As if the news about the looming Social Security crisis wasn't bad enough, a new study says the Great Recession may have permanently reduced future retirees' incomes by an average of $2,300 a year.

Somewhat surprisingly it's not the nation's high unemployment rate that receives the brunt of the blame. Instead, it's the widespread slowdown in wage growth, which many economists predict will become permanent, that's having the biggest impact on our golden years' finances, according to the study.

"Wage stagnation will have serious long-term consequences if wages resume growing at their pre-recession rate since they will never make up the ground lost during the recession," said the report, which was released by Boston College's Center for Retirement Research.

Some highlights of the study:

• Workers between the ages of 25 and 34 in 2008 (the height of the recession) will see an average drop of 4.9 percent in retirement income after age 70 — a hit to their pocketbooks of roughly $3,000 a year. Furthermore, the slowdown in wage growth will accumulate over their entire careers.
• Those between the ages of 55 to 64 in 2008 will see a 4.1 percent drop in retirement income, primarily in the form of lower Social Security benefits. This problem is compounded by the fact that many older workers who lost their jobs during the recession were forced into early retirement.
• Future retirement income will fall the most for those with the highest incomes. Among the youngest age group, for example, those in the top 20 percent income bracket will lose $7,500 annually, while those in the bottom group will lose only $400 a year.
• The decline in household income will increase the number of Americans living on limited incomes at age 70. Among people between the ages of 25 to 64 in 2008, the share with incomes below 125 percent of the federal poverty level at age 70 will increase 7.4 percent. That translates into an additional 711,000 adults living in or near poverty.

The Social Security Administration is saying goodbye to the paper check.

Beginning Sunday, anyone who signs up for Social Security benefits will have to choose an option for receiving their payments electronically.  

The two major choices for electronic payments are direct deposit, in which the government directly transfers your payment into your bank account, and a Direct Express card. That’s a debit card that automatically will be loaded up with your payment each month and doesn’t require a bank account.

The Direct Express card won’t carry a monthly fee, although you may be charged fees for certain transactions. You can find details on potential charges here.

If you are currently getting your Social Security checks by mail, you will need to switch to an electronic payment method by March 1, 2013.

The move is aimed at saving the approximately $120 million a year that the Social Security Administration currently spends on paper checks. The Social Security Administration also estimates that it will save 12 million pounds of paper in the next five years.

The SSA estimates that more than 54 million Americans will receive $730 billion in benefits this year.

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The annual statements outlining your projected Social Security earnings may be a thing of the past.

Citing budget restraints, the administration stopped mailing the statements this month. The four-page letters, which were sent to 158 million Americans last year, cost taxpayers $70 million a year to print and mail. The move will save taxpayers $30 million this year and $60 million in 2012.

The statements are mailed three months before your birthday, so if you were born in July or later, you can stop checking your mailbox. Workers can still get an estimate of their retirement benefits using the administration's online Retirement Estimator, or they can call 800-772-1213.

The suspension of mailings might not be permanent. In a few months the administration will decide whether to provide the information online or return to issuing paper statements, said Dorothy Clark, a spokeswoman for the agency. 

The agency is undergoing severe budget belt-tightening, while at the same time working hard to reduce its backlog of disability hearings, said Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue, when he announced the change last month during Congressional testimony (.pdf file). The agency is struggling to close more than 106,000 cases that will be 775 days or older by the end of the year

"That wait has very real implications — many people with disabilities lose their homes, medical coverage and dignity while waiting for a decision on a hearing," Astrue said. "We may not be able to keep our commitments to the American people because we do not have the necessary funding."

If you are among the optimists who believe that Social Security will still be around when you retire, you likely want to get a sense of how much money you’ll be able to count on in your golden years.

And if you’re among the more pessimistic types – and who wouldn’t be after new congressional projections showing the fund will be drained by about 2037 - you may still want to know how much you’re missing out on.

The Center for Economic and Policy Research has created a handy calculator to do just that.

The calculator actually has two elements.

The first part estimates the average family retirement income in your county, based on data from the U.S. Census department.

The second part allows you to enter in a few personal details, such as how much you make and how much you owe on your mortgage. Then, it calculates how much your monthly Social Security and other income could be upon retirement.

One nice touch: The calculator automatically converts into 2010 dollars, so you get a good sense of how much spending power that income will give you.