Source: anna.stasiia/Science/Adobe Stock.
Since taking office, a key focus of the current US administration has been to weed out waste, fraud and abuse across different facets of government. As a result, some of the services affected by these efforts include government assistance programs, like Social Security and Medicare, that many retired Americans depend on.
These efforts have also raised concern among some program recipients, who express fears that they could see a reduction in or interruption to their benefits. To gather the baseline sentiment on this topic, we recently surveyed retired and nearly retired 451 Alliance members from our Leading Indicator panel to gain a better understanding of their expectations going forward.
A balanced approach to rooting out fraud is needed to avoid benefit interruptions
Among our sample, over 90% of retirees use at least one government benefit program, with Social Security and Medicare being the most prominent. These high levels of participation demonstrate the ubiquity and importance of these programs, where usage cuts across income levels and most other demographic categories.
The administration’s review and revision of these programs and their benefit levels is an ongoing process. But when asked about their own benefits, more than half (55%) of respondents expressed being very or somewhat concerned that they would experience disruptions or reductions due to the changes being proposed. Lower-income respondents (less than $75,000 per year; 56%) had slightly greater levels of concern compared with higher-income respondents (more than $120,000 per year; 51%).
One of the major driving forces behind current reform efforts is the belief that these programs are rife with fraud and abuse. Retirees tend to agree with this assertion, as 62% say there is a “great deal” or “quite a bit” of fraud within government benefit programs. This belief is greatest among lower-income respondents (68%) compared with higher-income ones (61%), which creates an interesting juxtaposition as those most worried about benefit disruptions are also the ones most in favor of the revisions that could ultimately affect them negatively.
When asked how successful they think the administration’s changes to benefit programs will be, only 4% said the changes will result in “much less” fraud, with the largest group saying they think the changes will lead to “somewhat less” fraud (31%). Another 28% say there will be no change in the amount of fraud, a surprising level of skepticism among a group who largely believes high levels of fraud currently exist in these programs.
New identification requirements seem to be going smoothly
Some of the administration’s proposed changes have already gone into effect, including transitioning to digital payments and adoption of new identity verification requirements. On this second point, over one-quarter (27%) have already been through the identity verification process, with 81% of this group saying they did so online.
Importantly, 86% said it was very or somewhat easy to complete the verification process. This is a must for a demographic that tends to be less tech-savvy than other generations who are typically the ones designing and administering these services. Ease of use, whether completing the process online or in-person, is key to minimizing disruptions and ensuring retirees can meet any new and changing program requirements.
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