Trust Fund Monthly Reports: Q3 Update

Sept cash balances for the OAS and DI Trust Funds were just released for September, i.e. Q3. Since Social Security works on a calender year basis and the Federal Budget on a FY basis you could use these numbers to compare directly to OMB projections (and I will) for now here are just some straight numbers.

The web page for all the Trust Fund Reports (including Medicare HI, Highways etc) is Trust Fund Monthly Reports While generally Social Security is reported for convenience as having a single Trust Fund which will go to depletion (or not) in some future year (currently 2041), in reality there are two Trust Funds which are legally distinct and can have different levels of solvency and so different projected depletion dates. The larger by far (about 10 to 1) is the OAS (Old Age Survivors) TF. Its report can be found at OAS Monthly TF Report. Its smaller companion the DI (Disability Insurance) TF can be found at DI Monthly TF Report These can then be cross checked against the relevant tables in the 2008 Report:
Table IV.A1.—Operations of the OASI Trust Fund, Calendar Years 2003-171 [Amounts in billions] and Table IV.A2.—Operations of the DI Trust Fund, Calendar Years 2003-171 [Amounts in billions]
OAS::Opening balance//Projected year end balance-Intermediate Cost//Y-O-Y Increase//Year end balance-Low Cost//Y-O-Y increase-Low Cost
$2.023 trillion // $2.216 trillion //$193 billion// $2.221 trillion// $198 billion

DI::Opening balance//Projected year end balance-Intermediate Cost//Y-O-Y Increase//Year end balance-Low Cost//Y-O-Y increase-Low Cost
$214.9 billion//$218.7 billion//$3.8 billion//$221.3 billion// $6.4 billion.
Per IV.A2 the opening balance for DI was $214 billion, projected year end under IC $218.7 billion, under LC $221.3 billion

June 30th/Mid-year: OAS $2.140 trillion// DI $220 billion

Aug 31st/Two-thirds: OAS $2.164 trillion// DI $219 billion

Sept 30th/Q3: OAS $2.177 trillion// DI $219 billion

I'll have some more thoughts later and cross-post the expanded post to Angry Bear. But it looks like for the first time since at least 1997 Trust Fund cash balances for the current year will slightly trail projections under Intermediate Cost. Whether this is a 'half full, or half empty' situation depends on how you evaluate 'slightly'.