That said, the SSDI program paid .2 billion in benefits to ineligible people in FY2012 according to the Social Security Administration's Office of the Inspector General. And skyrocketing enrollment is putting added financial strains on the program. Both the Social Security Trustees and the Congressional Budget Office have recently forecast that the SSDI trust fund will become fully depleted in three years. When that occurs, program revenues will only be sufficient to pay about 80% of benefits. Unless Congress takes action, severely disabled beneficiaries would face benefit cuts of 20%. .Covid-19, for which there is neither a sure treatment nor vaccine, has created a perfect storm for fraudsters interested in preying on people who are vulnerable, frightened, and isolated. Their scams employ typical tactics of the defrauder's trade: empty promises of protection against a sometimes-fatal disease. ."'We trace this mortality effect to cutbacks in life-saving medicines like statins and antihypertensives, for which clinical trials show large mortality benefits,' the researchers wrote. .You should still watch out for symptoms of COVID-19, especially if you've been around someone who is sick. If you have symptoms of COVID-19, you should get tested and stay home and away from others. .TSCL agrees that doing away with the payroll tax cap would be a fair and responsible solution to the Social Security program's solvency issues. As the negotiations evolve over the coming months, we will continue to monitor them closely, and we will provide updates here in the Legislative News section of our website. .Social Security benefits are determined by the income earned (up to the taxable maximum) over a working career, and the number of years worked. The more money you make and pay taxes on, and the more years you work the larger your monthly Social Security benefit will be. The Social Security Administration calculates your benefits based on the 35 years in which you earned the most money. But many women, especially those who become mothers or caregivers, give up a substantial portion of their earnings to care for a family. .New legislation, called the "National Senior Investor Initiative Act" or "Senior Security Act" (H.R. 1565), was introduced earlier this month with two Democrats and two Republicans as cosponsors. .Fraud, waste and abuse are costing taxpayers and seniors an estimated billion a year, but Medicare fails to recover overpayments about 80 percent of the time. The Inspector General recently said that of the 6,287,546 in overpayments identified through the 30-month period ending March 31, 2009, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reported collecting only ,168,50But it gets even worse. The OIG said that it could not verify that the ,168,502 had been collected as reported because CMS did not have an adequate system for documenting overpayment collections. .TSCL believes that the current WEP unfairly reduces the benefits of public servants, and we are pleased that support on Capitol Hill has continued to grow for the Public Servant Retirement Protection Act.