The conservative media likes to attack Social Security, especially when it comes to Social Security disability benefits. We see stories from right-leaning media about how much fraud there is within the Social Security disability process and how honest working taxpayers are being bilked out of money by lazy Americans who would rather collect disability payments. We have rebuked this argument many times before with actual statistics that shows there is less than 1 percent of fraud involved with the Social Security disability system. There is a lot more potential fraud within the Defense Department, but you don’t hear that on Fox News. Last year it was reported that a whopping $8.5 trillion was unaccounted for in the Pentagon Budget, but not too many people are really talking about it. Oh the hypocrisy is ripe isn’t it?
Instead of constantly attacking Social Security or identifying fraud in other areas of our society, which is a much bigger concern than Social Security, why aren’t the good stories about Social Security being mentioned?
Because Social Security can be a long and winding road filled with frustration, even those of us who realize how important Social Security benefits are get jaded from time-to-time, but make not mistake about it, Social Security is full of positives.
Unfortunately if you don’t blow your own horn, nobody else will. Social Security is doing just that in this recent article you can link to here.
Trevor Drozdowski, a district manager at Social Security, took some time to explain that although Social Security takes its hits from time to time, there is certainly a lot to celebrate about what Social Security does.
In the piece written by Drozdowski, he calls Social Security a superhero, which may be a stretch, but it is certainly an important agency for millions of Americans and eventually almost ever American will benefit in some way from Social Security.
Most of the workforce in their 20s, 30s and 40s don’t stop to think about Social Security retirement or disability benefits because they believe that they are a long ways off worrying about retirement benefits and that they are healthy and will never have to access disability benefits. Unfortunately the chance of becoming disabled and unable to work is probably better than you think. Drozdowski points out that statistics show 25 percent of today’s 20-year-olds will become disabled before they retire. There are all sorts of things that can keep someone from maintaining gainful employment for a period of time, whether it is for physical or mental health reasons.
When it comes to retirement benefits, Social Security may even be more important. It is estimated that 34 percent of the current workforce has no savings set aside specifically for retirement. These days it is not easy to survive on strictly Social Security benefits, but it is certainly better than nothing and there will always be a portion of people unable to do their own saving for retirement, but Social Security will be there for the rescue.
I admit, the article written by Drozdowski is a bit over-the-top in lauding Social Security’s benefits, but it is mostly true. Many Americans can have a more active presence in their past, present and future by creating an account at www.ssa.gov. This service allows Americans to check their earnings and estimate retirement benefits, but it also allows people to apply for replacement Social Security cards, sign-up for direct deposit and change their address with Social Security.
