How Much Does Hillary Clinton Receive in Social Security Benefits?
In 2017, Hillary Clinton declared that she wouldn’t be running for public office again, but she hasn’t strayed far from the public eye since then.
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Speaking to CNN in October, the former senator, secretary of state, first lady of the United States and 2016 Democratic nominee for president compared followers of Donald Trump to cult members that need “deprogramming.”
“He’s only in it for himself,” she said. “He’s now defending himself in civil actions and criminal actions. And when do they break with him? Because at some point maybe there needs to be a formal deprogramming of the cult members. But something needs to happen.”
A polarizing figure herself, since attending the inauguration of Trump to “honor our democracy and its enduring values,” Clinton has formed the Onward Together PAC, has authored several books, is in demand as a political commentator and, since the beginning of 2023, has served as a professor of practice at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.
How Big Is Hillary Clinton’s Social Security Check?
There are a lot of resources available that will give one personal financial information of public officials, but it can be an arduous task at times. Clinton has been more transparent than some of her fellow politicos.
The Ethics in Government Act of 1978 requires Senate members, officers, certain employees and candidates to file public financial disclosures in order to monitor possible conflicts of interest. However, these financial disclosures don’t provide exact figures for some income types.
It’s not required by law to disclose tax returns to the public, but presidential candidates have typically done so since the early 1970s as a show of transparency and good faith. As Reuters reported during Clinton’s run for president in 2016, her and her husband’s “tax returns have been made public, in some form, every year since 1977.”
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In August 2016, when Trump was refusing to release his tax returns, Clinton and her husband released their 2015 filing, claiming a total income of over $10 million and paying more than three and a half million dollars in federal taxes, according to Time. Previous to this, she and her husband released returns for the years 2001 to 2014.
The 2015 return, issued when Clinton was 67 years old, didn’t show any claims for Social Security benefits, per NPR. It is unknown whether this has changed in the interim.
Suggesting that her personal decision to collect Social Security — or not — had relevance to her position on the government program, The Washington Times wrote that her “campaign repeatedly refused to say whether the 67-year-old candidate collects benefits herself or how much she pockets.”
It is the right of all Americans to waive Social Security benefits, often for the purpose of reducing or eliminating taxes on their income. While some ultra-high-net-worth individuals — like the Clintons, who have an estimated net worth of $120 million, per Celebrity Net Worth — simply forgo collecting Social Security, if Hillary waited until 70 to collect, it’s most likely she would be receiving the maximum eligible benefit, given her highly paid careers in law, government and post-political work.
According to The Los Angeles Times, if Clinton chose to start getting monthly checks five years ago at the age of 70, she would have collected 132% of her normal benefit, which would have paid her $3,343 a month or $40,122 a year. The maximum Social Security benefit for 2024 is $4,873 for those retiring at 70 or older.
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