Potential GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush has said the retirement age for Social Security should be pushed back another half decade.
In an appearance on Sunday's "Face the Nation," Bush said that Americans shouldn't be able to collect full benefits at age 65, but should have to wait till age 68, or even age 70.
"I think it needs to be phased in over an extended period of time," he said of the proposal, adding, "We need to look over the horizon and begin to phase in, over an extended period of time, going from 65 to 68 or 70. And that, by itself, will help sustain the retirement system for anybody under the age of 40."
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He's also considering cutting benefits for the wealthy and their beneficiaries, instead requiring recipients to qualify based on economic status. Means testing, as the process is known, has the Social Security system is economically unsound.
No mention was made of another potential solution: the possibility of increasing workers' contributions to Social Security above today's threshold, which has been proposed by Democrats as a way of increasing the program's sustainability.
Workers might disagree with Bush's proposals, however. They're already postponing drawing Social Security benefits until age 65, when they can, as a way of qualifying for a higher benefit than they would receive if they retired at age 62, and indeed, many would stay in the workplace far beyond retirement age—if they were able to.
A study from Bankers Life Center for Secure Retirement found that 69 percent of retired boomers said they would have worked longer, but couldn't. The reasons range from ill health to layoffs, the need to care for a loved one, the inability to find a job—or just not being able to do the job any longer.
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