Social Security to Resume Benefits Statement Mailings.

[elleng]

Source: nyt/reuters

Paper Social Security benefits statements, which used to be mailed out every year and then fell victim to budget cuts, are going to make a partial comeback.

Starting this September, the Social Security Administration (SSA) will resume mailings at five-year intervals to workers who have not signed up to view their statements online, an agency spokesman told Reuters. The statements will be sent to workers at ages 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55 and 60, he said, adding the agency would continue to promote use of the online statements.

The SSA stopped mailing most paper statements in 2011 in response to budget pressures, and saved the SSA $70 million annually - about 50 cents per mailed statement. But the decision has been a sore point with some critics, who argue the statement provides a valuable annual reminder to workers of what they can expect to get back from payroll taxes in the future. The annual statement includes an estimate of monthly benefits at various claiming ages, and for disability claims. It explains how benefits are calculated, and displays the worker's history of income subject to Social Security tax.

The SSA budget is funded mainly by the same payroll tax revenue used for paying benefits but Congress, which approves the agency's budget, has approved less than the agency's request in 14 of the past 16 years. In fiscal 2012, for example, SSA operated with $11.4 billion, just 88 percent of the amount requested. The cuts have led to sharp reductions in SSA customer service. Nationwide, staff is down to 62,000 from a peak of 70,000 in the 1990s.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2014/04/19/business/19reuters-social-security.html?hp&_r=0

[WillyT]

1. K & R !!! - Thank You For That !!!

[Curmudgeoness]

2. When I first read the subject line, I thought WTF.

But I suppose that it does make sense for people who are not online, and every five years is reasonable. Since I have been getting mine online since that started, I didn't think about the people who are not paying attention, but they should be reminded of all that the Social Security tax will do for them.

[yeoman6987]

3. I didn't even realized they stopped

I never cared for getting it because as we all know, it is going to change significantly before Generation X folks start to retire. I just know that the Republicans are going to screw us some way.

[SheilaT]

4. No. Don't even allow yourself to think that way.

I'm 65, and I can recall all too clearly that when I was in my mid-twenties various age mates saying, Oh, Social Security won't be around when we retire. Well, it's still here, and it needs to stay. It will ONLY stay if everyone is currently collects or who will ever be eligible (which is nearly everyone) stands up to those trying to take it away and say NO! We've earned it. We deserve it.

Yes, I understand it's a pay as you go scheme, and that the money you pay today is not set aside for your retirement down the road. It's always the current workers supporting those who are getting SS.

I'm also old enough to remember how incredibly impoverished most older people were, and that's changed thanks to SS.

So again, do not fall prey to the easy thinking of it won't be around. If you think that way it just makes it all the easier for those who want to take it away to actually take it away.

[bemildred]

7. That was said all of my working life, and I'm drawing it now.

You know, the bankruptcy stuff, and it will never work, and you'll never get it back?

Same with the defined benefit pension I earned in the 1970s, I never thought I'd see a nickel of it, but they looked me up and started sending it to me every month. Two hundred bucks a month, because I got vested.

[magical thyme]

8. from the time I was very young -- under 10 -- I believed SS wouldn't be there for me

I probably heard it from my father. Who is now 90 and still collecting it.

I'll be eligible in <18 months. It may change, but not necessarily for the worse. My benefits seem to have increased since the last mailng. We just need to continue to be vigilant and vocal.

Also push for Medicare for all.

[davidpdx]

5. It's good to hear they will resume this

I was getting statements through my mail forwarding service even though I am abroad. Then I signed up to do it online. I didn't pay in a hell of a lot before I left the US, but will get something when I hit whatever the age is for retirement.

[Thor_MN]

6. The link to create an online account.

http://www.ssa.gov/myaccount/


I signed up and took a look at my earnings history. If I bridge the GW Bush years with what I earned previous to what I earned after, and calculated a wage going in a straight line: GWBush cost me personally $126,000.