My wife recently got a print out of what she paid in to social[ist] security over the years, and how many points/credits she’ll need to retire at 65, and so on.
This got me wondering. What if a person was a bum. Never worked a lick their whole life, or been married. Then turned 65. Would they get anything from Uncle Sucker?
If so, why?
Not from Social Security they wouldn’t, no. There are, of course, other government agencies and charitable institutions that are set up to help the homeless, the destitute, etc.
Social Security in the U.S. is based upon wages and earnings over your career. Every employer is supposed to report your wage-earnings to the Social Security Admin, and you pay (currently) about 7.51% of your pay, matched by your employer paying a similar amount. The amounts have varied over the years, and there is also a ceiling (maximum pay, beyond which there is no Social Security contribution for retirement – although the Medicare tax, included in that 7.51%, is 1.45% of all pay, no ceiling).
The SSA calculates a benefit based on the number of years that you have contributed, and the amount of your contributions (that is, wage levels.) The formula is complicated, with three different percents applied to three different layers of pay, and it is weighted towards the lower-paid (that is, there is a higher percent applied to the first/lowest layer of pay). The current maximum benefit is around $17,000 (IIRC).
If you have no contributions, then the formula produces zero. If you have only a few years of contributions, the formula produces a pretty low benefit. If you have only missed a few years (for instance, if you took some years out of your working career to raise kids, or you were unemployed, or whatever), the benefit is not affected much (often, not at all, it’s adjusted for that.)
Of course, other countries have different systems that work in very different ways, but that’s another topic.