A couple of tweets from the Commissioner of Social Security (emphasis added):
I want to thank @iamjohnoliver @LastWeekTonight for calling out the crucial need for more staffing + funding @SocialSecurityIn the 9 months I've been serving, @SocialSecurity has made good progress to improve our disability programs but - as you noted - we need more Congressional support and partnership. By the way, we're tackling that outdated occupations list.
Did anyone catch that John Oliver segment?
The federal fiscal year ends on September 30. Without some sort of appropriation bill passed before then, there will be a federal government shutdown on October 1. Usually, a continuing resolution (CR) is passed which allows the government to keep functioning based upon the prior year's rate of spending. Every year "anomalies" are added to the CR allowing additional funding for some functions. The Biden Administration has sought an "anomaly" to give additional funding to the Social Security Administration. The CR which has been agreed to contains no "anomaly" for Social Security. This is not good for now and portends an inadequate regular appropriation. Social Security has been an agency which appears to have been disfavored by appropriators for many years.
Legislation to repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset is nearing the finish line in the House.
Just over a week after it was filed, a discharge petition for the Social Security Fairness Act has reached the 218-signature threshold needed to force the bill to a floor vote.
Thirteen House lawmakers added their signatures to the petition on Thursday, after Reps. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) and Garret Graves (R-Pa.) gathered advocates outside the Capitol building to urge their colleagues to push their legislation forward. …
Don’t get excited. This has no hope of passage in the Senate in this Congress.
Starting October 2024, SSI check recipients will receive their SSI checks in a WHITE envelope instead of a BLUE envelope. It’s quick and easy to get your payments electronically. ...
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. ...
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. …
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. ...
... 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. ...
