Beneficiaries may be subject to means-testing

Social Security was designed to provide benefits to anyone who has made contributions to the program, regardless of their other sources of income such as pensions, investments or personal savings. Means testing refers to reducing the benefits of higher-income individuals and making sure Social Security goes to people who really need it.

President Trump talked about such an initiative in the past. Under his administration, higher-income recipients would collect less Social Security benefits while the highest-income households might not receive any benefits at all, something very similar to personal bankruptcy. While the scope of Social Security is to help people with lower incomes in retirement, it might not be fair to the higher earners who, although they might not need the benefits as much as lower-income recipients, they still contributed to the program during their working years.