Every year, the government-appointed Board of Trustees releases a report on the financial outlook for the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds. The Trustees released the 2016 Trustees Report on June 22, 2016. It reported:
- The combined trust fund reserves are still growing and will continue to do so through 2019. Beginning with 2020, the cost of the program is projected to exceed income.
- The projected point at which the combined trust fund reserves will become depleted, if Congress does not act before then, comes in 2034 – the same as projected last year. At that time, there will be sufficient income coming in to pay 79 percent of scheduled benefits.
- The projected actuarial deficit over the 75-year long-range period is 2.66 percent of taxable payroll -- 0.02 percentage point smaller than in last year's report.