News

This might not be the first time you've heard about Social Security flirting with the $1 trillion mark. In 2019, the total expenditures from the entire Social Security program – which include not only retirement and survivor benefits but also the payments it makes to disabled workers and their families – went over $1 trillion for the first time in the program's 83 years.

Yet even though millions of people rely on disability benefits, the retirement side of Social Security makes up by far the majority of total spending from the program, and so it's in position to follow suit over the $1 trillion mark in quick succession. In 2019, about 90% of scheduled benefits were tied to retirement, compared with just 10% in disability benefits. Few see that proportion changing markedly anytime in the near future.