Elder Law Prof Blog

Century Foundation report disputes Social Security "crisis"

Scare Tactics: Why Social Security Is Not in Crisis

Opponents of Social Security have been striving to convince American workers, especially young adults, that Social Security will no longer exist by the time they retire. Phrases such as "imminent crisis" and "unmanageable costs" lace this rhetoric. To a large extent, this alarmism is voiced by those who are hostile to government and therefore favor replacing all or part of one of this nation’s most successful and essential programs with private investment accounts. Bernard Wasow demonstrates why the "crisis" in Social Security is actually quite manageable. Originally published in 2004, this document was updated in July 2008.

Get it here.

SSA OIG publishes report on bank fees charged for illegal garnishments against SS funds

The SSA's Office of the Inspector General has published a report on financial institutions that have been charging service fees for garnishing accounts holding Social Security funds.  Federal law prohibits involuntary alienation of SS funds on deposit except in very limited circumstances.  Here's a summary of the report:

"The objective of our review was to determine whether financial institutions (FI) were
deducting service fees and garnishments from beneficiaries’ direct deposit, personal
accounts. This report contains information related to the 12 largest FIs and a sample of
13 small-, medium- and large-sized FIs that received electronic deposit of payments to
Social Security beneficiaries in the United States from September 1, 2006 through
August 31, 2007. Specifically, this report contains information on

• the number of FIs that allowed the garnishment of Old-Age, Survivors and Disability
Insurance (OASDI)1 and/or Supplemental Security Income (SSI)2 payments;
• the number of accounts upon which garnishment-related fees were imposed and the
total dollar amount of fees charged to these accounts as a result of the garnishment;
and
• the types of fees these FIs charged beneficiaries."

Read the report here:  http://www.ssa.gov/oig/ADOBEPDF/A-15-08-28031.pdf

SSA will offer SS debit card

The government plans to announce today that it will offer MasterCard debit cards to the estimated 4 million Social Security recipients who don't have bank accounts.  Instead of getting a paper check, a recipient's monthly benefit would be electronically transferred, at no cost, to the debit card's balance. Using the card to make purchases ould be free, as would one ATM withdrawal a month. Switching from paper checks to the debit card would save recipients -- and taxpayers -- a fair amount of money. It costs the government 88 cents more to send a paper check than it does to transfer money electronically. And people without bank accounts pay on average $6 to cash a check, according to the Treasury Department.

Source/more:  LA Times, http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-debit10-2008jun10,0,27432.story

New CRS report discusses impact of SS reform proposals on elderly poor

Social Security Reform: Possible Effects on the Elderly Poor and Mitigation Options
April 04, 2008

Download Locations:

>Open CRS (User submitted)

Summary:  Social Security has significantly reduced elderly poverty. The elderly poverty rate has fallen from 35% in 1959 to an all-time low of 9% in 2006, in large part because of Social Security. If Social Security benefits did not exist, an estimated 44% the elderly would be poor today assuming no changes in behavior. The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, also provides benefits to the poorest elderly, many of whom do not qualify for Social Security benefits. However, despite these programs, about 3.4 million elderly individuals remained in poverty in 2006. The Social Security system faces a long-term financing problem. The Social Security Trustees project cash-flow deficits beginning in 2017 and trust fund insolvency in 2041. Many recent proposals to improve system solvency would reduce Social Security benefits in the future. Benefit reductions could affect the lowincome elderly, many of whom rely on Social Security benefits for almost all of their income. Such potential benefit reductions could lead to higher rates of poverty among the elderly compared to those projected under the current benefit formula. Because the low-income elderly are especially vulnerable to benefit reductions, many recent Social Security reform proposals have included minimum benefits or other provisions that would mitigate the effect of benefit cuts on the elderly poor. This report analyzes the projected effects of four possible approaches to mitigating the effects of Social Security benefit reductions on elderly poverty in 2042, the first full year of projected trust fund insolvency. The options are compared to a payable baseline, which assumes current-law benefits would need to be cut across the board to balance Social Security's annual income and spending at the point of insolvency. The four options examined are (1) a poverty-line Social Security minimum benefit; (2) a sliding-scale Social Security minimum benefit; (3) a povertyline SSI benefit; and (4) a poverty-line SSI benefit with liberalized eligibility.

US comptroller chides Congress for sticking its head in the sand on unfunded liabilities

  Comptroller General David Walker on Monday "chided" Congress for "ignoring the long-term financial crisis" for entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, CongressDaily reports.  In an interview with National Journal Group writers and editors, Walker, who will leave his post next week, said that Congress is "doing nothing about the $53 trillion hole" in funds for entitlement programs during the 21st century.   Walker recommended that the next president appoint a bipartisan commission to develop a proposal to address the issue and submit the plan to Congress. In addition, Walker recommended a "mandatory reconsideration trigger" for a reduction in Medicare spending in the event that spending for the program increases at a higher rate.

Under current law, the president must propose legislation to revise Medicare when trustees estimate for two consecutive years that general fund revenue would finance more than 45% of total program costs within seven years. The law does not require a reduction in Medicare spending. Walker said, "We write a blank check for (health care)," adding, "There is no other country in the world dumb enough to do that."

Source/more:  KFF Daily Health Policy Report, http://kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=50917

 

 

Bush budget proposes funding to ease SS disability backlogs--but not enough

President Bush's fiscal 2009 budget proposal will help the Social Security Administration tackle staffing shortages and a backlog on retirement and disability claims, the agency's commissioner said this week.

The president requested $10.3 billion for Social Security's administrative expenses, a $580 million increase over what Congress appropriated in fiscal 2008. The funding boost would be the largest increase the agency has received in a decade, and will help offset significant backlogs in claims, said SSA Commissioner Michael Astrue.

"The Social Security Administration is now at a crossroads," Astrue said. "Due to the aging of the baby boomers, we are facing an avalanche of retirement and disability claims at the same time that we must address large backlogs due to years of increasing workloads and limited resources."

The number of workers receiving Social Security retirement benefits is expected to increase by 13 million over the next decade. At the agency's Office of Disability Adjudication and Review, there is a backlog of 750,000 hearing requests, up more than 300,000 since 2000. Over the last seven years, processing times for disability hearings have grown by 200 days, burdening disabled workers and their families, Astrue said.

Many of SSA's problems stem from the 4,000 jobs eliminated in the past two years. The result is longer wait times and more customers. Astrue said more than half of the people who call agency field offices now receive a busy signal. "Adequate funding is critical for fiscal 2009 and must be sustained in the years ahead," he said. "Without it, SSA's service crisis will deepen at a time when our aging population is increasingly counting on Social Security programs."

The president's budget proposal is $100 million less than the figure Astrue cited during congressional testimony as necessary to fully restore workforce cuts and invest in technology. Nevertheless, the commissioner said Monday that the proposed boost would greatly help the agency attack many of its most pressing challenges.

Source:  http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=39244

Kaplan's Top Ten Myths of Social Security now available via SSRN

This classic work by the indefatigable Dick Kaplan is a must-read for talking heads, law profs, and anyone else who thinks they know what's up with the Social Security.

Abstract:  Few federal programs are as well known and as widely misunderstood as Social Security, despite its national prominence in matters both political and economic. As efforts to reform this creation of the Great Depression era are likely in the coming years, this article examines the principal myths surrounding this program to set the stage for evaluating possible revisions. The myths considered in this article include the following: (1) there is a trust fund, (2) Social Security does not increase the federal budget deficit; (3) retirees are only recovering their own money, (4) Social Security will not be there when one retires, (5) retirement benefits are proportional to one's lifetime earnings, (6) Social Security favors two-income married couples, (7) Social Security favors long-lived marriages, (8) one could do better investing directly, (9) working after retirement makes financial sense, and (10) retirement benefits are taxed more heavily than other pension payments.

Get it here:  http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1087367

And for some interesting info on how to fix the SS "crisis", see Jon Formans VCPPTs (very cool power points): http://tinyurl.com/384g39

Benefits issues in the campaign? Just the fact, ma'am

Get answers (not spin) to your burning questions on health care, social security, and private pension benefits issues from the Employee Benefits Research Institute.

OECD advises Netherlands to raise pension age

In a report on the Netherlands, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says that the Netherlands should soften its redundancy laws and raise its pension age. Both measures are intended to keep more people in work.  The OECD points out that while pension age in the Netherlands has been the same for 50 years, life expectancy during the sameperiod has increased by more than six years.  The Dutch government is not in favour of raising pension age, but the OECD rEdit HTMLecommends increasing it gradually to 67.  The organisation also thinks that job protection laws hamper the flow of workers in the labour market. The relatively strong position of employees means that job seekers have a harder time finding work.

Source/more:  http://www.radionetherlands.nl/news/international/5623098/OECD-report-advises-raising-Dutch-pension-age

Robert Ball, Grand Poobah of Social Security, dead at age 93

Robert M. Ball, an indefatigable champion of Social Security who was present practically at its creation in 1935 and rose in the bureaucracy to become its commissioner under three presidents, has died. He was 93.  Ball, a resident of suburban Maryland, died Tuesday night after a brief illness, according to the National Academy of Social Insurance. Ball was the founding chairman of the organization.  Active virtually until his death, Ball was a key player on a package that rescued Social Security from financial ruin in 1983 and as recently as last year was writing alternatives to President Bush's proposal to privatize the program, an approach that Ball abhorred.  "No individual has done more to advance American social insurance programs than Robert M. Ball," said Lawrence Thompson, chairman of the National Academy of Social Insurance.  "He led the Social Security program for more than 20 years, and he has been its most influential and articulate advocate, architect and philosopher." 

Source/more:  LA Times.

SSA sent erroneous tax information; new mailing attempts to correct problems

Around 2.7 million people have incorrect Social Security payment information on a needed tax document, the Social Security Administration said Thursday as the agency moved quickly to mail out corrections.  The document affected is the Social Security Benefit Statement, or Form SSA-1099. That document is needed by Social Security recipients to complete their federal income tax return and to find out whether their benefits are subject to income tax.  The Social Security Administration mailed those statements to 53 million people in January. It goes to people who received a Social Security payment during the previous calendar year.  The agency said a computer programming error caused Medicare Part C and/or Part D premium deduction amounts, and some garnishment deduction amounts, for 2006 to be included in the amounts reported for 2007.  That meant the "Benefits for 2007" fields, which are boxes 3 and 5 of the SSA-1099, and the "Description of Amount in Box 3" field had incorrect amounts for the affected people.  Corrected SSA-1099s and an apology will be in the mail by Friday, the agency said. The programming error also has been fixed.  The corrected SSA-1099 will have "Corrected Notice" on the envelope and "Corrected Tax Information" on the SSA-1099 itself in red typeface.

Source/more:  Ap/Google, http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jdO6jPNnbdyp3dwoArVlnfCtJdnwD8UCI0TO0

New Kaiser webcast on The Future of Support for Older Low-Income Adults

Forgotten Americans: The Future of Support for Older Low-Income Adults 10/19/2007
NSCLC and Center for Medicare Advocacy - Washington, D.C

This event examines advocacy for older Americans by the National Senior Citizens Law Center the Center for Medicare Advocacy. Panelists discuss continuing challenges facing older Americans.

SS COLA for 2008 is 2.3%

Come January, Social Security benefits for nearly 50 million Americans are going up 2.3 percent, the smallest increase in four years. It will mean an extra $24 per month in the average check, the government announced Wednesday.  The cost of living adjustment means that the monthly benefit for the typical retired worker in 2008 will go from $1,055 currently to $1,079 next year.  The adjustment, announced by the Social Security Administration, will go to more than 54 million Americans. Nearly 50 million receive Social Security benefits and the rest get Supplemental Security Income payments aimed at helping the poor.

Source/more:  Minneapolis Star Tribune, http://www.startribune.com/484/story/1490199.html

Official announcement from the SSA:  http://ssa.gov/pressoffice/pr/2008cola-pr.htm

2008 Social Security Fact Sheet:  http://ssa.gov/pressoffice/factsheets/colafacts2008.htm

UN publishes policy brief on universal pensions

Deteriorating health and declining incomes threaten the welfare and security of many people as they enter old age. Nearly 80 per cent of older persons living in developing countries (about 342 million people) lack adequate income security, a figure that could, according to the World Economic and Social Survey 2007 (http://www.un.org/esa/policy/wess), rise to 1.2 billion by 2050 if pension coverage does not keep pace with demographic changes. The Survey suggests that a minimal universal social pension provides the surest way to tackle the problem. Universal pensions would provide a floor below which nobody could fall. Moreover, they could provide the basis for a more comprehensive pension system which may consist of a mixture of public and private initiatives adapted in accordance with existing country practices, financial circumstances and equity considerations.

Tackling Insecurity in Old Age: The Challenge of Universal Pensions
http://www.un.org/esa/policy/policybriefs/policybrief3.pdf

3000 Israeli Holocaust survivors march in Israel for higher pensions

Before every holiday, Shmuel Reiner goes to wealthy families in the Haifa area and collects food for other Holocaust survivors less fortunate than he.  Yesterday, the 70-year-old joined dozens of other survivors and some 3,000 other Israelis in a march from the Knesset to the Prime Minister's Office, to protest the government's treatment of survivors who, in Reiner's words, "don't even have a cucumber in the refrigerator."  Waving a small Israeli flag, Reiner, who survived the hell of Czernowitz as a child of eight, ascended the podium to address the demonstrators, and declared: "I'm proud of the State of Israel, but ashamed of its leaders. My heart aches over the fact that the government has brought those survivors still capable of standing on their feet to demonstrate here."  Miriam Yahav, 78, of Be'er Sheva, drew media attention two-and-a-half years ago when, at a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, she screamed from the dais: "Why did they make me an orphan? Why did they burn my family and my people?"  Yesterday, she was once again asking why - but this time, of Israeli governments, past and present.

Source and more at Haaretz.com, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/890276.html

SSA delays work hardship on disability applicants

Disabled by an enlarged heart and unable to work, welder David Olson, 54, waited almost two years to be approved for Social Security disability payments. In July, he was found dead in his recliner at his Montana home.  Gerald Keyes, a 59-year-old former City of Milwaukee garbage collector, sits in his living room behind his line of prescription drugs last week. Keyes has been waiting for over a year for his Social Security benefits to kick in.  His sister, Nancy Olson, 53, of Milwaukee, fears help might come too late for her, as well. She is on continuous oxygen because of a rare lung disease caused by inhaling microscopic spores of a fungus.  Olson is part of a nationwide backlog of more than 749,000 seriously ill people who say they are unable to work and are awaiting a decision on disability payments. She's been waiting almost two years.  Workers who have paid Social Security taxes but are unable to work until retirement are eligible for subsidized health insurance and a stipend that averages about $979 a month.  "I have nothing, absolutely nothing," said Olson, a former school photographer, who is living in a friend's home. "I paid into the system since I was 16 years old. I am in dire straits. It hurts now when I need help and there is no response."  Her brother was approved for benefits just before he died. He "never even got a check," she said.  The situation is acute in Milwaukee and getting worse. Last month, 10,956 people were waiting for a hearing to determine whether they qualify for the benefit. That's up about 19% since September 2005 and a historic high, according to records obtained by the Journal Sentinel.  The average wait is 651 days

More in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=642700

UN calls for universal pensions

Universal pensions of just $1 a day in developing countries would significantly reduce old age poverty, a United Nations report said Tuesday.  The World Economic and Social Survey 2007 called that ``an affordable option'' for heading off the problems of aging as the growth in the numbers of elderly accelerate in poor nations, catching up with a trend already evident in wealthy countries.  Jose Antonio Ocampo, U.N. undersecretary-general for economic and social affairs, said even a basic benefit equivalent to the extreme poverty level of $1 a day would achieve the long-term U.N. goal of eliminating the worst privation ``for all the older people now.''  At a news conference, Ocampo said aging populations is ``a phenomenon that is universal now,'' - with the number of people 60 and older expected to increase from about 670 million in 2005 to close to 2 billion in 2050.  ``Although the phenomenon is more advanced in the industrial economies, it's going to grow at a much faster rate in the developing world,'' he said.

More:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6722253,00.html

When should one take SS benefits before FRE?

The question: Is it smart to claim Social Security benefits as soon as eligibility begins at age 62? Or is it better to wait until what the government terms "full retirement age," which falls between 65 and 67, depending on the year of one's birth?  Making the right choice means reckoning with tradeoffs. Takers at age 62 pay a price: Each monthly check is forever reduced to 75 percent of what it would have been had they waited to full retirement age. On the upside, they're pocketing for several years a heap of cash that they otherwise wouldn't have had during that period.  Despite the penalties involved, many Americans – about 50 percent, according to the Social Security Administration – take the money as soon as they can get it. But according to several personal finance experts, that decision makes good sense for only a few distinct groups of people.  People still working in their early- to mid-60s are usually wise to wait until full retirement age before claiming benefits, according to Michael Schulman, a New York City certified public accountant with a focus on elder issues. One big reason: After the first $12,960 earned in a given year, a person claiming benefits forfeits $1 in benefit payments for every $2 earned before full retirement age. "By taking it at age 62, you're taking the lower benefit, and you're forfeiting it to boot. So there's no point," he concludes.  But even though many (perhaps most) would do better financially in the long run by delaying gratification, the rules are such that certain individuals should at least consider taking their payments early, according to Schulman and other advisers. Here are some of those groups whom they say might be smart to take the money and run at age 62:

You have to go here to get the rest of this story:  http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0604/p13s01-wmgn.html

SS Trustees' Report released

The Social Security Board of Trustees today released its annual report on the financial health of the Social Security Trust Funds.  The 2007 Trustees Report shows slight improvement in the projected financial status of the Social Security program from last year.             

In the 2007 Annual Report to Congress, the Trustees  announced:            

• The projected point at which tax revenues will fall below program costs comes in 2017 -- the same as the estimate in last year’s report.              
• The projected point at which the Trust Funds will be exhausted comes in 2041 -- one year later than the projection in last year’s report.              
• The projected actuarial deficit over the 75-year long-range period is 1.95 percent of taxable payroll -- .06 percentage point smaller than in last year’s report.              
• Over the 75-year period, the Trust Funds would require additional revenue equivalent to $4.7 trillion in today’s dollars to pay all scheduled benefits.  This unfunded obligation is about $100 billion higher than the amount estimated last year.    

• “Social Security provides valuable economic protection to workers and their families.  We owe it to the American public to continue to offer the best possible support for older Americans, people with disabilities and their families in the coming decades,” said Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security.  “The Trustees Report is an important tool for those in the legislative and executive branches who will have to make the very difficult decisions about how best to ensure Social Security remains viable for the long term.”             

  Other highlights of the Trustees Report include:

  • Income including interest to the combined Old-Age and Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) Trust Funds amounted to $745 billion ($626 billion in net contributions, $17 billion from taxation of benefits and $102 billion in interest) in 2006.

  • Total expenditures from the combined OASDI Trust  Funds amounted to $555 billion in 2006.                         

  • The assets of the combined OASDI Trust Funds  increased by about $190 billion in 2006 to a total of $2 trillion

  • During 2006, an estimated 162 million people had  earnings covered by Social Security and paid payroll taxes.      

  • Social Security paid benefits of $546 billion in calendar year 2006.  There were 49 million beneficiaries at the end of the calendar year.

  • The cost of $5.3 billion to administer the  program in 2006 was a very low 1.0 percent of total expenditures. The combined Trust Fund assets earned interest at  an effective annual rate of 5.3 percent.

• The 2007 Trustees Report is posted at www.socialsecurity.gov/OACT/TR/TR07/

The new Bush Social Security reform plan

President Bush signed an ambitious Social Security plan into law Monday that will allow citizens to bet a third of their payroll taxes on their favorite sports teams.  It's time we gave the American people the chance to make some real money for retirement," Bush said, speaking from the new Office of Social Security and Pari-mutuel Wagering Building. "Some naysayers think the average citizen doesn't know how to handle his own money. When spring training starts next year, it's up to you to prove them wrong."  "It's your money," Bush added. "You earned it. You should be able to bet it on whatever team you want."  Under the new plan, participating citizens will be asked to list their favorite teams on their W-2 forms. At the start of each major sports season, program participants will visit their local Social Security booking offices to review point spreads and sample playoff trees. Citizens' team selections will be subject to approval by their employers, who contribute a percentage of wages to the employee Social Security Earned Benefits Fund, or "pot," under the new system.

Source:  The Onion (of course), http://www.theonion.com/content/node/30808

Thanks to WM 2-L Phil Ruce for the tip. 

Stating the obvious....

From a recently released GAO report on saving Social Security:

Fourteen of 17 proposals GAO reviewed provided GR (general revenues) 1) as needed to maintain trust fund solvency or (2) as specified by formula, amount, or source. Nine of the 17 achieved “sustainable solvency” under OCACT’s definition using the first approach. This type of unlimited transfer poses the greatest potential risk to the federal budget, especially when combined with benefit guarantees. In proposals reviewed, amounts of GR under both types of approaches ranged up to about twice program shortfall.

In all proposals using GR, the GR was reallocated from the non–Social Security budget. While any additional revenue to the trust fund will help solvency, unified federal budget effects depend on the type of revenue—whether it is new revenue (additional payroll tax revenue or GR that is new to the federal budget) versus reallocated GR. Absent other changes, new revenue would improve the long-term fiscal imbalance while reallocated GR would do nothing to address it. Although raising taxes (payroll or other) or cutting benefits would have tangible consequences for taxpayers and beneficiaries, e.g., less take-home pay or smaller benefit checks, the consequences of transfers from the non–Social Security budget in the form of reallocated GR are less likely to be clearly observable. Reallocated GR, however, is not free. Regardless of how GR is provided to Social Security, it must be paid for at some point. The question is when, and by whom.

Duh. 

Read the report.

Ireland: Should women forced to quit receive a pension?

The government’s upcoming Green Paper on pensions will examine whether women who lost their pension after they were forced to leave work should be entitled to a state pension.

Under the marriage bar, which was abolished in 1973, women working in the public and civil service had to resign as soon as they married. Many of these women lost their cover under the social welfare system when they left work, and either did not qualify for a state pension when they retired, or only qualified for a smaller state pension.  ‘‘Women have been atrociously discriminated against in pensions over the years,” said Pensions Ombudsman Paul Kenny. ‘‘Women were not just forced to leave jobs in the civil and public service because of the marriage bar; they were also expected to leave jobs in semi-state companies.

Read more at The Post.ie.

Same-sex couples win partial pensions victory in Canada Supreme Court

What has been cast as the last great battle for same-sex equality ended Thursday with a partial victory in Canada’s highest court.  While the Supreme Court said same-sex partners widowed before Jan. 1, 1998, were wrongly denied Canada Pension Plan survivor benefits for years, it limited retroactive compensation to one year.  The judges ruled 7-0 against extending those payments all the way back to 1985 when equality rights took effect under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  Instead, the judgment makes any same-sex partner widowed after 1985 eligible for CPP survivor benefits averaging about $500 a month, plus 12 months’ arrears.  That’s far short of the compensation sought by about 1,500 claimants or their estates who fought a class-action battle.
The high court essentially said that Ottawa, unless it has acted in bad faith, can’t be asked to reach far back in time to legally apply a modern-day understanding of rights.  "Achieving an appropriate balance between fairness to individual litigants and respecting the legislative role of Parliament may mean that charter remedies will be directed more toward government action in the future and less toward the correction of past wrongs," says the judgment.  The high court struck down part of a law passed in 2000 that granted CPP survivor benefits only to gay partners widowed after Jan. 1, 1998, calling it an unjust breach of equality rights. However, the ruling gives the federal government credit for what it calls a "good-faith" effort to update its laws.

Source/full story:  Halifax Chronicle Herald, http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/562131.html

Cornell LR Symposium on Social Security

Symposium:  Social Security in Transition.  92 Cornell L. Rev. 189-395 (2007).

Bloch, Frank S.  Medical proof, social policy, and Social Security's medically centered definition of disability.  92 Cornell L. Rev. 189-234 (2007).

Colloquy.  The Social Security Administration's New Disability  Adjudication Rules.  92 Cornell L. Rev. 235-255 (2007).

Bloch, Frank S., Jeffrey S. Lubbers and Paul R. Verkuil.  The Social Secrity Administration's new disability adjudication rules: a significant and promising reform.  92 Cornell L. Rev. 235-247 (2007).

Rains, Robert E.  A response to Bloch, Lubbers & Verkuil's The Social  Security Administration's new disability adjudication rules:  a cause for optimism.and concern.  92 Cornell L. Rev. 249-255 (2007).

Colloquy.  Social Security and Government Deficits.  92 Cornell L. Rev. 257-296 (2007).

Buchanan, Neil H.  Social Security and government deficits:  when should we worry?  92 Cornell L. Rev. 257-289 (2007).

Templin, Benjamin A.  Comment on Neil H. Buchanan's Social Security and government deficits:  when should we worry?  92 Cornell L. Rev. 291-296 (2007).

Burke, Karen C. and Grayson M.P. McCouch.  Social Security reform:  lessons from private pensions.  92 Cornell L. Rev. 297-322 (2007).

Medill, Colleen E.  Transforming the role of the Social Security Administration.  92 Cornell L. Rev. 323-361 (2007).

Rains, Robert E.  Professional responsibility and Social Security representation:  the myth of the state-bar bar to compliance with federal rules on production of adverse evidence.  92 Cornell L. Rev. 363-395 (2007).

Americans support "painful" measures to fix Social Security

A majority of Americans support potentially painful proposals to increase taxes and reduce benefits in order to ensure Social Security's long-term financial future, according to a poll released Wednesday.  "I think the public is ahead of Congress and the Washington debate when it comes to Social Security," said John Rother, policy director for AARP, the nation's largest organization for Americans 50 and older, which conducted the survey.  Without any changes, the Social Security program is expected to be unable to pay full benefits beginning in 2040. During the next 75 years, the program is expected to fall more than $4 trillion in the red.  Efforts to address Social Security's long-range financial problems ground to a halt in late 2005 after Congress and the public balked at President Bush's proposal to create private investment accounts using Social Security taxes.  William Novelli, AARP's chief executive officer, said the poll shows that Social Security changes need to include both more revenue and changes in benefits. Bush had rejected a tax increase to solve the problem.

Source:  Wilmington (NC) Star, http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070222/NEWS/702220365/1002

Ed:  What would it take?  Check out Prof. Jon Forman's powerpoints.   So,  OK Dems:  do you have the .. hmm...guts?  Now is your chance.  Do something.  And while you're at it, how about a fix for Medicare too?

Texas school districts rip off Social Security fund

The hiring of one-day employees by seven Texas school districts may cost the Social Security Administration $110 million annually in spousal benefits, according to an audit by the agency's inspector general.  The inspector general's report estimated that 19,212 people could receive $2.2 billion in spousal benefits over their lifetimes.  The seven school districts -- Lindale, Kilgore, West, Coleman, Hudson, Premont, and Sweeny -- raised more than $7 million by charging fees to the one-day workers.  The audit dealt with workers who retired before July 1, 2004, when the law was changed.  Before the loophole was closed, retiring teachers and administrators could work one day at another school district that participated in Social Security to obtain spousal benefits.  Most Texas school districts do not participate in Social Security.  The inspector general also urged the agency to review eight other unnamed Texas school districts, which weren't audited but hired 3,285 one-day workers.  Now, the law requires state and local government employees to be covered by Social Security for their last five years of employment to receive the so-called general offset exemption.
Social Security benefits for a spouse or surviving spouse are generally reduced for individuals who receive a monthly pension from a state or local government agency.

Read more in the Dallas Star-Telegram.

Even better--read the OIG's report.  Some teachers paid the school districts $500-$700 to participate in the one-day work program--generating social security benefits down the road of thousands of dollars each year.  And guess whose watch this was occurring under?

Center for Budget and Policy Priorities: No "general entitlement crisis"

THE LONG-TERM FISCAL OUTLOOK IS BLEAK
By Richard Kogan, Matt Fiedler, Aviva Aron-Dine, and James Horney

This analysis finds that restoring fiscal sustainability will require major changes to programs, revenues, and the nation’s health care system.

Press Release:
http://www.cbpp.org/1-29-07bud-pr.pdf        2pp.

Summary:
http://www.cbpp.org/1-29-07bud-summ.pdf        4pp.

Full Report:
http://www.cbpp.org/1-29-07bud.pdf        21pp.

Methodology:
http://www.cbpp.org/1-29-07bud-meth.pdf        27pp.

THERE IS NO GENERAL "ENTITLEMENT CRISIS"
By Richard Kogan and Aviva Aron-Dine
      This report finds that in coming decades, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will grow rapidly, but other entitlements will shrink as a share of the economy.

http://www.cbpp.org/1-29-07bud2.htm
http://www.cbpp.org/1-29-07bud2.pdf        4pp.

Pension Policy in EU25 and its Possible Impact on Elderly Poverty

ESRC RESEARCH CENTRE FOR ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL EXCLUSION (CASE) [LONDON
     [UK]]: "Pension Policy in EU25 and its Possible Impact on Elderly
     Poverty," by Michael Fuchs, Aaron George Grech, and Asghar Zaidi
     (CASE/116, December 2006, .pdf format, 33p.).

Abstract:

This paper reviews changes in pension policies in EU countries between 1995 and 2005 and describes how they might affect risk of poverty for  future pensioner populations. The pension landscape in Europe has changed
considerably in the past decade and the paper highlights commonalities as
well as differences in pension reforms across these countries. A common trend is that the retirement incomes drawn from the public pension systems are on the decline, the changes are likely to shift more risks towards individuals, and there are fewer possibilities of redistribution in favour of the lower income individuals. The paper includes exploratory projections of how the risk of elderly poverty might evolve in the future. The countries where the benefit ratio is set to decline significantly, as expected, would see at-risk-poverty rates increase quite substantially, especially during the period 2025-2050, when the bulk of the decline is expected. This analysis points towards the importance of a more comprehensive assessment of the reforms, in particular in their impact on vulnerable groups (such as women and disabled people with disruptive work history) and in the clarity of the signals they give to individuals in extending their working career if they want to avoid greater risks of poverty during retirement.

http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/case/cp/CASEpaper116.pdf

Stetson to host two Social Security seminars

Stetson University College of Law is proud to present two outstanding seminars: "The Basics of Social Security Practice" and "Advocacy Skills in Social Security Disability Practice" at the Marriott Suites on Sand Key located in Clearwater Beach, Florida. The objective of these seminars is to continue to provide an in-depth review and discussion on a basic and an intermediate level of the major issues presented in a Social Security Disability Practice. To receive the "Early Bird" tuition rate, registration form must be postmarked by February 9, 2007. Click here for FULL ONLINE CONFERENCE BROCHURE & REGISTRATION FORM

Bulletin on Aging and Health--TOC

A new issue of the National Bureau of Economic Research's Bulletin on Aging and Health has been released.  The issue contains the following articles:

• The Growth in the Social Security Disability Insurance Rolls
• Differential Mortality, Uncertain Medical Expenditures, and the Savings Decisions of the Elderly
• Using Genetic Markers to Measure the Effect of Health on Education.

Get it here.

New cool powerpoints on Social Security and Retirement

David Walker, GAO Comptroller General

 Fiscal, Social Security, and Health Care Challenges, Awakening Conference, Sea Island, Georgia, January 7, 2007, GAO-07-345CG
PDF Accessible Text 

  21st Century Challenges--Key Areas for Oversight: Retirement, Pension, and Health Care Insecurity, Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement, Washington, D.C., December 7, 2006, GAO-07-270CG
PDF Accessible Text 

Jon Forman, Social Security Reform, lecture for the Ardmore Optimist Club, Ardmore, Oklahoma, January 11, 2007.  PowerPoint Presentation.

Many thanks to Jon Forman!!!

Samuelson on fixing Social Security and Medicare

If lawmakers were "serious" about "pledges of 'fiscal responsibility'" they would propose cuts in Social Security and Medicare,  According to Robert Samuelson, "Preserving present retirement benefits automatically imposes huge costs on the young," and the "tax increases required by 2030 could hit 50% if other spending is maintained as a share of national income." Samuelson writes that retirees "have adopted a policy of selfish silence" with regard to government-sponsored retirement benefits. He adds, "Baby boomers seem eager to 'reinvent retirement' in all ways except those that might threaten their pocketbooks." Samuelson suggests that in addition to reducing benefits, raising taxes and cutting spending, "much of the adjustment should come from increasing eligibility ages (ultimately to 70) and curbing payments to wealthier retirees." He writes, "Pundits usually speak in bland generalities" about Social Security and Medicare. "They support 'fiscal responsibility' and 'entitlement reform' and oppose big budget deficits," but less "often do they say plainly that people need to work longer and that retirees need to lose some benefits," Samuelson says. Samuelson predicts that "this Congress will do nothing" to address Social Security and Medicare, "just as previous Congresses have done nothing"

From the Washington Post.

Forwarded by my student, Andrea Palumbo.
 

Boomers' "Entitled Selfishness"?

From the KFF Daily Reports:

If lawmakers were "serious" about "pledges of 'fiscal responsibility'" they would propose cuts in Social Security and Medicare, Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson writes in an opinion piece. According to Samuelson, "Preserving present retirement benefits automatically imposes huge costs on the young," and the "tax increases required by 2030 could hit 50% if other spending is maintained as a share of national income." Samuelson writes that retirees "have adopted a policy of selfish silence" with regard to government-sponsored retirement benefits. He adds, "Baby boomers seem eager to 'reinvent retirement' in all ways except those that might threaten their pocketbooks." Samuelson suggests that in addition to reducing benefits, raising taxes and cutting spending, "much of the adjustment should come from increasing eligibility ages (ultimately to 70) and curbing payments to wealthier retirees." He writes, "Pundits usually speak in bland generalities" about Social Security and Medicare. "They support 'fiscal responsibility' and 'entitlement reform' and oppose big budget deficits," but less "often do they say plainly that people need to work longer and that retirees need to lose some benefits," Samuelson says. Samuelson predicts that "this Congress will do nothing" to address Social Security and Medicare, "just as previous Congresses have done nothing" (Samuelson, Washington Post, 1/10)

Forwarded by my student, Andrea Palumbo.

900 million appropriated from China's social security fund

China said today more than $900 million was misappropriated from the nation’s $37 billion social security fund in the latest massive government fraud to be uncovered.

The government did not announce any arrests or even lay blame for the wrongdoing, but it said an audit revealed that most of the money had been siphoned off for foreign investments, building projects and commercial loans.

The country’s social security fund was created in 2000 to help the government cope with its massive and aging population, and to provide a cushion in a country where the gap between the rich and the poor has widened dramatically in recent years, despite a long running economic boom.

The report comes at a time when China has embarked on one of its most serious crackdowns on government corruption in decades.

In September, the government sacked Chen Liangyu, the Shanghai party secretary and a member of the Politburo, after a government investigation determined that he was implicated in the misuse of social security funds in Shanghai.

Since then, several other government and business leaders have been arrested or called in for questioning in a widening probe of official wrongdoing involving bribery or stealing government funds.

Some experts say the ongoing corruption investigations are being used as a political weapon to remove government officials who are not loyal to President Hu Jintao.

But most analysts also say that corruption is endemic here and that it is threatening the country’s prosperity.

“The social security fund is the key to the stability of the society,” said Zhu Lijia, a professor of public administration at the National School of Administration in Beijing. “This affects a large number of retirees and unemployed workers who live on the money. That’s why there have been huge disturbances in various places.”

The social security fund fraud was uncovered by the national audit office, which for the past few years has been systematically scrutinizing the books of government agencies and institutions and then releasing its findings to the public.

   

Read more in the New York Times.

Prof. Moore (Kentucky) on SS Reform

Professor Kathryn Moore, Everett H. Metcalf, Jr. Professor of Law at the University of Kentucky, has recently published "Social Security Reform in 2005 and Beyond," in the NYU Review of Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation 2006, at 8-1 to -31.  The article begins by analyzing three of the most politically salient proposals for reform made in 2005.  It then explains why Social Security reform failed in 2005 despite the administration's efforts to amend the system to include private accounts.  The article concludes with a discussion of the future prospects for reform.

SS COLA is 3.3% for next year

Monthly Social Security and Supplemental Security Income benefits for more than 53 million Americans will increase 3.3 percent in 2007, the Social Security Administration announced today.

Social Security and Supplemental Security Income benefits increase automatically each year based on the rise in the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W), from the third quarter of the prior year to the corresponding period of the current year.  This year's increase in the CPI-W was 3.3 percent.
   
The 3.3 percent Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) will begin with benefits that nearly 49 million Social Security beneficiaries receive in January 2007.  Increased payments to more than 7 million Supplemental Security Income beneficiaries will begin on December 29.

Some other changes that take effect in January of each year are based on the increase in average wages.  Based on that increase, the maximum amount of earnings subject to the Social Security tax (taxable maximum) will increase to $97,500 from $94,200.  Of the estimated 163 million workers who will pay Social Security taxes in 2007, about 11 million will pay higher taxes as a result of the increase in the taxable maximum in 2007.

GET THE FACT SHEET:  http://ssa.gov/pressoffice/factsheets/colafacts2007.htm

Information about Medicare changes for 2007 can be  found at www.cms.hhs.gov

Did You Know?

The Social Security Admistration publishes a monthly update on recent developments in foreign public and private pensions.  Get it here:  http://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/progdesc/intl_update/2006-08/index.html

TOC: Comparative Law and Policy Journal, Winter 2006

This issue is chock full of fascinating articles on public pension systems around the world.  Elder law/pension god Dick Kaplan has a book review.  Here's the TOC:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

COMPARATIVE LABOR LAW & POLICY JOURNAL
Volume 27, Number 2 Winter 2006

SOCIAL PROTECTION AND DECENT WORK: NEW PROSPECTS FOR
INTERNATIONAL LABOR STANDARDS

Foreward

Jean-Claude Javillier, Sabrina Régent, and Emmanuel Reynaud ix
Introduction

The Position of Social Security in the System of International Labor Standards
Alain Supiot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Context

Social Security for All: Global Trends and Challenges
Emmanuel Reynaud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Updating International Labor Standards in the Area of Social Security: A
Framework for Analysis
Simon Deakin and Mark Freedland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Actors

Social Protection for Women Workers in the Informal Economy
Renana Jhabvala and Shalini Sinha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

The Role of Workers’ Organizations in the Extension of Social Security to
Informal Workers
Ravi Naidoo and Isobel Frye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Extending Social Security in Developing Countries: Between Universal
Entitlements and the Selectiveness of International Standards
R. Filali Meknassi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Methods

Mobilizing Local Knowledge
Mamadou Diawara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

On the Correct (and Incorrect) Use of Indicators in Public Action
Robert Salais . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

Extending Social Security Coverage: The Normative Route
Adrián Goldin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Conclusion

The Outlines of a Framework Agreement on the Extension of Social Protection
Alain Supiot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

BOOK REVIEW

Individual Accounts for Social Security Reform: International Perspectives on
the U.S. Debate,
John Turner
reviewed by Richard Kaplan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
__________________________________________
Cite as
27 Comp. La