3 Ways the Coronavirus Pandemic Could Take a Bite Out of Your Social Security Benefit
The COVID-19 pandemic has in the past few months gone from bad to much worse across most of the United States, and it's clear that the crisis is likely to remain acute not just for the rest of this year, but a good part of 2021 as well. That poses obvious risks to your health and to the U.S. economy. But it also means that down the road, your Social Security benefits may take a hit. Here's why.
Each person's Social Security benefits are calculated based on their average inflation-adjusted earnings for their 35 highest-paid years in the workforce. But tens of millions of Americans have already been laid off during the pandemic, and more pink slips are coming.
If you lose your job and are unable to find work again until the pandemic is brought under control -- or worse, until the recession it spawned ends -- you could easily wind up spending a year or more unemployed. Indeed, about half the people who have been laid off so far in 2020 don't think it's a temporary thing -- they think their old jobs are gone for good.
Source Fool.com
