About BenefitGap Plan
BenefitGap Plan (ssabenefitcalculator.org) is an independent educational tool for understanding the 2026 Trustees Report's 2032-Q4 OASI projection, when 78% of scheduled benefits is payable and the 22% complement is a financing gap. AWEN is the publisher and maintainer of BenefitGap Plan and the ssabenefitcalculator repository, and reviews the site copy against the cited SSA sources. AWEN does not claim financial-adviser status or SSA affiliation. The public project identity is available on GitHub.
Source: 2026 SSA Trustees Report, reviewed November 2026
The site exists because program-level trust-fund terms are easier to use when their assumptions and boundaries are visible. It is a free calculator with an optional $9 planning kit, not an SSA service, an enacted benefit-cut notice, or a personal payment forecast.
What this educational tool does
The calculator translates a published program-level percentage into a household planning illustration. The 2026 Trustees Report projects that, after separate OASI reserves are depleted in the fourth quarter of 2032, continuing income could cover 78% of scheduled OASI benefits. The complement is 22 percentage points. BenefitGap Plan labels that number as a planning gap rather than a prediction that a particular person will receive a specified payment. The distinction is important because a trust-fund projection, an enacted law, and an SSA benefit determination are different things.
The site is designed for readers who want to ask a bounded question: what would a selected percentage mean for a monthly amount in a budget? It does not answer whether Congress will change the law, whether a person is eligible for a benefit, when a person should claim benefits, or what SSA will pay a particular household. Readers should use an official SSA statement and SSA's own services for personal records, eligibility, and payment questions.
Sources and method
The visible source links lead to official SSA materials, including the 2026 Trustees Report highlights, summary, projections, and the SSI program overview. Each source note uses the label “Source: 2026 SSA Trustees Report, reviewed November 2026” so that readers can trace the relevant report context. The site keeps the separate OASI projection distinct from a hypothetical combined OASDI presentation and from the separately funded SSI program. Those distinctions prevent a program-level number from being treated as a universal rule.
Its arithmetic is intentionally inspectable. For example, a hypothetical $1,200 monthly OASI benefit multiplied by a 22% planning gap produces a $264 monthly difference; subtracting that difference leaves $936 at a 78% payable share. The calculator stores money as integer cents, rounds the percentage result once, and shows the monthly and annualized figures separately. The annualized value is a twelve-month comparison aid, not a claim about an actual full-year loss in 2032. More detail is available on the calculation methodology page.
Privacy, limits, and corrections
Calculator entries remain in the browser; the tool is intended to let people explore a scenario without submitting a budget to this site. The optional planning kit does not change the calculator's method or the availability of the free examples. BenefitGap Plan does not offer financial, legal, tax, investment, or Social Security advice. It does not forecast cost-of-living adjustments, taxes, Medicare premiums, legislative outcomes, earnings records, or individual benefit amounts.
Official projections can change when a later Trustees Report updates its assumptions, and laws can change the underlying financing or benefit rules. If you find a citation, calculation, or wording that needs correction, use the contact page to send the page URL, the specific statement, and a supporting official source. The site can then review the issue against the cited SSA material and update the public explanation when warranted. This correction path is part of keeping an educational tool transparent about both what it knows and what it cannot determine.