Social Security Trust Fund - 2011 Activity and Financial Status

2011 Activity and Financial Status

The 2011 Trustees Report Press Release stated:

• "Income including interest to the combined OASDI Trust Funds amounted to $805 billion in 2011. ($564 billion in net contributions, $24 billion from taxation of benefits, $114 billion in interest, and $103 billion in reimbursements from the General Fund of the Treasury—almost exclusively resulting from the 2011 payroll tax legislation.)
• Total expenditures from the combined OASDI Trust Funds amounted to $736 billion in 2011.
• Non-interest income fell below program costs in 2010 for the first time since 1983. Program costs are projected to exceed non-interest income throughout the remainder of the 75-year period.
• The assets of the combined OASDI Trust Funds increased by $69 billion in 2011 to a total of $2.7 trillion.
• During 2011, an estimated 158 million people had earnings covered by Social Security and paid payroll taxes.
• Social Security paid benefits of $725 billion in calendar year 2011. There were about 55 million beneficiaries at the end of the calendar year.
• The cost of $6.4 billion to administer the program in 2011 was 0.9 percent of total expenditures.
• The combined Trust Fund assets earned interest at an effective annual rate of 4.4 percent in 2011."

Some basic equations for understanding the fund balance include:

• Fund ending balance for a given year = Fund starting balance + program revenues + interest - program payouts
• Program annual surplus (or deficit if negative) = program revenues + Interest - program expenses
• Program annual cash surplus (or deficit if negative) = program revenues - program expenses

"Program revenues" has several components, including payroll tax contributions, taxation of benefits, and an accounting entry to reflect recent payroll tax cuts during 2011 and 2012, to make the fund "whole" as if these tax cuts had not occurred. These all add to the program revenues.