More older Americans not confident Social Security will be there for them: Survey

More older Americans are not confident Social Security will be there for them, a poll released Thursday found.

Close to 30 percent of respondents to The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll aged 60 and up said they are not confident about the availability of Social Security benefits when needed. A poll from 2023 found about 20 percent of respondents in that age category said the same about Social Security benefits, illustrating an increase in concerns about availability.

Overall, 52 percent in the poll said they are “not very” or “not at all” confident when it comes to accessibility of Social Security benefits when they "need them."

Earlier this week, the Senate voted to confirm Wall Street veteran Frank Bisignano to lead the Social Security Administration (SSA) in spite of intense opposition from Democrats. 

Bisignano’s nomination resulted in heavy pushback from Democrats in the wake of tech billionaire Elon Musk, the Department of Government Efficiency and other top Trump administration officials calling for the shrinking of the SSA’s workforce by 7,000 positions and closing down dozens of offices nationwide.

“This is putting a fox in the hen house. Bisignano is slash and burn. And the Republicans don’t want to say directly that they want to kill Social Security, so they strangle it. There is no better strangler of any program than slash-and-burn Bisignano,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in the wake of the confirmation.

According to the AP-NORC poll, the majority of Americans, 61 percent, said they do not back President Trump's handling of the economy. Meanwhile, 37 percent said they supported his approach.

These sentiments come during a period of increased anxiety and concern about the economy in the U.S.

In the first few months of his second term, Trump’s tariff policy has rattled markets worldwide and strained relationships with longtime allies like Canada and the European Union.

The AP-NORC poll took place April 17-21, featuring 1,260 people, and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.