SS Benefit Changes?

[REWahoo]

Think your SS benefits are "safe" if you're over 55? This USA Today article says you'd better think again...

When President Bush proposed a Social Security overhaul this year as the top domestic priority of his second term, he promised the changes wouldn't apply to anyone 55 or older. But Bush's plan has gone nowhere, and actuaries say demographics and simple arithmetic will make it difficult to repeat that commitment in the future.

Americans who are 50-something — a point in life when many are registering peak earnings, seeing their children move into the workplace and beginning to make detailed plans for their retirement — could be in for some unwelcome surprises down the road.

<snip>

...policymakers who want to keep the system solvent and protect low-income seniors could take steps that would affect those nearing retirement or already there: Trimming benefits, especially for the more affluent. Reducing cost-of-living adjustments. Subjecting more Social Security income to taxation.

Changes such as those become more likely for near-retirees as each year passes.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washing...gs-cover_x.htm

We've seen several articles recently discussing waiting to age 70 to collect SS, now this. Currently 59, I've not been concerned about any substantive change to my future SS benefits. Looks like I might need to re-think that assumption.