When you look at your next Social Security statement it is likely the statement will look differently than other statements you seen in the past.
On October 4, 2021 Social Security issued a press release about making available redesigned statements under the leadership of Social Security’s new Acting Commissioner Kilolo Kijakazi. The redesigned statements are available online for people who created their own my Social Security portal. Kijakazi said that one of her priorities was to make information available to claimants that is clear and easy to understand.
“One of my top priorities is to provide information to people in clear and plain terms about Social Security’s programs and services,” said Acting Commissioner Kijakazi. “The streamlined Social Security Statement contains clear messaging and makes it easier to find information at a glance, helping to simplify our complex programs for the public.”
For years Social Security has been trying to get more people to start using online accounts to conduct business with the agency. To date more than 61 million people have already created an online Social Security account. Prior to providing new Social Security statements online the agency conducted research to determine how to make the statements easier to understand. Below is Social Security’s description of how it went about creating these new statements.
The agency conducted extensive research, review, and testing to make the updated Statement easy to understand. The new Statement is shorter, uses visuals and plain language, and includes fact sheets tailored to a person’s age and earnings history. It also includes important information people have come to expect from the Statement, such as how much a worker and family members could expect to receive in Social Security benefits and a personalized earnings history, in a clear, concise manner. Examples of the new Statement and fact sheets are available at www.socialsecurity.gov/myaccount/statement.html.
