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.
