From the just released annual report of the Social Security trustees:
... Considered separately, the OASI [Old Age and Survivors Insurance] Trust Fund reserves become depleted in 2034, and, for the first time since the 1983 Trustees Report, the DI [Disability Insurance] Trust Fund reserves do not become depleted within the 75-year long-range projection period. ...
According to this report, the DI Trust Fund is projected to remain solvent through AT LEAST 2096. It also notes that the number of disability beneficiaries has been steadily declining since 2014. I wonder how so many individuals -people like fired Deputy Commissioner Mark Warshawsky and his followers- can continue to claim (with a straight face) that the disability program desperately needs to be "reformed" and/or "modernized", as if it is on the verge of insolvency.
ReplyDeleteI also remember not too long ago all the Congressional hearings and grandstanding claiming the SSDI program was rife with “fraud, waste and abuse.” The reality was simply the demographics of the baby boomer generation had these claimants attaining their disability prone years which affected the DI trust fund projections . But now that bubble has passed. The hysteria of the time demonized the disabled population and led to many changes which are unfriendly to the disabled.
ReplyDeleteThey project only a 3.8% COLA this year, which would require deflation for the next few months. Of course, this projection might have been made several months ago.
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