Oct 15, 2007

Boomers And Social Security

From WTOP:
A Maryland woman Monday becomes the first baby boomer of 80 million baby boomers who will file for Social Security benefits over the next 22 years.

Kathleen Casey-Kirschling, a retired teacher from Cecil County, Md., was born in Philadelphia at one second past midnight on Jan. 1, 1946.

The federal government considers her the nation's first baby boomer.

She'll file her application online during a ceremony with Social Security Commissioner Michael J. Astrue.

This is inaccurate in a couple of ways. Boomers have been filing for Social Security survivor benefits since the 1940s and for disability benefits since the 1960s. Ms. Casey-Kirshling had to have been conceived before the end of World War II, so she is not really a baby boomer. Still, this does get to a fundamental truth. Baby boomers will be retiring in huge numbers over the next 20 years or so and that will have a huge impact upon the Social Security Administration and American society.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Actually, according to most people, a Baby Boomer is someone who was BORN in 1946 to 19XX--later years are debatable, but the first is generally fixed.

If you want to be really anal, though, which apparently you do (is this a lawyer thing?), perhaps we can find out exactly when she was conceived and whether her father ever served in the military and, if so, his discharge record.

Anonymous said...

That woman's DOB birth is plastered all over the place and how many videos have I been made to watch about protecting Personally Identifiable Information (PII).

Anonymous said...

Those who believe Social Security is just a retirement program also probably believe that that ODAR just adjudicates disability claims. But the belief that Social Security is just a retirement program bolsters the idea that private accounts are the way to go. If the agency didn't have to pay survivor or disability benefits, private account plans would have more merit.