Bill On Social Security And Identity Theft Passes House

     From a press release issued by the House Ways and Means Committee:

The Social Security Administration (SSA) will be forced to streamline their processes for Americans whose Social Security numbers (SSNs) have been compromised thanks to bipartisan legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. H.R. 3784, the Improving Social Security’s Service to Victims of Identity Theft Act, was introduced by Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee Chairman Drew Ferguson (R-GA) and Ranking Member John Larson (D-CT) and was passed unanimously by the Ways and Means Committee. ...

[The bill] requires the SSA to provide victims of identity theft with a single point of contact at the agency when the misuse of their SSN results in the need to resolve an issue or issues with the SSA or when their Social Security card is lost in the mail. ...

I Haven’t Read One Of These Stories In Years

      Why is it that haven't seen one of these stories in years? I used to see them regularly. From NBC Philadelphia:

A Philadelphia woman is accused of stealing social security disability benefits from a woman who officials said was found murdered and buried under six to eight feet of concrete in the basement of a home.  … 

Officials said the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office and a forensic anthropologist concluded that the cause of death for E.W. was blunt trauma to the head and neck and the manner of death was homicide. It is estimated that the woman died at least four years and up to ten years prior to the recovery of her remains. …

Social Security And Voter Registration

     From a Social Security website:

... The Help America Vote Act of 2002, P.L. 107-252 (HAVA) requires states to verify the information of newly registered voters for federal elections. Each state must establish a computerized state-wide voter registration list and verify new voter information with the Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA).

States are required to verify the driver’s license number against the MVA’s database. Only in situations where no driver’s license exists may the state verify the last four digits of the new voter’s Social Security Number (SSN). The state submits the last four digits of the SSN, name, and date of birth to the MVA for verification with Social Security Administration (SSA). In addition, SSA is required to report whether its records indicate that the person is deceased.

The information submitted through the Help America Vote Verification (HAVV) system is kept confidential and must be used only for voter registration. ...

China Raising Retirement Age

     From NPR:

... Starting next year, China will raise its retirement age for workers, which is now among the youngest in the world's major economies, in an effort to address its shrinking population and aging work force. ...

The policy change will be carried out over 15 years, with the retirement age for men raised to 63 years, and for women to 55 or 58 years depending on their jobs. The current retirement age is 60 for men and 50 for women in blue-collar jobs and 55 for women doing white-collar work. ...

Why Social Security Needs An "Anomaly." Also, The "F" Word Gets Mentioned

     From Government Executive:

...  In a letter to House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., O’Malley warned of dire consequences if SSA is flat-funded past September, as proposed in the House GOP’s six-month continuing resolution. House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday cancelled a planned vote on the measure, after dissent within his caucus threatened to derail its passage.

“If enacted, a six-month CR without any additional funding for the Social Security Administration would be devastating,” O’Malley wrote. “We would be forced to implement a hiring freeze with minimal exceptions. We would lose over 2,000 staff in the first half of the year alone and reach a new 50-year staffing low by the end of December. We would need to significantly reduce overtime to historically low levels, decreasing processing capacity for our most critical workloads.” 

And in testimony before the Senate Budget Committee, O’Malley laid out how both the House and Senate funding proposals for SSA would fall short of the agency’s needs. Under the House plan, employees would be furloughed by 20 days, while the agency would see its headcount fall by 3,400 staff, not including the 1,500 decrease in staff at state Disability Determination Services offices. And funding for the agency’s IT infrastructure would be “barely” enough to “keep the lights on.” ...

Senate Budget Committee Hearing

     The Senate Budget Committee held a hearing yesterday on Social Security Forever: Delivering Benefits and Protecting Retirement Security. Here are the written statements before the Committee. 

• Martin O'Malley, Commissioner, Social Security Administration
• Rebecca Vallas, Chief Executive Officer, National Academy of Social Insurance
• Roger Boudreau, President, Rhode Island AFT/Retirees Local #8037R 
• Molly Dahl,  Long-Term Analysis Unit Chief, Congressional Budget Office 
• Shai Akabas, Executive Director, Economic Policy Program, Bipartisan Policy Center

This is from a news article on the hearing:

… The ultra-wealthy are avoiding nearly $2 trillion in taxes every 10 years," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said during a Senate Budget Committee hearing. "That is enough to keep Social Security whole till the end of this century."

"That's where we ought to go to start making progress," Wyden added. …

OHO Caseload Analysis Report

     A statistical report from Social Security on performance at its Office of Hearings Operations:

Click on image to view full size

 

Remote Work And Disability

     From Does Remote Work Help Older People With Disabilities? by Siyan Liu and Laura D. Quinby, a study for the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College:

...The shift to remote work that started during COVID and has persisted may have improved job prospects for older people with disabilities by reducing barriers to employment. Consistent with this view, this brief finds that nearly all of the post-pandemic employment gain for older people with disabilities has been in teleworkable occupations, and this pattern holds even after controlling for other factors. Remote work benefits older workers with disabilities by allowing some to reenter the labor force and others to switch jobs instead of exiting work. ...

      Let's remember that whatever benefits there are to disabled people from remote work can only help a part of the disabled population. It doesn't help blue collar workers. People who work in offices, such as most of the people reading this blog, may not be aware that most workers don't work in offices and don't hold jobs that allow remote work.