Field Offices Closed Today

      I didn’t see anything about it until Wednesday evening but Social Security field offices are closed today. Are employees still working, that is, the ones who didn’t take leave?

Celebrate Thanksgiving In Your Own Way

 

Here's the recipe!

It Gets Cold In Pittsburgh

     From WESA (emphasis added):

As winter homeless shelters fill around Pittsburgh, City Council may look to zoning changes to allow for legally authorized homeless encampments. A bill set to be introduced Monday would create a new zoning use called a "temporary managed community" — areas that could host homeless encampments, with support staff, heat and food.

“We know [shelters are] full right now. … it’s just heartbreaking,” said the bill's sponsor, Councilor Deb Gross. “We want to make sure that we're not the obstacle for trying to achieve a temporary managed community.” ...

But overall, Gross said, the city desperately needs to create more affordable and transitional housing options. “People cannot live in the city of Pittsburgh on a disability check,” she said. “You cannot live indoors anywhere if you are on some of the lower levels of Social Security income.” ...

    It's obvious in my law practice that inadequate SSI benefits and delayed Social Security disability benefits cause a lot of homelessness.

House Social Security Subcommittee Field Hearing

     With no advance notice that I'm aware of the House Social Security Subcommittee held a "field hearing" yesterday in Baton Rouge on the effects of the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO), which reduce Social Security benefits due to the receipt of pensions from work not covered by the FICA tax. Apparently, Louisiana doesn't cover state and local workers under Social Security so this comes up a lot in that state. It's obvious from the opening statements that the Republican leadership of the Subcommittee think these provisions are unfair, which they may well be.

    The merits of the WEP and GPO can be argued but isn't there more than a little hypocrisy in the Republican Party's endless calls to "save Social Security" by increasing the retirement age and subjecting Social Security benefits to means testing at the same time they're acting as if they want to increase Social Security benefits? Isn't it also a sign that they're never going to vote to increase the retirement age or means test Social Security? Those plans will always be highly unpopular.

A Thanksgiving Poll

online polls

Reactions To NYT Editorial On Raising Retirement Age

      Readers react to the recent New York Times editorial calling raising the Social Security retirement age.

     By the way, my response is: That’s so not happening!

Who Do You Call?

    From the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College:

The first place most people say they would go for information about Social Security’s various benefits is family and friends.

That’s true whether they are Black, White, Asian, or Hispanic. But after family and friends, there are few similarities in whom each group consults. And their preferences, revealed in a new survey, reflect differences in their socioeconomic circumstances and social networks.

White workers, who are wealthier overall than Blacks and Hispanics, stand out for being more likely to say they would ask financial advisers and accountants about Social Security. Black and Hispanic workers more often would rely on social services agencies, and Blacks also ask for help at church. ...

    From what I've seen, Hispanics and Blacks may not be suffering because they can't ask their stock broker or accountant about Social Security. I've not found financial advisers or accountants to be knowledgeable about Social Security matters. They may be worse than useless. If you ask the average financial adviser or accountant what the requirements are to get widows benefits from Social Security what do you think the chances are that you'll get accurate and complete information? Do they know the age requirements? Anything about the actuarial reduction? Anything about widows disability benefits?

Write About What You Know

    Alessandra Malito has written a piece for Dow Jones that's supposed to be in response to a reader's question. After reading it, my response is "How much can one writer get so much wrong in one short column?"

    Click on the link above to read the article for yourself and see how many errors you come up with. Click on the image below to see the problems I found -- beyond the article's pathetic description of disability determination.