you go” nature of the program means that the worst case scenario is future payments being 75% of what they would otherwise be once the trust runs dry.

So even if you want to go with an absolute worst case, you should be planning on receiving at least 75% of whatever you normally would from SS.

It is foolish to say “don’t count on a dime”, because the US government would essentially have to collapse for you to not get anything from SS. And if that happens then there are a lot of assumptions in your retirement planning that probably need to get tossed out the window.