Early Claiming Declines

     The Financial Security Project at Boston College reports that the share of Americans claiming Social Security retirement benefits at the early retirement age of 62 has been going down. Why?

NASI Wants To Phase Out Reduction In FICA Tax Over 11 Years

     The F.I.C.A. tax that supports the Social Security Trust Funds has been temporarily reduced by 2% because of the recession. The difference is being made up out of general revenues. The 2% reduction is set to end at the end of this calendar year. The National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI) is promoting a plan to phase out the 2% reduction over 11 years.
     Eleven years!!?? I hope the recession that brought about this reduction is over long before then.

In Case You Were Wondering

     From a press item prepared by the Social Security Administration:

Q: How many Social Security numbers have been issued since the program started?

A: Since 1935, we have assigned more than 465 million Social Security numbers and each year we assign about 5.5 million new numbers. With approximately 1 billion combinations of the 9-digit Social Security number, the current system will provide us with enough new numbers for several generations into the future. To learn more about Social Security numbers and cards, visit www.socialsecurity.gov/pubs/10002.html.

More ALJs Coming

     Apparently, Social Security is hiring more Administrative Law Judges at the moment.

Mostly Off-Topic But Still Interesting

From the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College:

• When economic times are good, deaths in the United States increase.

• Previous research suggests that a likely culprit is poorer health habits tied to greater job demands.

• However, the increase in mortality is largely driven by deaths among elderly women in nursing homes.

• These nursing home deaths may reflect increased shortages of caregivers during economic expansions.

Social Security For Dummies

     The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) is endorsing a new book, Social Security for Dummies, written by Jonathan Peterson, an AARP employee, and published by John Wiley and Sons, Inc. The book is currently #371 on the Amazon best-seller list.

Officials Fight To Keep Social Security Office Open

     From WIBX:

After the Social Security Administration office in Rome [NY] announced plans to close and relocate to Utica, several high ranking officials teamed up to stop it from happening.Rome Mayor Joe Fusco, Senator Chuck Schumer, Congressman Richard Hanna, State Senator Joe Griffo and Assemblymen Anthony Brindisi, all say they joined forces to help area seniors maintain their access to critical benefits. ...

The officials were able to reach an agreement to keep the office open for the next three months. During that time a pilot program will be implemented to measure the cost benefit of keeping the office open indefinitely. Schumer says he’s also asking the Social Security Administration for its economic justification for wanting to close shop and relocate. ...

For the next three months, the office will be open one day a week until a final agreement is reached.

Chief ALJ Bans Mandatory Prehearing Orders

And for those of you who cannot access Scribd, read it here.
CALJ Memo on Prehearing Orders

     When I post a document using Scribd, I usually get messages indicating that access to Scribd is blocked for those accessing the internet through Social Security's domain. For those of you accessing this at work at Social Security, are you able to see the document above at all or is the problem just with going further by going to Scribd itself or trying to download the document? I can't tell how serious the problem is since I'm not on Social Security's network. I don't know why access to Scribd would be blocked. Scribd isn't aspiring to be Wikileaks. It's just a useful service.