disability funds last until 2034, with 83 percent payable.
Anyone nearing retirement who is weighing a claiming age against that 2032 date is the reader this question lands on. The report’s answer is that money keeps arriving but at a reduced share, so the date affects the size of a future check, not whether one comes.
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The trustees are Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as managing trustee, Bisignano, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling. The two public trustee seats are vacant. The same announcement says the program served about 70 million beneficiaries at the end of 2025.
Why the fund does not simply hit zero
The trustees’ report says income would keep covering a large share of scheduled benefits after reserves run out. In the 2026 highlights page of the Trustees Report, the retirement fund’s income covers 78 percent of scheduled benefits at depletion, declining to 62 percent by 2100. The disability fund’s reserves stay positive throughout the 75-year projection period.
The 75-year actuarial deficit is 4.42 percent of taxable payroll, up from 3.82 percent a year earlier. The highlights page lists lower assumed fertility, changed immigration assumptions and lower income tax on benefits under the July 2025 tax law as reasons for the larger gap. Fixing it would take a payroll tax rate rising from 12.40 percent to 16.65 percent, or a benefit cut of 25.2 percent for all beneficiaries, or a combination.
The trustees recommend that lawmakers act in a timely way so changes can be phased in gradually. If action waits until 2034, the highlights page estimates a payroll tax of 17.30 percent or a benefit cut of 28.5 percent would be needed.
What a cut could mean in dollars
Fox reported that the Congressional Budget Office projects an average cut of 28 percent a year from 2033 to 2036, and that federal law does not spell out how cuts would be carried out. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget previously estimated a 24 percent reduction, which it said would mean an $18,400 cut to annual benefits for a typical couple aged 60 retiring at insolvency.
Those are outside estimates, and the trustees’ 22 percent shortfall for the retirement fund is the official benchmark. The trustees’ 2026 summary says 62.3 million people received retirement and survivor benefits at the end of 2025, and that the retirement fund’s cost of $1,448.8 billion exceeded its income by $200.0 billion that year.
The report adds that cost has exceeded non-interest income every year since 2010, and that there were about 2.6 workers for every beneficiary in 2025, falling to about 1.9 by 2075.
How claiming age interacts with a possible cut
Nothing in the trustees’ report changes the age rules. For someone born in 1960 or later, SSA’s reduction chart shows a $1,000 benefit at full retirement age of 67 falling to $700 if benefits start at 62, a 30 percent cut.
Going the other way, SSA’s page on delayed retirement credits says benefits rise 8 percent a year, or two-thirds of 1 percent a month, for those born in 1943 or later who wait past full retirement age. The credits stop at 70. A cut to scheduled benefits would apply to whatever amount a person locks in, which is why the starting amount and the starting age are the two numbers worth running.
Should the 2032 date change when to claim?
A projected cut of 22 percent from 2032, set against a 30 percent reduction for claiming at 62, makes the starting age the biggest lever a household controls. Guessing at the break-even point, or at what a surviving spouse would keep, can lock in the wrong number for life.
The turn here is from the trust-fund headline to the claiming decision it pushes. The Social Security Claiming & Family Benefits Kit includes a claiming calculator (Excel) for claiming age, break-even and survivor benefits, and the 2026 earnings-test rules for anyone still working. Its five-tab calculator lets a household try different ages against its own benefit estimate.
More Financial Reading
- 21 Ways to Stretch a $2,087 Social Security Check
- 15 Places to Find Your Share of the $4.25 Billion States Give Back
- The New $6,000 Senior Deduction and 14 More Tax Moves for Retirees
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
