A Strange Social Security Rule Puts Today's 60-Year-Olds at a Big Disadvantage. Lawmakers Are Working to Change That.
Social Security serves as a critical income source for millions of retired seniors, but the program is loaded with quirky rules that don't always work to beneficiaries' advantage. One such rule is that the average wage index the year seniors turn 60 is used, combined with other factors, like lifetime earnings, to determine what their monthly benefits will look like.
Generally speaking, the average national wage rises from year to year. But this year, that won't be the case. Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of Americans are out of work and could stay that way for the rest of the year, and so average wages are apt to decline substantially. As a result, seniors who turn 60 in 2020 will be in line for a much lower benefit during retirement than those who turned 60 just a year ago. That is, unless lawmakers intervene.
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Source Fool.com
