This New Bill Could Boost Social Security for 63 Million Caregivers

Most people don’t think of themselves as someone whose retirement is quietly being eroded. They think of themselves as a daughter helping her mom get dressed in the morning, or a husband managing medications and doctor’s appointments because there’s nobody else who can. The hours add up. The years add up. And when retirement finally arrives, so does the reckoning.

Right now, millions of Americans who have spent years providing unpaid care to a family member are facing a retirement penalty they never saw coming. A bill introduced in Congress in 2026 aims to change that, and if it moves forward, the financial stakes for tens of millions of families could shift in a meaningful way. This is what the Social Security increase bill is actually about, and why it matters more than most people realize.

The caregiving population in the United States has grown dramatically in recent years. The number of family caregivers has jumped to 63 million Americans, representing a 45 percent increase, or nearly 20 million more caregivers, over the past decade, according to a joint report by AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving. That’s roughly one in four adults quietly doing a job that the country has never formally recognized, let alone compensated.

The Hidden Retirement Penalty

Here’s the part most people don’t know. Social Security retirement credits are calculated using a worker’s 35 highest-earning years, and when caregivers leave the workforce or significantly cut their hours, those missing years don’t just disappear – they drag down the lifetime average that determines how much someone collects each month for the rest of their life.

When a caregiver steps out of the workforce to raise a child, care for an aging parent, or support a disabled spouse, those years count as $0 earnings in the 35-year average calculation. Every zero drags down lifetime benefits permanently. And this isn’t a short-term interruption for most people. Tens of millions of Americans will significantly reduce their work hours or leave the workforce entirely to provide care for a dependent relative at some point in their career.

The financial damage compounds over time. Forty-four percent of caregivers report providing high-intensity care, with 30 percent having been in the role for five years or more. Nearly 1 in 4 caregivers report providing 40 or more hours of care per week – the equivalent of a full-time job, but one that pays nothing and costs everything in retirement.

Studies have put a number on that loss. According to the office of Senator Chris Murphy, on average, total wage, private pension, and Social Security losses due to caregiving total more than $300,000 over a lifetime. For most families, that’s not an abstraction. That’s the difference between a secure retirement and financial strain in your 70s.

What the Bill Would Actually Do

Introduced into Congress on April 27, 2026, the Social Security Caregiver Credit Act is a bicameral bill – meaning it was introduced in both the Senate and the House at the same time. Senators Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York reintroduced the legislation, which would provide five years of Social Security retirement credits to caregivers who spend at least 80 hours per month providing care to a dependent relative.

The 80-hour-per-month threshold works out to about 20 hours per week. For someone managing medications, coordinating appointments, helping with mobility, or providing round-the-clock support for a child with a disability, that bar is not difficult to clear.

Caregivers could be credited as if they earned income equal to half of the national average wage, which is currently estimated at around $35,000 annually. This would help fill gaps in earnings history that often reduce Social Security payouts later in life. In practical terms, those caregiving years would no longer register as zeros. They’d be treated as real earning years in the benefit calculation, which means higher monthly checks in retirement.

The credits would apply only to caregivers who do not receive monetary compensation for the care they provide. Paid professional caregivers, or those receiving wages through a state Medicaid program, would not qualify. The bill is specifically designed for the unpaid family caregiver – the spouse, the adult child, the sibling – who does this work out of love and necessity, not employment.

If you want to understand how Social Security benefit calculations work and how years of low or zero earnings can quietly shrink your monthly check, this breakdown of Social Security optimization strategies explains the mechanics in plain language.

Who Bears the Burden

The caregiving population isn’t evenly distributed. Three in five caregivers are women, and on average, caregivers are 51 years old. That average age matters because 51 is often a peak earning decade – the years when a worker is accumulating some of their highest-earning years in that critical 35-year window. Stepping away from the workforce at that point, even for a few years, can meaningfully reduce a lifetime Social Security benefit.

In New York alone, 4.1 million residents served as caregivers in 2025, providing more than 2.6 billion hours of hands-on care to family members. Nationwide, 63 million American adults – nearly a quarter of the U.S. adult population – provide care to adults or children with a medical condition or disability.

The economic scale of this unpaid work is staggering. According to a 2026 AARP report, family caregivers now provide more than $1 trillion worth of labor each year in the United States. Most of this work is unpaid, yet it forms the backbone of the nation’s long-term care system. At $1.01 trillion annually, family caregivers represent a major economic force – yet this care often comes at significant cost to caregivers’ health, financial security, and well-being. To put that number in perspective, it exceeds total Medicaid spending in the United States.

Widespread Support – and a Long Road Ahead

The Social Security Caregiver Credit Act is endorsed by several advocacy and aging-focused organizations, including Social Security Works, the National Alliance for Caregiving, and the Alliance for Retired Americans. The ALS Association has also backed the legislation, pointing out that family members of people with serious conditions are especially likely to leave jobs to become full-time caregivers.

What supporters say is at the core of the argument is straightforward: Social Security was designed around a model of continuous, full-time employment that no longer reflects how millions of Americans actually live. The bill targets a structural blind spot built into Social Security’s original design – a system built around continuous, full-time employment that no longer describes how millions of Americans actually work.

Still, the bill faces real obstacles. Previous versions of the Caregiver Credit Act have been introduced in past sessions of Congress but have not become law. The legislation has been formally introduced but has not yet advanced through congressional committees. Additional pushback may arrive as the Social Security Administration currently faces funding concerns as early as the 2030s. Adding credited wages to caregiver records would have a cost to the trust fund – how lawmakers weigh that against the equity argument will determine the bill’s fate.

What This Means for You

If you’re currently providing unpaid care to a parent, spouse, child, or other family member, this bill is worth following closely. Even if it doesn’t become law in its current form, it represents a growing recognition in Congress that the Social Security system was not built for the realities of modern caregiving – and that recognition tends to produce policy change eventually, even if slowly.

In the meantime, there are steps worth taking regardless of what happens legislatively. Review your Social Security earnings record through your account at ssa.gov to understand what your current projected benefit looks like. If your earnings history has gaps from caregiving years, you’ll be able to see exactly how those zeros affect your calculated benefit. That information matters when you’re making decisions about when to claim and whether returning to work for even a few years could significantly improve your monthly check.

Nearly half of caregivers experienced at least one major financial impact from caregiving – such as taking on debt, stopping savings, or being unable to afford food. The retirement toll is layered on top of those immediate pressures. If the Social Security Caregiver Credit Act advances, eligible caregivers who spent years out of the workforce could see their projected monthly benefits increase. The practical move right now is to know your numbers, track the bill’s progress, and be ready to act if it passes.

Disclaimer: This information is not intended to be a substitute for professional financial advice, investment advice, tax advice, or legal advice, and is provided for informational purposes only. Always seek the guidance of a qualified financial advisor, accountant, or other licensed professional regarding your personal financial situation or investment decisions. Do not make financial, investment, or tax decisions based solely on information presented here. Past performance is not indicative of future results, and all investments carry risk, including the potential loss of principal.

AI Disclaimer: This article was created with the assistance of AI tools and reviewed by a human editor.