Provisions That Could Change the Social Security Program

Trustees Reports issued annually contain estimates of the future financial status of Social Security's Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) and Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Funds under current law. Various provisions have been suggested to modify the Social Security program and improve its financial status. This site lists many of these provisions that have been analyzed by this office, including those introduced in Congress as part of a comprehensive solvency proposal.

Following a brief description of each provision, estimates of the financial effect on the combined OASI and DI programs over the long-range period (the next 75 years) and for the 75th year are provided. The estimates are based on the intermediate set of assumptions used in the 2005 Trustees Report.

If the provision is part of a comprehensive solvency proposal, then a link to our memorandum for the comprehensive proposal is given. Additionally, estimates for many of the provisions were requested by the Social Security Advisory Board. Our memorandum to the Advisory Board provides these estimates (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader).

The provisions are grouped below by category. Choose a category from the list below. We also provide a list of all provisions.