Report: Social Security benefits would be cut under Republican proposals

The average Social Security benefits are $14,000 a year for retirees. 

“The truth is that none of the cuts being proposed are easy on anyone, and in fact, all of them will hurt middle-class seniors and their retirement security,” Pomeroy said in a statement. 

He said the average Social Security recipient would lose 30 percent of his or her benefits under Republican proposals that “would have a profoundly negative impact on the retirement security of middle-class seniors, in addition to high-income retirees.”

“That’s not what I’d call ‘saving’ Social Security,” Pomeroy said. 

The chief actuary looked at several proposals, including raising the retirement age from 67, as scheduled under current law; reducing benefits for all regardless of when they retire; flattening benefit levels and reducing replacement rates by tying initial benefit levels to price levels rather than wage levels; and adopting an alternative measure of inflation as the basis for the annual cost-of-living adjustment.