News In Brief

Social security facing new straits panel says

The social security system could be in trouble again by the end of the decade , according to a national business group. If economic or demographic trends turn out only slightly worse than current estimates, the social security retirement fund "is likely to face insolvency before the end of this decade," warns the Committee for Economic Development, a business-sponsored public-policy group.

The panel claims the assumptions on which Congress based its 1983 reforms of the system are "optimistic." As a result, the changes Congress made in the law "provide very little margin of safety."

Holding annual benefit increases to a level below rises in the consumer price indec is one step the group suggests to avoid a funding crisis.