To begin with, increasing the retirement age
"would not significantly extend the trust fund
exhaustion date" (Congressional Budget Office,
2010, p. 31). Increasing the FRA would also
reduce social security's already relatively meager
benefits to individuals affected by the change; this
would have a particularly adverse impact on
women, people of color, and other low-wage
workers (Strengthen Social Security, n.d.). Bowles
and Simpson did recommend measures to offset
the impact of the FRA increase on low-wage
workers; however, as Kingson and Altman (2011)
noted, offsets were also discussed in 1983, but
nothing was done to assist individuals "now being
disadvantaged by benefit cuts resulting from
increases in the retirement age" (p. 4). Given our
current economic and political context, it seems
unlikely that anything would be done to address
the impact of future increases in the FRA.