Archive: Peter R. Orszag
Introduction Transforming Social Security’s delayed retirement credit into a lump-sum payment rather than an increased monthly payment would likely encourage more workers to defer retirement and benefit claiming. The idea is thus worthy of further exploration. Several important design issues, however, must be addressed before policymakers give serious consideration to the reform. The most problematic…
Abstract On April 7, 2000, President Clinton signed into law the “Senior Citizens Freedom to Work Act of 2000,” which eliminated the unpopular earnings test that applied to those over the Social Security normal age of retirement (currently age 65). The earnings test, a version of which still applies to those ages 62-64, reduces immediat…