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  • Majority Of Retirees Say Cola Should Be Top Priority For Congress 2

    Congressman Bill Pascrell (D- N.J.) was very blunt when he said that all the talk about fixing Social Security is just platitudes. While both sides of the aisle know it needs to be fixed and say they want to fix it, nothing is really being done. .In the months ahead, TSCL will continue to advocate for these and other legislative efforts that would improve the solvency of Social Security and Medicare without cutting benefits for seniors. .Social Security runs two disability programs – each with separate sources of funding. SSDI provides income to under age 65 adults that is calculated from their own work covered by FICA taxes. Their benefits are paid from the SSDI Fund. The Supplemental Security Income program (SSI) also pays disability benefits, but it's for low-income people without enough of work history to qualify for SSDI. Benefits are funded through both federal (and some state) revenues, and it's means tested like welfare. … Continued

  • Legislative Update Week Ending September 12 2014

    Here's how it works: If Medicare spending exceeds certain growth rates, the 15-member board must make recommendations to Congress to rein in spending. If Congress fails to respond by passing cost-cutting measures of their own, the board's recommendations would be automatically implemented. .As with nearly every other aspect of our lives, the coronavirus has changed the agenda of Congress. Discussion of a fourth big spending bill to deal with the pandemic began this week and all three sides (House, Senate, and the President) have set out their preliminary positions. .This year, I am currently gathering support for the Medicare Advantage Quality Payment Relief Act, which would require the HHS Secretary to take Medicare Advantage Quality Incentive payments out of the calculation of the Medicare Advantage benchmark cap. This will allow high performing plans to receive the quality payments that they rightfully earned and to use those payments to improve beneficiary care. … Continued

Surveys by The Senior Citizens League find that older voters are strongly opposed to proposals that would cut benefits. For example, 73 percent support raising the amount of wages subject to Social Security payroll taxes by applying the full 12.4% payroll tax to wages above the taxable maximum —8,700 in 201Currently the highest earners — some 18 percent of all workers, pay no Social Security taxes on wages over the 8,700 maximum — that includes Members of Congress who receive an annual salary 4,000. Surveys have also found 90 percent strongly support allowing Medicare to negotiate drug costs. .The House of Representatives did pass the needed legislation last week so now it moves to the Senate, where passage is not certain. That's because the Senate is equally divided 50-50 and no Republicans said they would support President Biden's Covid relief bill, which resulted in a 50-50 vote on the legislation. .Lawmakers Adjourn for Holiday Recess .This is no rumor — it's a fact. In 2010 the IRS paid illegal immigrants .2 billion in the child tax refunds. The original version of the video you saw, from WTHR TV in Indiana, appears to be based on a report issued over a year ago by the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. The report says that the number of tax returns filed by illegal immigrants, as well as the amount claimed in Additional Child Tax Credits, has been growing rapidly and warns "the risk of fraud for these types of claims is significant." The video featured a whistleblower tax consultant who says that in many of the returns he has seen, undocumented workers are claiming the tax credit for kids who live in Mexico. .The entire process is done at the taxpayer's expense. Non-citizens who worked under fraudulent or invalid Social Security numbers, are not penalized. This occurs even though the use of a non-valid fraudulent SSN is in violation of 1988 identity theft laws. The 1988 law made it a federal crime when a person "knowingly transfers or uses, without lawful authority, a means of identification of another person with the intent to commit, or to aid or abet, any unlawful activity that constitutes a violation of Federal law, or that constitutes a felony under any applicable State or local law." (15) .If your mom has permanently moved out of the area served by her former private Medicare health, she will qualify for a Special Enrollment Period to switch to another private health plan. These plans are also known as Medicare Advantage plans. The rules covering the period you have to shop for and switch to a new plan depend on your circumstances, particularly, whether you notified her private health plan in advance, or after the move. In addition, how your health plan learns of her move, whether from you, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), or the postal service — also affects the period you have to switch to a new plan. .As we have written recently, Grassley's main problem in getting his bill passed in the Senate is opposition from his fellow Republicans. Grassley said he needs at least 25 Republican co-sponsors to get his bill (S. 2543) to the floor of the Senate for a vote. Ten Republicans other than Grassley have so far made public shows of support for the legislation. .This year, more than 50 percent of Social Security beneficiaries paid taxes on their benefits, even though many of them only made little more than twice the federal poverty level in income. Do you believe this is fair and, if not, what should be done about it? .Yet according Sara Zeff Geber, PhD, author of Essential Retirement Planning for Solo Agers, very few childless adults reside in assisted living or continuous care communities today. That's because it's the adult children, who are the primary caregivers, who help make the decision when mom and/or dad needs more care than can be safely provided at home. It's the adult children who assist with the tasks of helping parents shop for the right senior housing, help with the downsizing and moving, and assist with the complicated transaction of selling a parent's home and financing senior housing.