Headlines
Medicare: Not Such a Budget-Buster Anymore
You’re looking at the biggest story involving the federal budget and a crucial one for the future of the American economy. Every year for the last six years in a row, the Congressional Budget Office has reduced its estimate for…
Social Security Administration’s Someday Campaign
For many people, Someday is an elusive day on the far-off horizon—always seeming close enough to see, but too distant to touch. Perhaps Someday you plan to go skydiving. Or enter a hot dog-eating contest. Maybe Someday you plan to…
Why do police keep seeing a person’s disability as a provocation?
On Aug. 11, Los Angeles police killed Ezell Ford, a 25-year-old who had allegedly resisted arrest, tackled an officer and reached for his gun. And last week, police shot a 25-year-old in Saint Louis, Mo. Kajieme Powell had approached them with a knife, refusing to back…
Understanding Your Annual Social Security Estimates
When you’re looking at your estimated monthly Social Security benefit, you have to remember that it’s just that: a projected, approximated guesstimate. How close to the ballpark it is will be grounded on a handful of factors, including your age…
No other government program has done so much for so many
Almost unnoticed, earlier this month on Aug. 14, a program that has produced more good than any other government program celebrated its 79th birthday. Since the first recipient, a trolley car operator named Ernest Ackerman, Social Security has paid out…
Millennials Are Not Counting on Social Security
Once a goal people spent their lives working toward, the newest working generation doesn’t believe Social Security will be there for their golden years and are instead saving earlier. That’s according to the findings of the 15th annual retirement study by nonprofit Transamerica Center, which showed…
Retirement Advice: Getting Better, But Still Deficient
You probably just heard that 36% of Americans haven’t saved a penny for retirement, according to a new Bankrate.com survey. (And 26% of 50- to 64-year-olds haven’t put away any money for it either.) I suspect that they — and, frankly, most of…
Social Security Administration’s Vision for ‘Someday’ Fails to Deliver
The Social Security Administration has launched a new social media campaign that asks beneficiaries to plan for their ‘#Someday’ retirement dreams by registering for an account on the mySocialSecurity website but neglects to disclose that the website comes at the…
Federal disability fund needs reform, not a bailout
Money’s tight for the federal disability insurance program. Unless Congress acts, the Disability Insurance Trust Fund will run out of money in 2016. At that point, nearly 11 million Americans would see their disability benefits cut by nearly 20 percent, leaving the average beneficiary…
Parent-reported cases of disability in children rise
More parents — especially upper-income ones — are reporting that their children have a physical, developmental or mental health disability, a study finds. The number of non-institutionalized children age 17 and younger with disabilities rose 16% between 2001 and 2011, with…