Headlines
Social Security’s Efforts to Streamline Disability Applications
From application to determination for Social Security benefits is taking months. In addition, if an appeal is needed it can take years. Social Security Administration Commissioner Martin O’Malley is determined to make improvements. He will do this by hiring more…
The Impact of Proposed Social Security Changes, From Doing Nothing to Scrapping the Cap
Several proposed changes are being considered to help address Social Security’s looming insolvency problem. Susan Rupe, managing editor at Advisor News, explains many of the options here. As an example of the leading thoughts on reforming Social Security, the Association of…
Cost of Living Adjustment to be Announced on October 10, 2024
After months of estimated projections, we will finally have a concrete amount for the benefits increase starting in December and showing up in January 2025 payments. That’s the”good” news. However, it’s essential to remember that an expected increase in Medicare…
How Correcting a Simple 1972 Mistake Can Make Social Security Solvent
Dave Rose, a Senior Research Fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research, describes how a costly mistake was made in 1972 in the procedure for implementing Cost of Living Adjustments indexing of benefits to protect beneficiaries from the effects…
Impacts of Social Security Shortfalls On Millennial Couple
Elizabeth O’Brien writing here in Barron’s describes a new report by HealthView Services on how a millennial couple could lose more than $908,000 in lifetime Social Security benefits if Congress fails to shore up the program’s trust fund. That is…
Immigration & Social Security’s Funding Crisis
Social Security and Medicare are important issues to voters 50+, and many cast ballots based on them. Lorie Konish of CNBC writes a comprehensive piece here noting that illegal immigration does not play any significant role in the looming insolvency…
Would increasing full retirement age to 69 save Social Security?
Insolvency is just a decade away for Social Security. The usual choices to rescue the program are raising taxes, cutting benefits, and increasing the full retirement age (FRA). No single option “solves” the problem, and Jessica Hall of MarketWatch explains…
Controversial WEP & GPO Bill Has Decent Chance of Passage
The Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Offset Provision (GPO) are reviled by public employees, whose Social Security benefits are cut as a result of having only worked sparingly in jobs that paid into Social Security. But not all agree…
Social Security Reform: An Analysis of the Issues and Thoughts on How to Move Forward
Media accounts of our Social Security System’s problems have been plentiful over the past few years, especially as the projected depletion of the program’s financial reserves draws closer. The latest official forecast suggests these reserves–the combined Old Age and Survivors…
CRS Explains One of the “Secrets” Associated with Taxation of Social Security Benefits
Paying federal income taxes on Social Security benefits has drawn much attention and criticism over the years, so much so that legislation is still pending in the 118th Congress to eliminate the tax. For example, House Bills H.R. 3206 (Senior…