Owed to whom, and for what? There are basically three parts to the SS system that make up the lion’s share of the money:
Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) program provides retirement and survivors benefits to qualified workers and their family members. In FY 2017, we will pay a total of about $813 billion in OASI benefits to a monthly average of approximately 52 million beneficiaries, including 89 percent of the population aged 65 and over.Disability Insurance (DI) program provides benefits for disabled workers and their families. In FY 2017, we will pay a total of about $149 billion in DI benefits to a monthly average of approximately 11 million disabled workers and their family members per month.
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program provides financial support to aged, blind, and disabled adults and children who have limited income and resources. In FY 2017, we will pay a total of nearly $59 billion in Federal benefits and State supplementary payments to a monthly average of approximately 8.4 million recipients.
Depending on your terms, you could also include as “owed”: salaries (I can’t be arsed to look that up; you can Google as well as I can) plus ERISA, Coal Act, SNAP (food stamps) administrative costs, and probably a dozen other things I can’t think of, that fall within the SS purview.
