Table II.B1 shows the income, cost, and asset reserves for the OASI, the DI, and the combined OASI and DI Trust Funds in calendar year 2020.
Table II.B1.—Summary of 2020 Trust Fund Financial Operations Total income in 2020 a Total cost in 2020b
Includes less than $50 million in reimbursements from the General Fund of the Treasury and gifts. See section III.A for details.
In 2020, net payroll tax contributions accounted for 89.6 percent of total trust fund income. Net payroll tax contributions consist of taxes paid by employees, employers, and the self-employed on earnings covered by Social Security. These taxes are paid on covered earnings up to a specified maximum annual amount, which was $137,700 in 2020. Table II.B2 shows the payroll tax rates for 2020.
Table II.B2.—Payroll Tax Contribution Rates for 2020 Trust fund reserves provide the basis for paying benefits. Combined trust fund reserves increased by $10.9 billion during 2020 because income to each fund, including interest earned on trust fund reserves, exceeded total cost.1 In last year’s report, combined reserves were projected to increase by $4.4 billion in 2020, and then start declining in 2021.2 At the end of 2020, the combined reserves of the OASI and the DI Trust Funds were $2,908 billion, or 253 percent of estimated cost 2 for 2021. In comparison, the combined reserves at the end of 2019 were 262 percent of actual cost for 2020.
As noted in footnote b of table II.B1 and elsewhere in this report, asset reserves shown for the end of 2020 reflect the 12 months of benefits scheduled for payment in 2020 and thus exclude the benefits scheduled for payment on January 3, 2021, which were actually paid on December 31, 2020 as required by the law.
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