A conservative think tank is calling for raising the U.S. retirement age to 70.
Rachel GresslerIn an article for the right-leaning Heritage Foundation, the senior fellow at the Law Institute argued that the normal eligibility age for Social Security pensions should be raised to 70 to address the imminent funding challenges facing the Social Security Administration (SSA).
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According to the SSA’s 2023 Trustee Report released earlier this year, the trust fund that supports the nation’s largest benefits program for retirees, survivors and people with disabilities is expected to run out of money in 2035 unless Congress takes steps to ensure its solvency.
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“To restore Social Security’s purpose, policymakers should gradually raise the normal retirement age from 67 to 69 or 70, increasing it by one to two months per year and adjusting for life expectancy,” Gressler proposed in a blog post on Monday.
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She argued that “longer life expectancies, improved health care, and a shift away from physically demanding jobs” would allow older Americans to remain in the workforce longer, helping to eliminate the looming deficit facing the SSA.
“The benefits of older workers remaining in the workforce go beyond Social Security solvency and the additional income Americans receive,” she continued. “Their wisdom and experience offer valuable insight and guidance to younger workers. And in today’s labor market, there are more opportunities for older workers to gradually move toward retirement rather than abruptly ending their careers.”
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Gressler noted that raising the retirement age would not be the only way to address the 2035 budget shortfall crisis, as an adjustment for inflation would also be necessary.
“Revising the Social Security retirement age is an important component of reform, but it would only address about 20-30 percent of the program’s shortfall,” she writes. “A more accurate inflation adjustment would address another 20-25 percent of the program’s shortfall.”
Other social security and financial experts don’t necessarily agree.
“The big picture is that retirement is a big part of the economy,” said Steven Cates, chief financial analyst at RetireGuide.com. Newsweek Raising the age at which people can claim benefits “is a regressive way of simplifying benefit cuts.”
Cates did not directly address Greszler’s article, but said, “The minimum age to claim benefits is 62, and typically [roughly] For people born after 1959, monthly benefits would be reduced by 30 percent compared to the projected benefit at full retirement age of 67. Raising either the earliest retirement age or the full retirement age would mean that benefits for future retirees would start later and be lower than they are now.”
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has also previously said that raising the Social Security retirement age would result in benefit cuts equal to the cuts projected for the 2030s if lawmakers do nothing.
“The Heritage Foundation, which has played a central role in orchestrating the extremist takeover of the federal government known as Project 2025 for the next Republican president, is now calling for raising the Social Security retirement age to 70,” said Zachary Prieto, a senior fellow at Media Matters.
Newsweek Gressler could be reached for comment through the Heritage Foundation’s website.
Sponsored by the Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 describes itself as “an effort by a broad coalition of conservative organizations mobilized to ensure a successful administration in January 2025.”
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