Benefit Statements Are Missed

     From Mark Miller writing for Reuters:

It is one of the most important retirement documents you will ever receive - but fewer Americans are reviewing their Social Security benefit statement nowadays due to cost-cutting and a government push to online services that is falling short.

Until about a decade ago, all workers eligible for Social Security received a paper statement in the mail that provided useful projections of their benefits at various ages, along with reminders on the availability of disability benefits and Medicare enrollment information.

But the Social Security Administration (SSA) decided in 2010 to save money by eliminating most mailings of benefit statements. Instead, we would all be encouraged to obtain this information online.

It is now abundantly clear that this is not working out.

The number of workers accessing their statements online has been just a fraction of those who once were reached by paper statements. And the cost-benefit tradeoff is poor.

Forty-two million Americans have created online accounts with the SSA since they were first offered seven years ago, the agency says, compared with the 155 million paper statements that were mailed in 2010, before the cost-cutting began. Meanwhile, the number of online account-holders who accessed their statements fell dramatically in fiscal 2018, from 96 percent to 43 percent, according to a report issued in February by the SSA’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG). ...

Is PEBES Worth The Cost?

     The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College has issued a report asking "Does the Social Security 'Statement' Add Value"? The Social Security "Statement" they're talking about is what the agency calls the Personal Earnings and Benefit Estimate Statement (PEBES). 

     Most people say they remember receiving PEBES and found the information helpful. However, there is little evidence that PEBES affects claiming behavior and there's little evidence that people remember the amount they will receive when they retire. See the chart below.

     For what it's worth, my clients often ask how much they'll receive a month if their disability claim is approved. I seldom have easy access to this information until close to the hearing. When I'm asked this question, I ask the client if they remember receiving the PEBES -- describing it in a way such that they'll understand what I'm talking about. They generally remember receiving it and say they have saved it. I tell them that the PEBES tells the approximate amount that their disability benefit will be. They're always surprised to hear this.

Social Security Statement Mailings To Resume

     From a Social Security press release:

Carolyn W. Colvin, Acting Commissioner of Social Security, today announced the agency will resume the periodic mailing of Social Security Statements—once every five years for most workers-- while encouraging everyone to create a secure my Social Security account to immediately access their Statement online, anytime. ...

Beginning this month, workers attaining ages 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, and 60 who are not receiving Social Security benefits and who are not registered for a my Social Security account will receive the Statement in the mail about 3 months before their birthday.  After age 60, people will receive a Statement every year.  The agency expects to send nearly 48 million Statements each year.

Benefit Statements Coming Back -- At Five Year Intervals

     From Reuters:

Paper Social Security benefits statements, which used to be mailed out every year and then fell victim to budget cuts, are going to make a partial comeback.Starting this September, the Social Security Administration (SSA) will resume mailings at five-year intervals to workers who have not signed up to view their statements online, an agency spokesman told Reuters. The statements will be sent to workers at ages 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55 and 60, he said, adding the agency would continue to promote use of the online statements.

RJ Eskow On Invisible Cuts To Social Security

     It's nice to hear other people talking about these problems

"Paper Options" And Social Security

     From the Washington Post:

As the Obama administration pushes to do more business over the Internet, finally seeking to close the technology gap with the private sector, the digital makeover is running into a dogged opponent called Consumers for Paper Options.

The group is working the halls of Congress in closed-door meetings, underwriting research favorable to its position and mounting a news media campaign in an effort to preserve Washington as the capital of paper — and slow the move away from printed checks, forms and other paper communication.

The lobbying group has had some recent victories, including language tucked into last month’s budget deal that requires the government to plan for resuming paper delivery of annual Social Security earnings statements to some of the nation’s 150 million future retirees. And it’s been claiming these wins in the name of the elderly and low-income Americans the Internet has left behind.

Except Consumers for Paper Options is a creation of the paper industry.

Does This Explain Some Of The Increase In Disability Claims?

     The abstract of a study by Philip Armour of Cornell University:

This paper uses survey data matched to administrative records to measure the effect on Disability Insurance [DI] application behavior of a natural experiment in the provision of Social Security benefit information. I find that receipt of the Social Security Statement [Personal Earnings and Benefit Estimate Statement or PEBES], a document gradually introduced in the 1990s which contained personalized information on DI insurance-status and potential benefit, had a positive, substantial, and statistically significant effect on DI application rates of the Health and Retirement Study sample. This increased likelihood of application by 0.84 of a percentage point per two-year period, which is a 62% increase over the base rate. This overall effect was driven by a large increase in the rate of application among those reporting a work-limiting condition and who were previously not employed. The non-work-limited population experienced a small decrease in their DI application rates, suggesting that provision of the Statement increased self-sorting efficiency among potential applicants. Furthermore, my analysis shows no evidence of applicants merely "shifting forward" their DI application after Statement receipt; instead, the estimated increase appears to be new applicants. In the absence of these new applicants, the 32% growth rate of the per-capita DI rolls from 1995-2004 would have been approximately 25%. These results provide a novel explanation for a large portion of the marked rise in DI rolls since the 1990s as well as indicate the importance of the information environment in social program application decisions more broadly.

Earnings Statement Mailings Suspended

     From the Federal Times:

Tight money has again led the Social Security Administration to halt the mailing of all paper statements of earnings and benefits to millions of Americans. These are the handy documents that give you an idea of what to expect in terms of Social Security retirement or disability income.

The latest suspension, which took effect Oct. 1, results from the “overall budget situation,” including a stop-gap continuing resolution that will leave the agency at last year’s funding levels through March, spokeswoman Kia Anderson said.

SSA officials had originally suspended mailing paper statements in April 2011 to save $70 million annually. This February, however, they had resumed mailings to people aged 60 or older and in July, to participants in the year they turned 25.

Online Social Security Statements

     Social Security has sent out a press release announcing that it is now possible to obtain an online Social Security statement. I forget how long ago it was but I am pretty sure that Social Security made these statements available online briefly in the past until privacy concerns forced them to cancel the service. My recollection is that the service was cancelled even though there were no reports that anyone had improperly obtained private information; there was just speculation that it might happen.

PEBES Suspension Criticized

     Michael Hiltzik writes in his column in the Los Angeles Times about Social Security's suspension of sending out Personal Earnings And Benefit Estimate Statements (PEBES). He thinks the suspension is a terrible idea.

Some PEBES Mailings To Resume

    From the Associated Press:

Social Security benefits statements — which officials stopped mailing to cut costs — will again be sent out to selected age groups.

Annual statements will begin being sent again next month to people 60 and older who are not yet receiving benefits, Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue said in a letter obtained by The Associated Press. One-time mailings to 25-year-old workers introducing them to the entitlement program and their potential benefits will begin being sent by the end of the year, the letter says.

     The benefit statements are officially known as Personal Earnings and Benefit Estimate Statements (PEBES).

Earnings Statements Still Not Available Online

From Oregon Live:

Those Social Security statements you once got each year in the mail? They were supposed to be available online by now. They aren't, and it's not clear when they'll be there or whether they'll be mailed instead, as promise.

The Social Security Administration continues to work to get annual statements online, a spokesman said, but has no plans to resume mailing them. .

But the statements still aren't available on ssa.gov. The agency also has no plans to mail them because its budget is in even worse shape than in April, agency spokesman Mike Webb said.

Webb said concerns about security have delayed posting the statements online. But he had no firm timetable for their appearance.

"I do know the current goal is to have some form of an online statement available in the near future," Webb said Thursday. "The issue is always security. We're probably not going to post something just to see what happens."

SSAB Report On PEBES

The Social Security Advisory Board (SSAD) has issued a draft report on what it refers to as "The Social Security Statement," a document that Social Security refers to as the Personal Earnings and Benefit Estimate Statement (PEBES). This is the yearly report sent to almost everyone who had earnings in a year showing their earnings history and giving information on projected benefit payments under Social Security.

People spend little time reading their PEBES. I doubt that any improvement in PEBES will help.