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51% Say Social Security Needs to Be Fixed | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Survey of 2,500 Adults March 10-13, 2005
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May 24, 2005--Fifty-one percent (51%) of American adults say that Social Security needs to be fixed. A Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of 2,500 adults found that just 38% take the opposite view and say the New Deal program needs to be left alone. As with just about everything involving Social Security, there are huge gaps between the views of senior citizens and working age Americans. By a 61% to 29% margin, Americans under 40 say that Social Security needs to fixed. By a similar 58% to 29% margin, those over 65 say it needs to be left alone. Among those who are currently employed and funding the Social Security program, 59% say it needs to be fixed. Just 33% of workers want it left alone. One Social Security reform proposal that is well received by the general public would let workers determine their own retirement age. Those who want to retire earlier could pay extra taxes into the system and begin collecting benefits sooner. Those who would rather defer the time when they begin collecting benefits could pay less in taxes today. Fifty-two percent (52%) of Americans favor a proposal to let workers select their own retirement age. Thirty-one percent (31%) are opposed. Among those who are currently working, 59% favor this approach. Letting workers select their own retirement age draws support from a critical demographic group--those aged 50-64. This group pays more attention to retirement issues than younger adults. By a 49% to 33% margin, they favor a proposal that would let them select their own retirement age. By way of comparison, this age bracket opposes the President's proposal by a 55% to 30% margin. Working Americans in the 50-64 year old age bracket favor this proposal by a 56% to 30% margin. Fifty-two percent (52%) of workers say that, if they had the choice, they would pay more into the system now and retire earlier. Thirty percent (30%) say they would rather pay less into the system now and defer their benefits. Nineteen percent (19%) of workers would defer their retirement benefits to age 75 if they could. Younger Americans are most likely to say they would put more money into the Social Security program and retire earlier (60%) of those under 30 hold this view. However, those closest to retirement are least likely to opt for earlier retirement. Forty-five percent (45%) of those aged 50-64 would pay more for earlier benefit collection. However, 34% of those nearing retirement would defer their benefit collection in exchange for lower taxes now. Nearly half of those who would defer their Social Security benefits would place the tax savings into a personal retirement account. More than half the rest would use the tax savings for debt reduction. Demographic details are available for Premium Members. Rasmussen Reports is an electronic publishing firm specializing in the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information. We recently released Social Security: Has the Season for Reform Arrived? Our publications provide real-time information on consumer confidence, investor confidence, employment data, the political situation, and other topics of value and interest. We provide daily updates on the economic confidence of Consumers and Investors. Our consumer data generally identifies trends two to six weeks ahead of traditional consumer confidence measures. To keep up with our latest releases, be sure to visit the Rasmussen Reports Home Page.
This survey of 2,500 Adults was conducted by Rasmussen Reports May 18-22, 2005. The margin of sampling error is +/- 2 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. |
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