In the survey which polled more than 1,200 retirees, about 65% said they greatly rely on Social Security, while 21% said they rely on it somewhat. When AARP conducted that same study in 2005, half of those surveyed said they relied heavily on their checks.

Amid this troubling data, AARP CEO Myechia Minter-Jordan had a blunt nine-word warning to share in a conference call discussing the study. Minter-Jordan did not hold back when emphasizing some of the biggest fears raised by the new Social Security confidence survey.