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 2021.
Table II.B1.—Summary of 2021 Trust Fund Financial Operations Asset reserves at the end of 2020a Total income in 2021 b Net payroll tax contributionsc
Includes less than $50 million in reimbursements from the General Fund of the Treasury and gifts. See section III.A for details.
In 2021, net payroll tax contributions accounted for 90.1 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 $142,800 in 2021. Table II.B2 shows the payroll tax rates for 2021.
Table II.B2.—Payroll Tax Contribution Rates for 2021 Trust fund reserves provide the basis for paying benefits. Combined trust fund reserves decreased by $56.3 billion during 2021 because income to the combined funds, including interest earned on trust fund reserves, was less than total cost.1 In last year’s report, combined reserves were projected to decrease by $77.3 billion in 2021.2 At the end of 2021, the combined reserves of the OASI and the DI Trust Funds were $2,852 billion, or 230 percent of estimated cost 2 for 2022. In comparison, the combined reserves at the end of 2020 were 254 percent of actual cost for 2021.
As noted in footnote a 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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