75% of people 50 and up worry Social Security will run out of money

The subject of Social Security was largely left untouched in the first Republican presidential debate.

But worries about the future of the program loom large in Americans’ minds, a recent survey from Nationwide Retirement Institute shows.

To that point, 75% of individuals ages 50 and up worry Social Security will run out of funding in their lifetimes, according to the survey of 1,806 individuals taken between May and June.

That is up from 66% of adults who said the same in 2014.

Those concerns have increased as the depletion dates for the program’s funds come closer. The program’s combined funds are due to run out in 2034, at which point 80% of benefits will be payable, Social Security’s trustees have said.

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Meanwhile, the fund the program relies on to pay retirement benefits is projected to last until 2033 — just a decade away — with 77% of benefits payable at that time.

“You’ve got people on this stage that won’t even talk about Social Security and Medicare,” former vice president Mike Pence said during Wednesday’s Republican primary debate.

In a February interview with CNBC, Pence said it was necessary to “get everybody at the table” to discuss the future of the programs.

“There’s lots of good ideas to solve this that are common sense that don’t impact people at the point of the need, that don’t affect anybody that is going to retire in the next 25 years,” Pence said, pointing to legislation passed 50 years ago that raised the retirement age and ushered in long-time solvency.

While the other candidates didn’t take Pence’s bait to debate the future of the programs on Wednesday, they have addressed them in separate interviews.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis told Fox News in July that he would “protect people’s Social Security,” though he is open to reform.

“Talking about making changes for people in their 30s or 40s so that the program’s viable, you know, that’s a much different thing, and that’s something that I think that there’s going to need to be discussions on,” he said.

Uncertainty about the future of Social Security comes as more Americans rely on the program for their sole source of income, with 21% doing so according to Nationwide’s latest retirement survey, versus 13% in 2014.

Meanwhile, just 31% said they currently have income…