After the payments begin, you'll receive Social Security benefits for the rest of your life. People worry that the Social Security system will run out of money, but as long as there are some workers paying into the system, it will be able to pay at least a reduced benefit to retirees.

The system can be tweaked easily enough for full benefits to continue to all those to whom it is owed, barring some reductions for taxation on benefits and possible reductions based on income from other sources. After the payments begin, you’ll receive Social Security benefits for the rest of your life. It works like a pension.

The payments are based on actuarial calculations which use life expectancy of the population to determine appropriate payment amounts which will sustain the system indefinitely. The Social Security Administration has come under fire when it was reported that their Trust Funds are projected to be depleted by around 2037, but there are things, such as changes to legislation, tax policy, bond interest rates, and population demographics, that can sustain these trust funds well beyond 2037.

Those projections have only given the system enough time to correct itself. The cash flows from current-year FICA tax revenue are the main source of payable benefits. The trust funds are meant to be the emergency savings that will sustain the program through years in which benefits paid exceed taxes collected.

There have been a few such years since 2010, but as stated above, there are tweaks available to save the most important features of the Social Security program for an indefinite amount of time.

When Will Social Security Go Bankrupt?
How are Social Security Benefits Computed?