WASHINGTON (AP) — As the Social Security Administration undergoes massive changes and staffing cuts ushered in by the Trump administration, an increasing share of older Americans — particularly Democrats — aren’t confident the benefit will be available to them, a poll shows.
The share of older Americans who are “not very” or “not at all” confident has risen somewhat since 2023, according to the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted in April. In the poll, about 3 in 10 U.S. adults age 60 or older are “not very” or “not at all” confident that Social Security benefits will be there for them when they need it, up from about 2 in 10 in an AP-NORC poll conducted in 2023.
That shift looks very different depending on older Americans’ political party, though. There has been a substantial decrease in confidence among older Democrats. About half of Democrats age 60 or older are “not very” or “not at all confident” that Social Security will be there for them when they need it, a sizable swing from 2023, when only about 1 in 10 said they were “not very” or “not at all” confident.
Older Republicans, on the other hand, have become more confident that Social Security will be there for them. In contrast with older Democrats, about 6 in 10 Republicans age 60 or older are “extremely” or “very” confident that Social Security will be there when they need it, up from only about one-quarter who thought this in 2023.
There’s a partisan divide over Social Security
The findings point to a partisan divide in the ongoing debate over the benefits program, which serves millions of people. When the 2023 poll was conducted, a Democratic president, Joe Biden, was in the White House, which may have contributed to older Democrats’ confidence in the program. Now, large changes including mass federal worker layoffs, cuts to programs and office closures are being ushered in by Republican President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, led by billionaire adviser Elon Musk. A planned cut to nationwide Social Security phone services was eventually walked back.
Musk, who recently said he is preparing to wind down his role with the Trump administration, garnered widespread condemnation when, in March, he said on a podcast interview with Joe Rogan that the Social Security program is a “Ponzi scheme.”
Those comments have caused some voters to feel less confident in the future of the program.
Dennis Riera, a 65-year-old Republican in Huntington Beach, California, says Musk’s comments have made him feel very worried.
“It’s really a shame that something that so many people have relied on for so many generations is being looked at as a Ponzi scheme,” Riera said. He has not yet retired from his job as a security official in the entertainment sector and doesn’t know when he will be able to.
“What is their purpose in trying to undermine this institution?” he said.
But Linda Seck, a 78-year-old Republican and retired nurse from Saline Township in Michigan, says she’s very confident about the future of Social Security.
“When I was in college, financial planners were telling us not to depend on Social Security, but here we are more than 50 years later and it’s still going,” she said.
A focus of Democrats as midterms approach
Voters in recent weeks have flooded town halls to express their displeasure with the cuts, and both political parties expect Social Security to emerge as a key issue in next year’s midterm elections. The upheaval has made Social Security a major focus of Democrats, including Biden, who said Trump has “taken a hatchet” to the program.
Timothy Black, a 52-year-old Democrat who lives in San Diego, receives Social Security Disability Insurance payments to manage his chronic illness. He said his concern is not only for the retirement portion of Social Security but also for the agency’s disability benefits arm.
“If anything happens to Social Security it would really impact me,” he said, listing the bills and expenses he has to pay to survive. “If SSDI doesn’t keep up with the cost of living, my medical expenses are only going to grow and I could end up homeless.”
Worries that Social Security could go broke
The Social Security Administration has for decades moved closer toward its go-broke date, when it will be unable to pay full benefits beginning in 2035, according to the 2024 Social Security and Medicare trustees report.
Social Security would then only be able to pay 83% of benefits. A common misconception is that Social Security would be completely unable to pay benefits once it reaches its go-broke date.
Roughly 72.5 million people, including retirees and children, receive Social Security benefits.
Older Americans are generally more confident that Social Security will be available to them than younger adults are, according to the poll. About half of U.S. adults under age 30 are “not very” or “not at all” confident that Social Security will be there for them, which is unchanged from 2023.
That skepticism transcends party loyalty. Younger Republicans aren’t sure, on the whole, whether Social Security will be around to benefit them. Only about 2 in 10 Republicans under age 60 are “extremely” or “very” confident that Social Security will be available to them when they need it.
But younger people’s confidence in Social Security was low when Biden was president, too. Steven Peters, a 42-year-old independent from White House, Tennessee, says for years he’s heard warnings about the program’s precarious finances.
“I’m not confident at all that its going to be available,” he said. “I can’t say its related to the current administration, though.”
The Senate confirmed a new SSA leader, Wall Street veteran Frank Bisignano, on Tuesday on a 53 to 47 vote. Bisignano was sworn in on Wednesday.
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The AP-NORC poll of 1,260 adults was conducted April 17-21, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.
