Headlines
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…
A Medicare scam that just kept rolling
The government has paid billions to buy power wheelchairs. It has no idea how many of the claims are bogus. In the little office where they ran the scam, a cellphone would ring on Sonia Bonilla’s desk. That was the…
Retiring On Social Security Alone
No doubt you’ve heard politicians and pundits debating the state of social security, and throwing out all kinds of numbers. But the bottom line for retirees has always been simple: Will I get enough to live on? Barbara Woodruff, of…
Payroll-Tax Reallocation Would Rob Social Security and Prevent Necessary Disability Insurance Reforms
Although Social Security’s 75-year shortfall is nearly 10 times as large as that of the Disability Insurance (DI) program, the DI Trust Fund is projected to be exhausted much sooner. According to the Social Security trustees’ 2014 projections, the Social…
Social Security: The Biggest Decision You’ll Ever Make
When to pull the trigger on Social Security benefits is a decision worth big money. Steve Gorin is a lucky man. He says he’s very fortunate to work in a profession that allows him to retire later than most Americans. The 67-year-old…
Medicare Cuts End Personal Touch of ‘Mom and Pop’ Business Serving Seniors
For Robert and Susan Blair, it was time for an exit strategy. The couple had been in the business of home health care for three decades, and retirement looked more and more attractive. The Blairs’ history of owning home health care agencies began…
Too Many Impoverished Elderly Overlook Government Help
Millions of senior citizens are living in poverty without financial assistance from the federal government that they are eligible to claim. And according to research, most of them are single women. The question is, why? Supplemental Security Insurance, or SSI, is…