DEAR RUSTY: My coffee conversations among a group of friends have resulted in several questions about Social Security:

1. What happens to the Social Security account of someone who dies before retirement age. What happens to that money and where does it end up?

2. How does the decreased birth rate of the USA affect future Social Security benefits?

3. Is a person who has never contributed to the Social Security system entitled to any benefits from the Social Security Administration?

4. Is there a central location online that a person can access that explains the history and current status of the Social Security System, that explains all of it in simple terms? I would like to be able to give this location to people I talk with about Social Security.

Most of the articles we read are like slogging through mud! I enjoy AMAC articles and am college educated, but the average reading level in the US is less than 6th grade. Thank you for considering these questions. — Curious Reader.

DEAR CURIOUS: Thank you for your readership, and I’ll be happy to tackle your “over coffee” questions about Social Security:

1. Social Security is a “pay as you go” program, where all money collected from workers is used to pay benefits for all those who are currently receiving Social Security. In other words, all money contributed is used to pay benefits to others already receiving benefits. It is not put into a separate account for each person, and that is a good thing. Most people get more from Social Security than they ever contributed, but benefits are paid for life, regardless of how long one lives. The specific answer to your question is that if someone dies before retirement age, the money contributed has already been used to pay benefits to others. Keep in mind though, that a surviving spouse or minor or disabled adult child may also collect benefits on a deceased person’s Social Security record.

2. The decreasing birth rate in the U.S. hurts Social Security. That’s because fewer babies mean fewer future workers contributing to the Social Security program. FYI, in 1950 there were about 15 workers contributing to SS for every one person collecting benefits, but today there are less than three workers for each SS beneficiary. That problem is exacerbated by the steadily increasing U.S. life expectancy. Beneficiaries are now often collecting SS benefits for decades from a program designed to pay benefits for only a few years.

3. Only those who have worked and contributed to Social Security through payroll taxes for about 10 years (40 quarters of SS credit) are eligible to collect SS Retirement benefits. However, some dependent spouses and/or dependent minor or dependent disabled children who have never worked might also be eligible for benefits from the worker’s Social Security record. Along with each U.S. state, the SSA also administers another program, known as Supplement Security Income (SSI), on behalf of the federal government. However, federal “SSI” benefits are not paid with Social Security funds. “SSI” is a separate government benefit program, with federal benefits paid from the general U.S. Treasury.

4. There are lots of places to get information about Social Security, but I suggest you start at our AMAC Foundation Social Security information website, which can be found at socialsecurityreport.org. Here you will find numerous articles about Social Security, retirement, Medicare, etc., as well as all the Ask Rusty articles I have published weekly over the last eight years.

You can always ask any questions you have via email to SSAdvisor@amacfoundation.org. Or, if you prefer, you can just call us on (888) 750-2622 if you have questions about Social Security or about Medicare enrollment.

(Russell Gloor is a national Social Security advisor at the AMAC Foundation, the non-profit arm of the Association of Mature American Citizens.)