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.
Fact Checking
President Donald Trump recently gave a speech where he contended that the Democrats want to destroy Medicare and Social Security. According to a story in the Charleston Gazette-Mail, Trump said “we’re saving Medicare. The Democrats want to destroy Medicare. If you look at what they’re doing, they’re going to destroy Medicare. And we will save it. We will keep it going. We’re making it stronger. We’re making Social Security stronger.”
Unfortunately the facts do not backup the president’s claim. In fact, there are Republican bills in Congress that call for increasing the Social Security retirement age to 70 and cuts to benefits. The newspaper specified three major points in refuting Trump’s claim that Republicans are making Medicare and Social Security stronger.
- Compared with estimates a year ago, the primary trust fund for Medicare runs out three years sooner.
- The primary trust fund for Social Security runs out one year sooner.
- The Republican tax cuts trimmed a year of solvency from the primary Medicare trust fund and had a negative effect on the Social Security trust fund.
The facts do not support the president’s claim and as the newspaper pointed out, “we rate this claim false.”
Kansas Women Sentenced For Social Security Fraud
The Associated Press reported the sentencing of a 50-year-old Kansas woman for collecting more than $86,000 in Social Security benefits while she was working and not entitled to the benefits between 2008 and 2014. Amy McLain was sentenced six months in prison for one count of Social Security fraud and ordered to pay restitution. U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister said McLain was working at Kreifels Communications during the same time she was collecting Social Security benefits. Scott Kreifels, 58, was charged and sentenced as a co-defendant in the case. He was sentenced to two years probation and ordered to pay almost $50,000 in restitution.
Trouble With Computing SSI Payments
The Office of Inspector General for Social Security released a recent report where it sampled 100 Social Security recipients who had manually deemed income, and out of this sample Social Security did not correctly compute Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments for 46.
According to the report, “this occurred because SSA did not correctly develop all income information when the deemors reported it or it became available from other sources if the deemors did not report it timely, did not consider the correct family members in the household, or made various other errors. Further, SSA’s policy did not require that a second employee review manually deemed computations.
SSA improperly paid the 46 recipients $136,569. Specifically, SSA overpaid 12 recipients $33,375, underpaid 9 recipients $7,734, and both over- and underpaid 25 recipients $95,460. Accordingly, we project SSA improperly paid approximately $105 million in SSI payments to 35,200 SSI recipients with manually deemed income.”
