COVID recession pushed Social Security insolvency up a year

FILE - In this Feb. 11, 2005 file photo, trays of printed social security checks wait to be mailed from the U.S. Treasury's Financial Management services facility in Philadelphia. The financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Social Security and Medicare is front and center as the government releases its annual report on the state of the bedrock retirement programs on Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021. (AP Photo/Bradley C. Bower, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The sharp shock of the coronavirus recession pushed Social Security a year closer to insolvency but left Medicare’s exhaustion date unchanged, the government reported Tuesday.

It’s a counterintuitive assessment that deepens the uncertainty around the nation’s bedrock retirement programs.

Social Security’s massive trust fund will be unable to pay full benefits in 2034 instead of last year’s estimated exhaustion date of 2035.

The depletion date for Medicare’s trust fund for inpatient care remained unchanged from last year, estimated in 2026.

The full impact from the coronavirus pandemic will take several more years to play out.

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