While the well-financed Wall Street-backed campaign to convince Americans that Social Security is in crisis (even though the facts prove just the opposite) has sputtered over time, that hasn’t stopped some in Congress from inflicting a death-by-a-billion-cuts budget strategy on the Social Security Administration’s administrative finances. SSA has received less than its budget request in 14 of the last 16 years.
See more posts like this on Tumblr
#politics #social security #SSA #congress #seniors #retirement #retirees #retirement crisis #p2More you might like
In a rare victory for seniors, the passage of the FY 2018 Omnibus Appropriations bill in Congress increases funding for several programs that assist the elderly – and gives a much-needed boost to the beleaguered Social Security Administration (SSA). 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. The funding bump – which the National Committee has long advocated – should also alleviate some of the excessively long wait times for customer service on SSA’s toll-free phone line and in-person at SSA field offices.
The Omnibus bill also includes $59 million more for Older Americans Act Senior Nutrition programs and an increase of $250 million for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), while the State Health Insurance Program (SHIP) receives a modest increase in funding. The spending plan also gives a $414 million boost to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for Alzheimer’s and dementia research.
Read more from our press release by clicking here.
National Committee President Max Richtman joined advocates and elected representatives on Capitol Hill today to demand that Congress adequately fund the Social Security Administration (SSA). Richtman, Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Bob Casey (D-PA) railed against Republican plans to cut nearly $500 million from the Social Security Administration’s operating budget in the upcoming government funding bill.
The agency has been woefully underfunded since 2011 and Social Security claimants have been paying the price in the form of reduced service and long wait times. Social Security’s core operating budget shrank by 11 percent from 2010 to 2017 in inflation-adjusted terms. This occurred even as 10,000 baby boomers a day reach retirement age. Congress has the ability to solve this problem, but has not signaled a willingness to do so.
Read more about this event by clicking here.
Americans contact the Social Security Administration at the most vulnerable points in their lives — upon the death of a loved one, retirement, or when facing a life-changing disability. The last thing they need is a hassle in securing benefits.
After all, they paid for those benefits during their working years through Social Security payroll taxes. But thanks to draconian budget cuts to the Social Security Administration (SSA), too many applicants face long hold times and busy signals— or deadly-long waits for disability hearings.
Literally thousands of disabled Americans die every year waiting for adjudication of claims. Meanwhile, some 10,000 Baby Boomers become eligible for Social Security retirement benefits every day. You don’t have to be an actuary to figure out: When workloads increase and funding is cut, service suffers.
Read more on this issue by clicking here.
![“The enemies of Social Security in Congress are making a very bad situation even worse [by proposing cuts to SSA’s operating budget.] They want to make it impossible to effectively administer the program, and ultimately want to destroy Social...](https://64.media.tumblr.com/1c78ed79e5e7168a42078f7b6d551a8c/tumblr_p2z1kt6Dqa1qd3gmvo1_1280.jpg)
“The enemies of Social Security in Congress are making a very bad situation even worse [by proposing cuts to SSA’s operating budget.] They want to make it impossible to effectively administer the program, and ultimately want to destroy Social Security.”
-Senator Bernie Sanders
More about the Fully Fund Social Security Administration event can be found here.
Closing Social Security field offices can cause undue hardship for claimants, yet the Social Security Administration (SSA) has shuttered 67 of them since 2010. Seniors advocates have recently intensified their efforts to push back against field office closures. Those efforts may finally gain some teeth with the introduction of a bill by Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wisc.). Her ‘Maintain Access to Vital Social Security Services Act of 2018’ (H.R. 7160) would make it harder for the SSA to summarily close field offices.
Congresswoman Moore represents a district that includes the city of Milwaukee, where SSA closed a field office serving poor and mostly Hispanic residents last Spring – forcing them to seek assistance at an alternate location that’s hard to reach by public transportation.
Read more from this op-ed by clicking here.
On behalf of the millions of members and supporters of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, I write to endorse your legislation, H.R. 5431, the “Social Security Administration (SSA) Accountability Act of 2018.” The National Committee commends you for introducing this legislation, which establishes important new tools and safeguards which will strengthen substantially the ability of the Congress to exercise its oversight obligations regarding the administration of Social Security programs.
Read more from this endorsement letter by clicking here.
Americans contact the Social Security Administration at the most vulnerable points in their lives – upon the death of a loved one, upon retirement, or when facing a life-changing disability. At those points, these individuals should receive compassionate, timely, and efficient service in response to their needs. After all, they have paid their Social Security taxes for years, earning the benefits they seek, and the right to high quality service when applying for those benefits. Unfortunately, after years of Congressional cuts to Social Security’s administration, many individuals do not receive the service they have earned and deserve.
Read more on this issue by clicking here.
As the baby boom generation ages into its peak years for retirement and disability, the demands on the Social Security Administration (SSA) are reaching all-time highs. Yet Congress has cut SSA’s core operating budget by 10 percent since 2010, after adjusting for inflation.
These cuts hurt SSA’s service to the public in every state. The agency has been forced to shutter field offices and shrink its staff, leading to longer waits for service and a record-high disability appeals backlog. While the overall effect is a decline in service nationwide, the effects of the cuts vary considerably by state.
via CBPP.
Related Reading:
The Social Security Administration (SSA) and Congress are causing undue hardship for Social Security claimants by closing field offices in mostly urban areas. The most recent casualty is the SSA office in Arlington, VA, scheduled to close its doors on June 21st.
The scheduled shuttering of the Arlington office comes on the heels of others in heavily populated urban areas, including in Milwaukee and Chicago during the past year and the announced closing of an SSA field office in Baltimore (also effective this June). Since 2010, SSA has closed more than 60 field offices nationwide and furloughed 3,500 field office employees.
The Arlington office currently serves some 25,000 claimants every year. Closing Social Security field offices like this one causes undue difficulty for the elderly, disabled and working people who rely on public transportation. The nearest alternate location in Virginia is a 2-hour round trip via subway and bus. When I asked the crowd at the rally (which included retirees who rely on these offices) if this was acceptable, they shouted, “Hell, No!”
Read more from this op-ed by clicking here.
President Trump’s proposed fiscal 2019 Social Security Administration (SSA) budget would cut staffing, a recipe for long waits in agency offices and on the telephone for those trying to navigate the often-difficult world of old-age, disability, survivor and Medicare benefits. Retirement and survivor benefits would not be hit…
…The advocacy group, National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, provides these stats to illustrate the problem: About 10,000 baby boomers hit retirement age every day. The increase in workloads coupled with a decrease in staffing led to a 627-day wait for disability applicants’ hearings in 2017. The three-minute telephone wait that callers had for SSA’s 800 number in 2010 was six times longer last year. Despite SSA attempts to direct traffic to its website, there were 2 million more field office visits in 2016 than 2015. “More than 16,000 visitors were forced to wait more than hour for service each day in August 2017,” the committee said.
Promising to become “more efficient and effective” for the 71 million people who receive monthly benefits, Social Security Administration statements say Trump’s budget “will allow us to support our front line operations, such as our field offices, processing centers, and National 800 Number, by providing some critical hires and expanding our additional service delivery channels and online service options.”
via Washington Post.
Related Reading:
The Social Security Administration Needs the Funding to Provide the American People the Service They Deserve.
- Social Security’s core operating budget shrank by 11 percent from 2010 to 2017 in inflation-adjusted terms. This occurred even as 10,000 baby boomers a day reach retirement age. When workloads increase and staff is reduced due to inadequate funding, service deteriorates.
- The media has focused on the unprecedented delays disability applicants face when waiting for a hearing on their case – the wait in August 2017 was 627 days – but service in other areas has deteriorated as well.