Strengthening the U.S. retirement system to be more accessible and financially sound is important to ensuring that all Americans can retire with dignity and security, and to managing the fiscal exposures to the federal government from various retirement-related programs. Currently, the U.S. retirement system, and many of the workers and retirees it was designed to help, face major challenges. Chapter 1 discusses (1) the fiscal risks and other challenges facing the U.S. retirement system, and (2) the need to re-evaluate our nation's approach to financing retirement. Chapters 2 and 3 discuss the Social Security full retirement age. Chapter 4 provides information on the benefits and disadvantages of alternate price indexes for measuring the cost of living for older Americans. Chapter 5 examines (1) how much in retirement savings is transferred to states as unclaimed property and what happens to those savings once transferred and (2) the steps IRS and DOL have taken to oversee these transfers and what improvements are needed. Chapter 6 discusses the availability of enhanced retirement benefits for federal law enforcement officers (LEOs). Chapters 7 and 8 focus on the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB), an independent federal agency, which administers retirement, survivor, disability, unemployment, and sickness insurance for railroad workers and their families. Chapters 9 and 10 provide information on the military retirement system.

Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) provides benefits to nonelderly workers and their eligible dependents if the worker paid Social Security taxes for a certain number of years and is unable to perform substantial work due to a qualifying impairment. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the DI trust fund and its current financial outlook. Chapter 2 discusses the rules and processes used to determine eligibility for SSDI and SSI. It also explains how benefit amounts are computed, the types of non-cash benefits available to individuals who meet SSA's disability standards, and how each program is financed. Chapter 3 analyzes the relative importance of factors affecting SSDI benefit receipts and terminations over the past 30 years. Chapter 4 examines what is known about how coverage and key features of SSDI and PDI compare, and the potential implications of three distinct proposals to expand employer-sponsored PDI on the Disability Insurance Trust Fund and various stakeholders. Chapter 5 examines trends in SSA's transfers and processing times of appealed cases over the past decade, SSA's monitoring of efforts to meet processing time goals through case transfers, and any challenges SSA faces in transferring cases between offices. Chapter 6 is the statement of Elizabeth Curda on SSA disabilty programs.