Senior poverty climbs just as Social Security future is in question - USA Today

More seniors sank into poverty for the fifth straight year in 2025, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's annual poverty report.

The poverty rate for Americans ages 65 and up jumped in 2025 to 15.4%, the highest poverty rate of all age groups based on the supplemental poverty measure (SPM). SPM includes non-cash benefits but subtracts necessary expenses such as taxes and medical care, and is considered a better measure of poverty trends and the effectiveness of government benefits programs than the official poverty measure. The overall SPM rate for all Americans was 13.1%, up from 13%.

Seniors are the only group that has seen a rise in its poverty rate every year since 2020, when the rate was 9.4%, and the tally has risen to more than 10 million people, data show. All other age groups saw a dip in 2021, after the pandemic, before creeping up again, data show. The jump to 15.4% from 9.4% also was the largest increase among all age groups.

The poverty rate increase comes as politicians face a crucial deadline to save Social Security from sweeping benefits cuts. The trust fund that supplements incoming payroll taxes to pay monthly Social Security benefits is projected to be depleted in the last three months of 2032, which would force an immediate across-the-board 22% benefits cut, the Board of Trustees report said.

“Each year since 2020, more and more older adults have fallen into abject poverty," said Claire Casey, president of AARP Foundation, the charitable and philanthropic arm of the nonprofit AARP, which serves Americans ages 50 and older. The data "confirms what we see every day in our work – that rising prices, an eroding social safety net and diminishing access to quality jobs are creating extreme precarity for older adults in our communities.”

Without Social Security, poverty among seniors could have been even higher, the report suggested.

"Social Security benefits decreased the SPM rate by 8.5 percentage points, lifting 28.8 million people above the poverty line," the Census Bureau report said. "Social Security was the largest antipoverty program in 2025, especially for those 65 years and older. Over 70% of the people pulled out of poverty by Social Security (20.9 million individuals) fell into that age group."

For the past 16 years, the cost of Social Security’s retirement program has exceeded the amount it receives from taxes collected from paychecks, forcing it to dip into its trust fund reserves to cover the shortfall. Last year, the trust fund was forecast to run out in 2033. Then, in August, the date was moved up to the end of 2032 because of tax provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that passed a little more than a year ago.

If Congress doesn't act and allows the trust fund to empty, the program will pay out only what the government collects in taxes. On average, beneficiaries would lose about $500 a month, the nonprofit Committee for a Responsible Budget estimates.

"This would be devastating to older adults, and especially low-income older adults who don’t have any other income or resources to fall back on," said Tracey Thomas Gronniger, managing director of economic security and housing at national nonprofit legal advocacy organization Justice in Aging. "Congress has time to act, but if they don’t, many low-income seniors could be pushed into poverty."

Senators elected in November will be part of the class that either lets Social Security's trust fund run dry or reform the program, analysts noted.

"These insolvency dates may feel abstract and far away, but the reality is that the senators elected in 2026 will be in office when Social Security reaches insolvency," said Margaret Spellings, president and chief executive of the Bipartisan Policy Center. "The question is no longer whether these challenges demand attention. It is whether Washington will find the will to act."

Medora Lee is a money, markets, and personal finance reporter at USA TODAY. You can reach her at mjlee@usatoday.com and subscribe to our free Daily Money newsletter for personal finance tips and business news every Monday through Friday.

If Congress doesn't act and allows the trust fund to empty, the program will pay out only what the government collects in taxes. On average, beneficiaries would lose about $500 a month, the nonprofit Committee for a Responsible Budget estimates.

Senators elected in November will be part of the class that either lets Social Security's trust fund run dry or reform the program, analysts noted.