News

  • Legislative Update Week Ending November 21 2014

    On November 21, 2017 The Senior Citizens League delivered advocacy letters to caution members of Congress to NOT repeal the medical expense tax deduction. The letters were delivered to Majority and Minority members of the House of Representatives Ways and Means Subcommittee on Taxes, in addition to a few other key Congressional members. Learn which members are on the Ways and Means Sub-committee on taxes here. .To date, no government agency has released any complete estimate of the potential cost of illegal earnings to the Social Security Trust Fund. The best indication of the potential cost is contained in the Social Security Administration's "earnings suspense file" (ESF). .TSCL believes that Congress should strengthen Social Security's protections by enacting legislation to prohibit the use of unauthorized earnings from being counted toward eligibility for Social Security benefits, "a change that should be made regardless of the outcome of the Supreme Court decision or whether Congress moves on immigration or Social Security reform," Cates says. … Continued

  • Congressional Corner The Promise Behind Medicare

    Federal prosecutors recently announced the biggest-ever one-day takedown of a phony Medicare billing scheme. One hundred seven people were charged, including doctors and nurses in seven U.S. cities, with taking part in a scheme to steal 2 million from Medicare. About the same time, the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services reported that federal investigators have uncovered questionable billings at 2,600 drugstores nationwide. A pharmacy in Kansas billed Medicare for more than 1,000 prescriptions each for just two patients. Medicare paid .6 billion to the drugstores whose billings are now being questioned. While those announcements generated great election year headlines, the fact is that seniors and taxpayers can only hope to see a tiny fraction of Medicare's money recovered. .The new benefit formula under the 1977 law changes used "wage indexing" to calculate the initial retirement benefit. The economic assumptions used by Congress and the Social Security Administration assumed that wages would grow more quickly than price inflation. Generally, this is the way the economy tends to perform under normal circumstances. In reality, however, the reverse happened. .Gathering with unvaccinated people from more than one other household … Continued

Increasing the payroll tax rate. Social Security is currently financed by a 12.4 percent payroll tax, split evenly between employers and employees. Gradually increasing the tax rate to 14.4 percent – just one percent more for both workers and employers – would extend the solvency of the Social Security program for decades to come and would amount to just an extra 50 cents per week for the average worker. .The amount you get from Social Security may surprise you. While the amount you receive depends on how many years you worked, your earnings, and the age at which you start benefits, the average monthly Social Security payment today is about ,100. People who retire with average benefits will receive about ,200 in 2011 prior to Medicare premium deductions. With people spending as much as 25 years in retirement, people who retire today with an initial benefit of ,100 can expect to receive more than 6,800 in Social Security over 25 years. But that assumes no changes to cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs). .The money that is withheld due to excess earnings is not completely lost. Once you reach full retirement age, the Social Security Administration will recalculate your benefits so that over time you can recover what was withheld. To learn more about getting Social Security benefits while working, visit: https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/whileworking.html. .Key Bill Gains Support .Bloomberg News reports that the legislation would establish a task force on older investors at the Securities and Exchange Commission. This Senior Investor Taskforce would be required to identify challenges such as the financial exploitation and cognitive decline of investors older than 65, and to consider whether rules issued by the SEC or securities self-regulatory organizations should be changed to benefit them. .The Senate amended and passed the bill 90-2 on March 25, with two Republican Senators voting against it. .Social Security is the largest single source of income for older Americans, providing the majority of income for half of retirees, and at least 90% of income for 18% of retirees, according to another think tank, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. .Although President Trump promised during his campaign not to touch Social Security, "it's unclear how he would view slowing the growth in Social Security benefits by this type of technical change," Johnson observes. "Make no mistake, no matter what sort of ‘improvement' lawmakers may try to call it, getting less money from Social Security is a cut," she states. .This week, lawmakers involved in talks to permanently repeal and replace the SGR revealed that a temporary pay-patch will likely be necessary. Those serving on three committees – the House Ways and Means Committee, the Energy and Commerce Committee, and the Senate Finance Committee – have successfully negotiated a legislative compromise, but they've been struggling for weeks to come up with offsets that will cover the cost of the 8.4 billion bill.