News

  • Legislative Update Week Ending September 28 2018

    If you're like most seniors, you probably depend on Social Security for at least half of your income. But how well does the annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) protect you from rising costs? TSCL will soon release some answers to this question with the results of its 7th Annual Survey of Senior Costs. In recent years these surveys have indicated that Social Security beneficiaries lose a considerable portion of their buying power — as much as 31 percent — in as little as the first decade of retirement. .Because a high percentage of taxpayers were affected by under-withholdings due to the problematic tax tables, the IRS allowed a waiver of penalties for both 2009 and 2010 tax years. But taxpayers have to request the waiver of penalties in order to receive it. According to the Treasury Inspector General, last year virtually no taxpayer surveyed knew they could request a waiver. .Case 1—A woman who was born in Mexico worked illegally under an invalid SSN for 6 years. Later when she received a work authorized SSN, she had the earlier wages, earned while illegal, transferred to her record and then filed for Social Security disability benefits. From 1999 to 2002 this woman collected approximately ,990 in disability benefits, including benefits for dependents based on her account. Estimated benefits over 20 years — 4,275. … Continued

  • The Senior Citizens League Weekly Update For Week Ending October 11 2019

    Recently the House Budget Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee both held hearings on the controversial Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB). The IPAB was created under the healthcare reform law to slow rising Medicare costs. If costs grow too fast, the IPAB would recommend cuts that would go into effect unless Congress comes up with the same amount of savings. Both Committees heard testimony from Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, among many others. .So far, 800,000 federal workers have been furloughed, and Members of the House have begun taking a piecemeal approach that would send some of them back to work by providing funding for certain agencies. However, the Senate has rejected each bill. Leaders in that chamber believe a piecemeal approach will set a bad precedent and give the opposing political party "veto power over what is funded and what isn't," according to Sen. Chuck Schumer (NY). .Although no other generation has yet been affected by a similar Notch, that could change in the future. Congressional inaction on Social Security's long-term financing problems could give birth to a whole new generation of Notch Babies. During recent hearings on the need for making Social Security more sustainable as Baby Boomers near retirement, David Walker, the Comptroller General of the United States, confirmed this saying "Doing nothing means that we are going to head to a precipitous decline in benefits. Remember the Notch Baby problem?" he asked. "This would be a Notch Baby problem magnified multiple times and it should not be allowed to happen." (10) … Continued

Deciding when to file is the biggest decision you face. Social Security benefits are calculated using a formula called the primary insurance amount, or PIA. Seniors who wait to start receiving Social Security until their full retirement age (currently 66) receive 100 percent of PIA; taking benefits at 62, the first year of eligibility, gets them 75 percent of PIA. By waiting until age 70, they'll receive 132 percent of the PIA – nearly double the monthly income for the rest of their lives. Those benefits are enhanced by an annual cost-of-living adjustment, which is added back in for any years of delayed filing. .The financial impact of six years of low COLAs isn't immediately apparent to the average person, but "It's a big one, " Cates says. A new analysis for TSCL that compared the increases from 2010 through 2015 against the prior 3% average found that, altogether, the benefits of the typical Social Security recipient will be about ,298 lower by the end of 201In 2015 the average monthly Social Security benefit will be about 3 lower, and ,356 less for the year. .Until June 1, 2016 he was the Director, RAFB Retiree Activities Office and he stays actively involved in the Warner Robins community including participating in Retiree Appreciation Days, Robins AFB, planning and participating in Memorial Day and Veterans Day activities, TREA's JROTC Awards Program, and the Robins Angel Tree program among others. .As outrageous as it is, there are reports of scams involving phony appointments for the COVID vaccine. People have received emails, phone calls or text messages supposedly from local health departments offering to put them on a vaccine registration list that doesn't really exist and then charging them for appointments. .Compare your drug and health plan options NOW during the Medicare Open Enrollment period before it ends on December 7th. Does your current drug plan even cover your expensive new prescription? If not, you need to check your other options. Chances are another plan will. Use the Drug and Health Plan Finder at www.Medicare.gov. Make sure you carefully enter every prescription drug you take in order to get a custom comparison of your best drug plan choices. Costs can vary by hundreds, even thousands, of dollars, and you may be very surprised by the savings from switching to a better plan. .The Social Security Administration recently called a halt to a controversial effort to collect debts that were more than 10 years old. For the past three years the government has confiscated tax refunds of hundreds of thousands of taxpayers, claiming an overpayment of Social Security benefits, even though it had little or no proof, and few exact details, according to media reports. In a letter to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, Senator Charles E. Grassley (IA) said that government agencies were apparently "not properly notifying individuals or allowing them to inspect records of the debt they supposedly owe, which are violations of the law." .Can your husband do any other type of work? Even if your husband can't do the work he did in the past, the Social Security Administration will consider if there is other work he could do. .It's time to address our real problems -- growing inequality and our looming retirement crisis. I have sponsored legislation that would apply the payroll tax to earned income above 0,000 and to investment income. This would extend Social Security's solvency for the next fifty years, and allow us to increase benefits to meet the elderly's higher living expenses. .Third, Senator Casey's BENES Act (S. 1909) gained one new cosponsor in Senator Susan Collins (ME), bringing the cosponsor total to two in the Senate. If signed into law, S.1909 would simplify the Medicare enrollment process and help prepare those approaching Medicare eligibility by educating them about the program's benefits.