Did you miss Behind the Headlines today?
We discussed:
- New budget battle over President’s threat to cut billions in domestic spending.
- Recent closures of Social Security field offices in urban areas of the U.S.
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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.
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.
via twitter.
Related Reading:
The Trump administration has sent a grim message to America’s seniors.
President Trump’s 2020 budget proposal shortchanges seniors by:
- Slashing $845 billion from Medicare.
- Cutting $25 billion from Social Security Disability Insurance.
- Gutting Medicaid by 1.5 trillion.
- Cutting the Social Security Administration’s operating budget by 3.5%.
![“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.
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.
While a shutdown would not threaten payment of Social Security checks or Medicare and Medicaid benefits, Social Security Administration employees could face furloughs which could stop or slow the processing of new applications for benefits, and requests by current beneficiaries for changes of address or replacement Medicare cards.
via NCPSSM.
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.
via Washington Post.
Related Reading:
Unfortunately, after years of Congressional cuts to Social Security’s administration, many individuals do not receive the service they have earned and deserve.
Administrative Budget Requests Have Been Cut for Years:
- Social Security’s core operating budget shrank by 11% from 2010 to 2017 in inflation-adjusted terms. This occurred even as 10,000 baby boomers a day reach retirement age.
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.
Join us at 1pm EST on Facebook Live as we discuss the Social Security Administration funding and how the President’s budget includes cuts to it and our endorsement of Randy Bryce.
Broadcasting here at 1pm EST:
www.facebook.com/nationalcommittee