Archive
Just Released — Top 10 Baby Names For 2012
Source: Social Security Administration
1 Jacob Sophia
2 Mason Emma
3 Ethan Isabella
4 Noah Olivia
5 William Ava
6 Liam Emily
7 Jayden Abigail
8 Michael Mia
9 Alexander Madison
10 Aiden Elizabeth
New From the GAO
New From the GAO
Source: Government Accountability Office
Reports
1. Transportation Worker Identification Credential: Card Reader Pilot Results Are Unreliable; Security Benefits Need to be Reassessed. GAO-13-198, May 8.
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-13-198
Highlights – http://www.gao.gov/assets/660/654432.pdf
2. Internal Revenue Service: Preliminary Observations on the Fiscal Year 2014 Budget Request. GAO-13-599R, May 3.
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-13-599R
Testimonies
1. Social Security Administration: Preliminary Observations on the Death Master File, by Daniel Bertoni, director, education, workforce, and income security issues, before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. GAO-13-574T, May 8.
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-13-574T
Highlights – http://www.gao.gov/assets/660/654412.pdf
2. Homeland Security: DHS and TSA Continue to Face Challenges Developing and Acquiring Screening Technologies, by Stephen M. Lord, director, forensic audits and investigative services, before the Subcommittee on Transportation Security, House Committee on Homeland Security. GAO-13-469T, May 8.
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-13-469T
Highlights – http://www.gao.gov/assets/660/654420.pdf
3. Department of Energy: Observations on Project and Program Cost Estimating in NNSA and the Office of Environmental Management, by David Trimble, director, natural resources and environment, before the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, Senate Committee on Armed Services. GAO-13-510T, May 8. http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-13-510T
Highlights – http://www.gao.gov/assets/660/654424.pdf
SSA — Preliminary Observations on the Death Master File
Preliminary Observations on the Death Master File
Source:
The Social Security Administration’s (SSA) procedures for handling and verifying death reports may allow for erroneous death information in the Death Master File (DMF) because SSA does not verify certain death reports or record others. SSA officials said, in keeping with its mission, the agency is primarily focused on ensuring that it does not make benefit payments to deceased Social Security program beneficiaries. As a result, it only verifies death reports received for individuals who are current program beneficiaries, and even then, only for those reports received from sources it considers to be less accurate. For example, SSA officials consider death reports from states that have pre-verified decedents’ name and SSN to be highly accurate, so SSA does not verify that the subjects of these reports are actually deceased. It would, however, verify a report received from a source such as a post office. SSA verifies no death reports for individuals who are not beneficiaries, regardless of source. Because there are a number of death reports that SSA does not verify, the agency risks including incorrect death information in the DMF, such as including living individuals in the file or not including deceased individuals. Specifically, for death reports that are not verified, SSA would not know with certainty if the individuals are correctly reported as dead. SSA also does not record some deaths because incorrect or incomplete information included in death reports generally prevents SSA from matching decedents to SSA records. For example, if SSA is unable to match a death report to data in its records such as name and Social Security Number (SSN), it generally does not follow up to correct the non-match and does not record the death.
A number of federal agencies access the DMF for the purpose of matching it against data in their files, but the conditions of access depend on a variety of legal and other factors. Currently SSA shares a full version of the DMF with six federal agencies that it has determined meet legal requirements for accessing the file, which include being an agency that pays federal benefits. By law, SSA can require reimbursement for the cost of sharing the data, however various factors affect what the agencies actually pay. The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Office of Personnel Management pay nothing to receive the file, whereas the Department of Defense annually pays more than $40,000. A number of other federal agencies–including several that administer programs that pay benefits– purchase a partial version of the DMF that is publicly available through the Department of Commerce’s National Technical Information Service (NTIS). NTIS reimburses SSA for receipt of the file. The partial DMF does not include state reported data and, according to SSA officials, has about 10 percent fewer records than the full DMF (roughly 87 million, compared to 98 million). Thus, agencies accessing this version of the file, such as the Department of Labor’s Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program, may be missing deceased program participants. If agencies want access to the full DMF, they must formally request it. SSA makes determinations about their eligibility on a case-by-case basis. SSA officials said they were not aware of written standards or guidelines to follow in making these determinations.
Social Security Board of Trustees: Projected Trust Fund Exhaustion Three Years Sooner Than Last Year
Social Security Board of Trustees: Projected Trust Fund Exhaustion Three Years Sooner Than Last Year
Source: Social Security Administration
The Social Security Board of Trustees today released its annual report on the financial health of the Social Security Trust Funds. The combined assets of the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) Trust Funds will be exhausted in 2033, three years sooner than projected last year. The DI Trust Fund will be exhausted in 2016, two years earlier than last year’s estimate. The Trustees also project that OASDI program costs will exceed non-interest income in 2012 and will remain higher throughout the remainder of the 75-year period.
In the 2012 Annual Report to Congress, the Trustees announced:
- The projected point at which the combined Trust Funds will be exhausted comes in 2033 – three years sooner than projected last year. At that time, there will be sufficient non-interest income coming in to pay about 75 percent of scheduled benefits.
- The projected actuarial deficit over the 75-year long-range period is 2.67 percent of taxable payroll — 0.44 percentage point larger than in last year’s report.
- Over the 75-year period, the Trust Funds would require additional revenue equivalent to $8.6 trillion in present value dollars to pay all scheduled benefits.
Income of the Aged Chartbook, 2010
Since 1941, the Social Security Administration (SSA) has periodically surveyed the aged to determine their economic status. The first national survey was conducted in 1963. In 1976, SSA’s Office of Research and Statistics began compiling a biennial series of reports on the income of the aged based on data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau in its Current Population Survey. These SSA reports are published under the title Income of the Population 55 or Older.The most recent edition of that publication is based on 2010 data, which, along with special tabulations, form the basis of this chartbook. This publication covers the population aged 65 or older. The unit of analysis here, with the exception of measures of poverty and family income of persons, is the aged unit, which is a married couple living together or a person who does not live with a spouse. A married couple’s age is defined as the age of the husband—unless he is under age 55 and the wife is 55 or older, in which case it is the age of the wife. The race and Hispanic origin of a married couple are determined by the husband. The unit of analysis for poverty is persons aged 65 or older. The 2010 sample represented 12,162,000 couples and 17,478,000 single units. The single unit may be a widow(er), a divorced or separated person, a legally married person who does not live with a spouse, or a person who never married. This unit of analysis allows one to measure the economic status of the entire noninstitutionalized aged population separately from that of the family or household in which the unit may live.
Behavioral and Psychological Aspects of the Retirement Decision
The majority of research on the retirement decision has focused on the health and wealth aspects of retirement. Such research concludes that people in better health and those enjoying a higher socioeconomic status tend to work longer than their less healthy and less wealthy counterparts. While financial and health concerns are a major part of the retirement decision, there are other issues that may affect the decision to retire that are unrelated to an individual’s financial and health status. Judgment and decision-making and behavioral-economics research suggests that there may be a number of behavioral factors influencing the retirement decision. The author reviews and highlights such factors and offers a unique perspective on potential determinants of retirement behavior, including anchoring and framing effects, affective forecasting, hyperbolic discounting, and the planning fallacy. The author then describes findings from previous research and draws novel connections between existing decision-making research and the retirement decision.
The Evolution of Social Security’s Taxable Maximum Wage Threshold
The Evolution of Social Security’s Taxable Maximum Wage Threshold
Source: Social Security Administration
Major Findings
- The tax max has been in place since Social Security’s founding, but Congress has modified it over time to address several policy goals, such as improving system financing and maintaining meaningful benefits for middle and higher earners.
- Although the nominal value of the tax max has grown from $3,000 in 1937 to $106,800 today, in inflation-adjusted dollars the tax max declined from 1937 until the late 1960s, and then grew once it was indexed to wage growth in 1975. In wage-adjusted dollars, the tax max has remained roughly constant since the mid-1980s.
- The percentage of workers with earnings above the tax max (“above-max earners”) fell from 15 percent in 1975 to about 6 percent in 1983 and has remained at that level since.
- Historically, an average of roughly 83 percent of covered earnings have been subject to the payroll tax. In 1983, this figure reached 90 percent, but it has declined since then. As of 2010, about 86 percent of covered earnings fall under the tax max.
- The percentage of earnings covered by the tax max has fallen since the early 1980s because earnings among above-max earners have grown faster than earnings among the rest of the working population.
Fast Facts & Figures About Social Security, 2011
Fast Facts & Figures About Social Security, 2011
Source: Social Security Administration
Fast Facts & Figures answers the most frequently asked questions about the programs SSA administers. It highlights basic program data for the Social Security (retirement, survivors, and disability) and Supplemental Security Income programs. Most of the data come from the Annual Statistical Supplement to the Social Security Bulletin, which contains more than 240 detailed tables. The information on the income of the aged is from the data series Income of the Population 55 or Older. Data on trust fund operations are from the 2011 Trustees Report.
The tables and charts illustrate the range of program beneficiaries, from the country’s oldest to its youngest citizens. In all, about 59.2 million people receive some type of benefit or assistance.
+ Full Document (PDF)
Social Security Board of Trustees: Projected Trust Fund Exhaustion: One Year Sooner
Social Security Board of Trustees: Projected Trust Fund Exhaustion: One Year Sooner
Source: Social Security Administration
The Social Security Board of Trustees today released its annual report on the financial health of the Social Security Trust Funds. The combined assets of the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) Trust Funds will be exhausted in 2036, one year sooner than projected last year. The DI Trust Fund, while unchanged from last year, will be exhausted in 2018 and legislative action will be needed soon. At a minimum, a reallocation of the payroll tax rate between OASI and DI would be necessary, as was done in 1994. The Trustees also project that OASDI program costs will exceed non-interest income in 2011 and will remain higher throughout the remainder of the 75-year period.
In the 2011 Annual Report to Congress, the Trustees announced:
- The projected point at which the combined Trust Funds will be exhausted comes in 2036 — one year sooner than projected last year. At that time, there will be sufficient non-interest income coming in to pay about 77 percent of scheduled benefits.
- The point at which non-interest income fell below program costs was 2010. Program costs are projected to exceed non-interest income throughout the remainder of the 75-year period.
- The projected actuarial deficit over the 75-year long-range period is 2.22 percent of taxable payroll — 0.30 percentage point larger than in last year’s report.
- Over the 75-year period, the Trust Funds would require additional revenue equivalent to $6.5 trillion in present value dollars to pay all scheduled benefits.
