Assisting applicants with Social Security disability claims has provided the opportunity to inform many people that Social Security no longer mails paper statements of earnings to individuals, a practice that stopped in 2011.
The measure wan enacted to save Social Security $70 million annually (SSA estimates 50 cents per mailed statement), but due to a tepid response to Social Security’s new online only accounts, Social Security will resume mailing out paper statements this month.
Prior to 2011, Social Security mailed out annual statements to workers, but that will not be the case this time as statements will only be mailed out every five years to workers ages 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55 and 60.
Social Security heavily promoted its personalized online accounts for workers, but just 10 million American wage earners signed up equaling about 6 percent of all workers. Some critics suggested that older Americans who are getting closer to retirement age were less likely to sign-up for online accounts and they would be unaware of their earnings and potential benefits come retirement time.
The annual statements include an estimate of monthly benefits for retirement and disability pay, explains how benefits are calculated and gives information about a worker’s history of income related to Social Security tax.
Those who have already signed up for online accounts will not receive paper statements every five years, only those workers who did not sign-up for online accounts.
There is no word yet on estimates it would cost Social Security under the new system that mails out statements every five years, but the agency received extra budget allocations in 2014 ($11.7 billion) and 2015 ($12 billion).
To learn more about Social Security resuming the policy to mail paper statements to workers click here.
