Younger generations have written off Social Security as a means of funding their retirement, but those 65 and older continue to rely on it as a major share of their retirement income.
That's according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute's 2013 Retirement Confidence Survey, which found that 77 percent of workers today are less likely to expect Social Security income in retirement than today's retirees are to report having this income (93 percent).
EBRI also found that those surveyed are half as likely to expect Social Security to be a major share of their income in retirement (33 percent) as today's retirees are to say that Social Security is a major share of their income (70 percent).
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EBRI found that 60 percent of Americans over the age of 65 received at least 75 percent of their income from Social Security.
Sixty-nine percent of current workers are not overly or not at all confident Social Security will continue to provide benefits of at least equal value to the benefits retirees receive today. The percentage of people who are not at all confident rose from 34 percent a year ago to 41 percent in 2013.
EBRI discovered another interesting trend in its research:
Retirees who already are receiving Social Security benefits express more confidence in the future of the benefit program than those who haven't yet retired, although that confidence has slipped a bit since last year.
Forty-seven percent of retirees are not too or not at all confident that Social Security will continue to provide benefits of at least equal value to what they receive now.
EBRI is a private, nonpartisan, nonprofit research institute based in Washington, D.C., that focuses on health, savings, retirement, and economic security issues.
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