Continued disability and survivor benefits . Social security provides benefits to 3 million children and the remaining care-taking parent in the event of premature death or disability of either working parent. Spouses of disabled workers and widows of workers who die prematurely also receive guaranteed lifetime retirement benefits. These benefits have enabled women to hold their families together under tragic circumstances. No privatization .
Social security needs to be dependable and secure.
We cannot risk this program by investing its resources in a volatile stock market or personal accounts. A system that initially replaces part of social security with individual accounts is inherently unstable and likely to lead over time to the further erosion of guaranteed benefits and the unraveling of the existing social security system. A progressive benefit formula . Social security should continue to replace a larger share of low-income workers' past earnings as a protection against poverty, and beneficiaries who earned higher wages during their work life should continue to receive benefits related to their earnings history.