Social Security benefits

AARP will never stop fighting to protect Social Security, so it stays strong for you and future generations of Americans.

Most older adults who receive or will soon receive Social Security say they're worried about their retirement benefits keeping up with inflation.

Claiming Social Security earlier means more time receiving benefits, but that action will permanently reduce them, which can threaten financial health at older ages.

Polling data shows that contrary to popular belief, support for Social Security is consistently high in all age groups in the United States

You may not think of Social Security as an economic stimulus program, but it is.

Poverty levels are much higher for older Americans when you factor in how much they need to spend on health care, the Census Bureau has found.

Thinking about your eventual retirement? If you're relatively well-off, you're probably confident that your tax-deferred savings will provide your major source of income. But if you're at the other end of the income ladder, you're more likely to count on Social Security benefits to tide you over.

It's not only politicians who have mixed reactions to a different way of calculating cost-of-living adjustments to Social Security benefits. Newspaper editorial writers and columnists are conflicted, too.

We're shelling out about $2,000 a year more in Social Security taxes in 2013 (based on $50,000-a-year earnings) now that the tax break expired. But guess what? Most workers say they don't mind paying into the Social Security system, and in fact, they're willing to dig deeper into their pockets to…

In 2011, the number of Americans taking early Social Security benefits dropped to a 35-year low, according to a new report from the Urban Institute. For the second consecutive year, those taking benefits fell (to 27% of the number of eligible older adults). That's down from 31% in 2009, reestablishing a 12-year downward trend interrupted only by the recent recession.