Forced to retire, some take Social Security early

AP:


Jason Fichtner, an associate commissioner at the Social Security Administration, said the weak economy has led more people who lost their jobs to retire early. However, it also has forced some people hard-hit by the recession and in need of a bigger paycheck to push back retirement and stay in the work force longer.

"But we're seeing more people taking early benefits than staying in the workforce longer," Fichtner said.

Like Skidmore, 63-year-old Jan Gissel of Tustin, Calif., also was forced into retirement early. She turned to unemployment benefits when her technical support business failed and filed for Social Security last September. Together, the checks are keeping her afloat.

"I knew I had to have an income from somewhere, and my business wasn't giving it to me," she said. "I just went online and, boom, three weeks later I had the check."

Gissel wants to continue working but still hasn't found a job. Although she didn't expect to be cashing Social Security checks so soon, she's grateful for the support it has provided.

"I needed it way earlier than I thought," she said.

In the annual report of the Social Security program released Thursday, the trustees said that pension and disability payments will exceed revenues for this year and 2011, reflecting the deep recession.

The report forecast that the program would return to the black in 2012 through 2014, but that benefit payments will again exceed tax collections in 2015. For every year after 2015, the report projects that Social Security will be paying out more than it receives in tax collections as 78 million baby boomers begin retiring.


And this unwelcome news from the Social Security Administration:

The annual report of the Trustees of Social Security and Medicare, issued early August 2010, contained some unwelcome news: for the first time since 1983, Social Security is going to bring in less money than it pays out.