Social Security keeps over 40% of Americans over age 65 out of poverty. This is due to the social security benefit of being able to assist retirees, the disabled elderly, the disabled children of the elderly and spouses and widows of the elderly, even those that are divorced from said persons (that qualify under set guidelines). These benefits, however, are neither guaranteed nor equal to all. For each benefit, a certain number of strict qualifications must be met. And for the cost of retirement benefits, a complex mathematical formula that takes in the 35 most productive years of a worker's life and pays out a monthly percentage of that average is used. This average is called a worker's Primary Insurance Amount (PIA). Disability payments are the most contested of all benefits and create the most court cases for the program. All these benefits are funded by the payroll taxes that workers spend their careers paying.