We realize it may be a stretch for ordinary people to want to keep up with the comings and goings of the Social Security Administration, but sometimes circumstances permit where someone does want to follow the latest news regarding the agency due to a possible retirement or disability interest. This blog is an ongoing piecemeal of recent stories that have involved Social Security. Some are tidbits and some are important things that should be known in the world of retirement or disability and others are just interesting stories and nothing more.
OIG Report Says Social Security Should Be More Aggressive
The Office of the Inspector General for Social Security, in a new report, said Social Security needs to be more aggressive in pursuing debtors who owe Social Security money because of improper payments issued.
“SSA could improve its efforts to recover overpayments from debtors or their representative payees who have delinquent installment payments,” the report said.
The OIG reviewed more than 12,000 cases where Social Security was owed more than $88 million and at least one of these cases dated back more than 30 years.
“We recommend SSA review the 12,269 delinquent debtor records and take action, where appropriate, to begin benefit adjustment or recovery using its external collection tools. SSA agreed with our recommendation,” the report said.
The OIG has been urging Social Security to be more aggressive in recovering overpayments for some time now, the problem is that a significant portion of the people who owe Social Security money received these funds through no fault of their own because Social Security made mistakes and now want the money returned. Many of these people have limited means and would face significant financial burden if they were to have to pay the money back.
Researchers Make A Case For Ending Early Retirement
A new study from researchers tied to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas recently issued a report that indicates people who begin collecting Social Security retirement early are poorer than those who wait until full retirement age. This is no earthy-shattering news because people who do collect benefits early pay a penalty and are receiving less money than if they waited. A synopsis of the report is below.
“Social Security faces a major financing shortfall. One policy option for addressing this shortfall would be to raise the earliest age at which individuals can claim their retirement benefits. A welfare analysis of such a policy change depends critically on how it affects living standards. This paper estimates the impact of the Social Security early entitlement age on later-life elderly living standards by tracing birth cohorts of men who had access to different potential claiming ages. The focus is on the Social Security Amendments of 1961, which introduced age 62 as the early entitlement age (EEA) for retired-worker benefits for men. Based on data from the Social Security Administration and March 1968-2001 Current Population Surveys, reductions in the EEA in the long-run lowered the average claiming age by 1.4 years, which lowered Social Security income for male-headed families in retirement by 1.5% at the mean, 3% at the median, and 4% at the 25th percentile of the Social Security income distribution. The increase in early claiming was associated with a decrease in total income, but only at the bottom of the income distribution. There was a large associated rise in elderly poverty and income inequality; the introduction of early claiming raised the elderly poverty rate by about one percentage point. Finally, for the 1885-1916 cohorts, the implied elasticity of poverty with respect to Social Security income for male-headed families is 1.6−. Overall, we find that the introduction of early claiming was associated with a reduction in income and an increase in the poverty rate in old age for male-headed households.”
The one thing this report fails to address is that many people have no other choice but to collect benefit early because they are not well enough to work or have been displaced by their employer.
