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  • Category Legislative News Page 46

    TSCL was pleased to hear that SSA decided to reverse the policy this week after receiving complaints from beneficiaries. TSCL's policy consultant Mary Johnson told Karen Damato this week, "We are grateful for a reprieve, even a temporary one." Policy analyst Jessie Gibbons also told Mary Beth Franklin of Investment News: "We believe the administration made the right decision to rescind their new cell phone texting requirement while they continue to pursue more options." .Research that I've conducted over more than 20 years indicates that retirees would receive a higher COLA in most years using a "seniors" CPI, rather than by using the current method of indexing which is based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). One of the bigger problems with using the CPI-W is the fact that retirees spend their money very differently than younger working adults. Retirees must spend more on healthcare and housing, and less on gasoline and consumer electronics. .43% support very gradually increasing the Social Security payroll tax rate paid by employers and employees. … Continued

  • Notch Bulletin How Much Less Do Notch Babies Receive Feed

    Despite tightening the law, Congress did not fix a policy loophole that would be inadvertently triggered with the passage of comprehensive immigration reform legislation. When determining entitlement for insured status, and when calculating the initial retirement benefit, the Social Security Administration (SSA) uses all reported earnings from covered employment in the United States, even if the earnings were from illegal or "unauthorized" work. (2) .In March 1988, the General Accounting Office (now General Accountability Office) cited an example of two Notch Babies who were sisters. Edith and Audrey started work at the same book bindery on the same day. Audrey was born in March 191Edith was born in June 191When they retired, Edith received a monthly benefit of 1.80 less than Audrey, a difference of almost 18%. .As Congress returns to work, it begins another debate over the Social Security payroll tax – and with it, a debate over funding for Social Security. Many Americans are asking how an extension of the payroll tax cut would affect the finances of the Social Security Trust Fund. That's an important question. Keeping Social Security financially strong is essential for protecting current beneficiaries – and for ensuring that Social Security's guarantee will be there for our children and grandchildren as well. … Continued

Under a rule change that will take effect in July the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will allow insurers and employers to exclude certain copay assistance programs from counting toward deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums. The rule applies even for expensive brand-name drugs with no generic alternatives. .When working Social Security recipients who are younger than full retirement age earn more than the annual earnings limit amount, their benefits will be reduced. The Social Security Administration likes to point out that these benefit reductions are "not truly lost because your benefit will be increased at your full retirement age to account for benefits withheld due to earlier earnings." But as you have discovered, you can sometimes wind up owing money to Social Security that was not withheld properly. .The Social Security Expansion Act (H.R. 1114) gained one new cosponsor in Congressman Donald Payne (NJ-10), bringing the new cosponsor total up to thirty-one. If signed into law, H.R. 1114 would enhance Social Security benefits by basing COLAs on the CPI-E, increasing monthly checks by around per month, improving the Special Minimum Benefit, applying the payroll tax to income above 0,000, and applying a 6.2% tax on investment income for wealthy individuals. .TSCL is concerned because even though illegals approved for the program don't gain legal status, they do gain work-authorized Social Security numbers. This work-authorized number is all that the government requires to later allow non-citizens to file a claim for Social Security benefits. Under current law, the government uses all earnings to determine entitlement, as well as the amount of the initial retirement or disability benefit, even if jobs were worked illegally. .As the coronavirus continues to be among the major news stories each day, attention has turned to the drug supply in the U.S., not because of the cost but because of the vulnerability of the supply of prescription drugs for use in the nation. .This study illustrates why legislation is needed to provide a more fair and adequate COLA. To put it in perspective, for every 0 worth of groceries a retiree could afford in 2000, that individual can only buy worth today. .For updates on the three bills endorsed by TSCL this week, follow the Legislative News or the Track Bills sections of our website. To view TSCL's full legislative agenda for the 115th Congress, click HERE. .Now, it turns out, AbbVie is helping to fund ads attacking legislation that would lower prescription drug costs. .Because the economic fluctuations were highly unusual and unforeseen, logic dictates that Congress could not have intended the benefits that Notch Babies actually received. The disparities in benefits under the actual conditions of double-digit inflation are illustrated in the following chart, which was not developed until 199Even if Congress had developed this chart in 1977, however, they would have seen benefit differences of only 10%-14% shown on the left-hand side of the chart. Instead, the effects of inflation are reflected by benefit differences of 13% to 30% shown on the right. In effect, the actual benefit reductions for many retirees were more than double what original projections would have been at the time.