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FYI!
via twitter.
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Letter to Senate Aging Committee on SSA Field
Office Closures.
- I believe that the availability of conveniently located and adequately staffed Social Security field offices is crucial to providing good service to America’s seniors and to maintaining the public’s support for Social Security, Medicare, and other programs that SSA administers.
The National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare strongly objects to the scheduled closure of the Social Security Administration (SSA) field office in Arlington, VA, which currently serves some 25,000 seniors, people with disabilities, and many other beneficiaries every year.
If the office is shuttered as planned on June 21st, lower income Social Security and SSI (Supplemental Security Income) claimants may find themselves traveling up to two hours round-trip on public transportation to an alternate field office. Once they arrive at the nearest alternative location, they will experience an average two-hour wait (based on national data) in a crowded office where it can be difficult to locate a seat – an extra hardship for seniors and people with disabilities.
Read more about this issue by clicking here.
In the omnibus bill, the Social Security Administration (SSA) gets an increase of $480 million over the previous fiscal year, including $100 million for reducing the backlog in Social Security Disability Insurance hearings – which some 10,000 Americans died waiting for in 2017.
via Entitled to Know.
Some lawmakers are saying that Social Security is facing a crisis. The Senate Budget Committee recently held a hearing on “The Coming Crisis: Social Security Disability Trust Fund Insolvency;” today, a House subcommittee is holding a hearing on the “looming insolvency of the Disability Insurance program.”
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President Donald Trump’s budget would break one of his campaign promises to “keep Social Security intact.” Trump’s budget, according to several news sources that obtained leaked documents, would make significant cuts to Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI), which benefit disabled and low-income Americans.
via Think Progress.
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“In our America, we do not cast seniors into the cold. We do not take food out of their mouths or make it harder to get the healthcare they so desperately need. In short, we do not cut off our most vulnerable citizens at the knees to pay for a massive tax break for the wealthy and big corporations.”
Our statement on the budget can be found here.
Need help from the Social Security Administration with your benefits? Be prepared for a long wait.
Years of budget cuts by Congress have left the Social Security Administration (SSA) short of staff on its toll-free customer service line. Long lines form daily outside many local field offices. And the backlog of people waiting for a hearing on disability insurance claims is more than 600 days.
But last week, Congress made a downpayment on a badly needed fix for the customer-service crisis plaguing the agency. Lawmakers ignored the Trump administration’s request to hold the SSA budget flat, instead boosting the agency’s administrative budget by $480 million as part of the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending legislation signed into law by the president.
via Reuters.
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Fiscal Year 2018 Omnibus Appropriations Bill Includes Increased Funding for Several Programs Crucial to Seniors.
- H.R. 1625 provides $12.9 billion for SSA’s administrative budget, which represents a $480 million increase over last year. That includes an increase for general operations, as well as designated amounts of $280 million for Information Technology modernization and $100 million for reducing the disability hearings backlog.
Years of SSA cuts have already taken their toll, generating long waits on the phone and in field offices and record-high disability backlogs. Yet the House would freeze SSA’s operating funds for another year, even as the agency’s costs rise.
via CBPP.
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Social Security’s 82nd anniversary — why doesn’t this agency still have an adequate budget?
- Today, Social Security provides basic financial security for some 61 million Americans. Two out of three seniors rely on Social Security for most of their income, and one-third of seniors depend on it for at least 90 percent of their income. It is one of the most efficient federal programs. Less than 1 percent of Social Security’s revenue goes to administrative costs — the rest, to beneficiaries.
Eighty-two years after Social Security was created, why doesn’t the agency that administers the program for 61 million Americans have an adequate budget? The Social Security Administration (SSA) is one of the most efficient federal agencies, yet its budget was slashed in 2011 and never fully restored.
Max Richtman via The Hill.
Seniors went to Capitol Hill earlier this month to tell Congress why their current #SocialSecurity benefits are inadequate. Boost Social Security Now! https://www.ncpssm.org/campaigns/boost-social-security-now/ @RepJohnLarson