Social Security Retirement Expenses

• As more people live into their 80s and 90s, the strain on the Social Security system for retirement benefits will increase. The U.S. government will be forced to either divert funds from other areas of spending or to raise taxes to cover the increased costs of caring for an aging population. As the balance continues to tip and more people enter retirement to draw Social Security benefits while fewer people enter the workforce to make payments into the program, the government will have to consider options like further raising the age at which workers qualify for these benefits.
  
  

Lower Tax Payments

• As the number of people of working age declines in relation to the number of people of retirement age, levels of income tax fall, putting further strain on government spending. Seniors tend to have a much lower taxable income than people of working age. Revenue from retail sales taxes also fall as a consequence of the reduced spending power of an aging population. Cutting government spending in other areas and raising taxes to cover the cost of increased Social Security retirement benefit payments could also put a squeeze on consumer spending as the country's workers tighten their belts to meet the cost.
  
  

Medical Care

• Although medical advances are largely to thank for helping people live longer, an aging population is, and will continue to be, a big drain on health care programs like Medicare, for Americans 65 and older, and Medicaid, for low-income people. While people are living longer, some are entering the later stages of life with diseases that would have killed them much earlier in the past, and as a result they may require expensive medical treatments. This, again, has to be funded by tax increases or cuts to other areas of government spending.
  
  

Family Life

• The children and extended families of seniors will increasingly be called upon to provide care for their elderly relatives. As the population continues to age, more people of working age will feel responsible for caring for their parents to contribute financially to private provision for their care, such as in-home caretakers. Unless the state steps in to fund additional care services for the rising numbers of vulnerable elderly people, the burden on families will increase, with some spending many hours a week, or a substantial part of their income, on the welfare of older relatives.