Just How Safe Is Your Social Security Paycheck?

When money is tight and fiscal coffers are empty, governments have incentives to cut corners. The question of how reliable and timely your social security payments are is surfacing in the world’s two largest and rival economies.

In the US, as politicians continue to jostle over the federal debt limit, the first people to have their benefits cut are the oldest and poorest. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said the government could run out of money to pay all its bills on June 5. That week, her department is scheduled to transfer roughly $36 billion to the Social Security and Medicare trust funds, a regularly scheduled quarterly payment. Having only $39 billion in funds remaining as of May 25, the Treasury will be operating with little margin for error, especially since it has to repay its own borrowings.