Summary: Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the disparity of social security benefits, known as the notch, between classes of recipients, resulting from the Social Security Amendments of 1977, specifically: (1) how the notch arose; (2) its effect on beneficiaries; (3) the financial implications of some proposed notch legislation; and (4) the socioeconomic characteristics of affected social security recipients.
GAO found that the 1977 amendments: (1) altered the benefits computation formula; (2) stabilized replacement rates and lowered their level; (3) caused retirees born in or after 1917 to receive smaller benefit amounts than those born before then; and (4) did not fully anticipate rapid inflation from 1977 to 1983 which increased the notch between those groups. GAO also found that legislative proposals to lessen the benefit disparities: (1) would require making additional payments to beneficiaries, using current trust fund balances to finance notch remedies, increasing revenue through payroll taxation, and reducing benefits and other expenditures; (2) were generally costly and difficult to administer; and (3) could jeopardize the system's short-run financial condition.
