Retirees deposited social security earlier. For what?

In the morning after her 67th birthday, Marty McGowan asked for social security. It was not his original plan. He intended to wait until it was 70 to claim services, in exchange for heavier payment which would have reported an additional $ 800 per month.

But like the other retirees in recent months, he looked at the upheaval of the Trump administration at the Social Security Administration at a time when wider economic perspectives seemed to be increasingly uncertain. The concerns concerning the economy and access to the advantages pushed him to deposit earlier than expected, even if it could cost him in the long term.

He was not the only one: 276,000 additional retirees claimed benefits in their profits from this financial year until April, according to the Urban Institute, a research group, a 13% jump in the same period a year ago. Social Security Administration officials qualified the rise in “dramatic”, and although there have been other reasons for the sharp increase, program experts say that anxiety seemed to play a significant role.

“It’s worrying because for most people, saying early is not a good decision,” said Jack Smalligan, a principal researcher at the Urban Institute. “They are nervous at the idea of ​​threats to the administration of Social Security and their advantages, while simultaneously looking at their 401 (K), if they have one, and worried about it.”

The Crusade of the Trump administration to reduce the federal bureaucracy did not spare social security, which rocked the initiates of the agency and the Americans close or retired. Many of them feared that the deletions of jobs and other changes in policy would threaten their access to the benefits, which forced them to block telephone lines and to overwhelm offices. Elon Musk, the technological billionaire whose government’s ministry of efficiency has led many changes, continued to spread false complaints on generalized fraud to the agency, which has only added to confusion.

This situation, associated with broader economic uncertainty, seemed to influence the real financial decision -making of certain retirees. Agency officials recognized him during their recent operational meetings, as well as other strains of the system.