Social Security: How Big Is Elizabeth Warren’s Check?
Written by
David Nadelle
Edited by
Chris Cluff
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According to a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report on the projected outlook for Social Security over the next 75 years, the Social Security trust fund will use up its reserves and become insolvent in 2033. Unless congressional changes are made, all beneficiaries regardless of age, income or need will see their benefits cut by about 25% upon insolvency.
One of the nation’s most fervent advocates for Social Security reform is former Democratic Party presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, who has focused her platform on working families and the middle class for years. Warren, 74, is the senior U.S. senator from Massachusetts, having served the Bay State since 2013.
Earlier this year, Warren, frequent comrade-in-arms Bernie Sanders and other Democratic co-signers introduced the Social Security Expansion Act in an effort to establish legislation that will make the Social Security program solvent for the next 75 years and increase benefits for all Americans.
“We need to get our priorities straight,” Warren stated on her website. “We should be increasing Social Security benefits and asking the richest Americans to contribute their fair share to the program.”
How Big Is Elizabeth Warren’s Social Security Check?
While Warren’s views on the deficiencies of the current Social Security program and potential taxing solutions are widely known, less discussed is whether she, herself, collects Social Security benefits — and if so, how much she receives.
Personal financial information that members of Congress and other key federal government officials are required to reveal every year is detailed in the Ethics in Government Act. Additionally, despite sometimes not being required by law to publicly disclose tax returns, those who hold high government positions often do.
These disclosures can tell a lot about a politician’s income and assets — and if they have claimed any retirement program benefits. Warren is one of the more transparent politicians when it comes to tax returns.
“I’ve put out 11 years of my tax returns because no one should ever have to guess who their elected officials are working for. Doing this should be law,” she said in April 2019, per CNBC.
Warren has released her tax returns every year since 2008. They reveal that the senator began collecting Social Security on her joint-filed 2019 1040 form, when she turned 70.
Four years ago, Warren and husband, Bruce Mann, claimed an adjusted gross income (AGI) of $741,892 as well as $22,573 in Social Security benefits. According to their 2022 filing, Warren and Mann’s AGI jumped to $1,079,679 and Social Security benefits to $99,415, with a taxable portion of $84,503.
Although she earns the standard senator’s salary of $174,000 — and Mann brings in around $400,000 as a professor at Harvard — the bulk of the couple’s wealth comes from a common political side hustle: book deals.
As The Boston Globe reported last year, Warren and Mann’s total income jumped from just over $882,000 to over $1.36 million in 2021, largely due to six-figure advances from her books “Pinkie Promise” and “Persist.”
Warren has published a dozen books to date, a number of which were national bestsellers. In 2019, Forbes estimated the couple’s fortune at around $12 million.
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