Earlier this month the Baltimore Sun reported that President Barack Obama intends to nominate Carolyn Colvin as the new commissioner of the Social Security Administration. Colvin has been serving as acting commissioner since taking over from Michael Astrue, whose term ended last year.
Like many other of Obama’s nominations, the confirmation process is expected to be contentious as Colvin aims to be in charge of an agency with 60,000 employees that serves 57 million beneficiaries.
Some of the issues that might come up during the confirmation process include the agency’s long-standing backlog of disability claims and recent closings of field offices that serve applicants.
Colvin served as a special assistant to Maryland’s Secretary of Transportation from 2009-2010 and was the director of the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services from 2003-2006.
Quick Facts
- Staffing at Social Security is at about 62,000 employees, but this is not the most employees the agency has employed. At one time 80,000 employees worked for Social Security.
- As previously mentioned, Social Security serves 57 million beneficiaries who receive $850 billion a year in benefits.
- More than 55,000 people who are age 100 and older receive Social Security retirement benefits.
- Despite how much high earners pay into Social Security, there is a maximum monthly benefit amount of $2,642 and the average monthly benefit is $1,148.
- Over half of all Social Security retirement applications are filed online.
- Social Security claims that it has never missed a payment to a recipient in over 75 years worth of existence.
- The Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) trust fund is expected to be depleted to a point where full SSDI benefits can’t be paid by 2016 without action from Congress. The retirement trust fund is solvent until 2013.
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