Upcoming Social Security reforms may hit Black and low-income retirees hardest – St. Louis American

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Major changes to Social Security taking effect this fall and into 2026 could reshape the nation’s retirement safety net, and experts warn that African Americans and other historically marginalized groups stand to suffer the most.
Some of the Trump administration’s new reforms affect the working class, women, minorities and seniors. They include raising the full retirement age to 67 for those born in 1960 or later, eliminating paper checks for benefit payments, tightening eligibility for disability coverage and altering how benefits are taxed.
Beginning in 2026, anyone born in 1960 or later will see their full retirement age increase from 66 and 10 months to 67, the final phase of a shift that began in the 1980s. Workers who claim benefits before that age will face permanent reductions, while those who delay up to age 70 can receive up to 24% more monthly income.
Financial analysts told 24/7 Wall St. that claiming benefits early could reduce lifetime income by as much as 30%, with the burden falling hardest on communities with lower life expectancy and physically demanding jobs — conditions disproportionately affecting Black and Latino workers.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reported that the Trump administration is advancing what could be the largest cut to Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) in history, reducing the share of applicants who qualify by as much as 20%. The proposed rule would make it harder for older workers to qualify by “discounting the barriers they face due to their age,” according to CBPP senior analyst Kathleen Romig.
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Nearly 80% of SSDI beneficiaries are age 50 or older, and many live in Southern and Appalachian states where Black workers, older laborers and those with lower education levels are concentrated.
“Rejecting more older applicants will cause more hardship for people who would be eligible for benefits under the existing rules,” Romig wrote. Such cuts, she added, would “threaten retirement security, access to health care and other supports” by forcing many to deplete savings early and claim smaller retirement benefits sooner.
The Treasury Department also announced that as of Sept. 30 it will stop issuing paper checks for Social Security payments, part of a modernization order under the Trump administration.
“Some people are just not going to be able to manage the steps,” Romig told The Washington Post, noting that those without internet access or bank accounts will struggle to transition to electronic systems.
A 2024 study from the Center for Retirement Research found that Black retirees receive 19% less in Social Security benefits than white retirees, even though the program’s formula is designed to favor lower earners. The gap stems from lower lifetime earnings, poorer health and the burden of caregiving responsibilities.
“Changing Social Security alone seems unlikely to narrow existing racial and ethnic gaps substantially,” the researchers concluded. “Achieving equity for Black and Hispanic retirees would have to start with expanding opportunity for workers and increasing pay equity.”
Civil rights scholars say these new reforms deepen inequities that have existed since Social Security’s creation in 1935. Rutgers Law School professor Jon C. Dubin traces how the original act excluded many Black Americans through occupational barriers in his book, The Color of Social Security: Race and Unequal Protection in the Crown Jewel of the American Welfare State.
“The original Act’s complete exclusion of disproportionately Black agricultural and domestic workers from old age insurance programs was grounded in the badges and incidents of slavery and a desire to preserve the plantation-sharecropping economy,” he wrote.
Dubin added that the legacy still lingers.
“Future proposals to raise the full retirement age to 70 will have a foreseeable racially disparate impact on Black workers due to shorter Black life expectancy and resulting shorter temporal benefit-receipt windows,” he warned.
This story originally appeared here.

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