Social Security Update, Important please read, and be NICE, Please!

[gypsy2621]

I know we have a lot of People on the board who are eligible for Social Security and I talked to a Moderator before posting this.
Please be nice lets not have it turn ugly like some of the other posts have.
We ALL pay into this system and its a benefit for all of us to know whats happening and maybe we can help turn it around so such things do not come to pass.



http://www.wmur.com/money/20517197/detail.html

 

[debilorrah]

Quote:
My mom is one of those counting on that check to arrive every month. We have been hearing for YEARS that it won't be around when I retire, or when my mom retired, etc. I am never sure about what I read that concerns government.

 

[saddina]

"Kennelly's group wants Congress to increase Social Security benefits next year, even though the formula doesn't call for it. She would like to see either a 1 percent increase in monthly payments or a one-time payment of $150.

The cost of a one-time payment, a little less than $8 billion, could be covered by increasing the amount of income subjected to Social Security taxes, Kennelly said. Workers only pay Social Security taxes on the first $106,800 of income, a limit that rises each year with the average national wage.

But the limit only increases if monthly benefits increase.

Critics argue that Social Security recipients shouldn't get an increase when inflation is negative. They note that recipients got a big increase in January -- after energy prices had started to fall. They also note that Social Security recipients received one-time $250 payments in the spring as part of the government's economic stimulus package.

Consumer prices are down from 2008 levels, giving Social Security recipients more purchasing power, even if their benefits stay the same, said Andrew G. Biggs, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank.

"Seniors may perceive that they are being hurt because there is no COLA, but they are in fact not getting hurt," Biggs said. "Congress has to be able to tell people they are not getting everything they want."

Section from the article.

 

[PeepsInc]

I read some were it will run out by 2012. Where did it all go? I don't know the truth behind it, but I also read it gets put into pork barrel spending & sent over seas. Who's money was it to start with? I think it was yours & mine!

 

[pips&peeps]

As someone else stated in an editorial on the web page, we need to stop giving SS benefits to people who have never paid in.

 

[beak]

There is no solution in this country. The US has too low of an overall social conciseness. The best you can hope for is to be able to grovel for help at the door of a church. I don't know what they're going to do. I think I heard that once all the baby boomers are drawing on it there will only be 2 people contributing for every 5 making withdrawals. Add to that the fact that so many people have lost huge chunks of stock in the last few years from lax regulation and you have a real mess. Obviously the maximum income for making contributions will need to be raised.

 

[Camelot Farms]

pips&peeps :

As someone else stated in an editorial on the web page, we need to stop giving SS benefits to people who have never paid in.

This confuses me because I worked with a family whose mother died at the age of 24 leaving behind a 4 yr old and a 6 yr old. Mama had severe diabetes and sadly went blind in the months before her death.

I was helping this family through my position at a Community Action Agency and offered to help Grandma (who then had custody) get Social Security Death Benefits for the children, one of whom is special needs.

I was told by SS that because Mama never worked (DUH, she was extremely ill for her entire life) that the children werent eligible for benefits. I thought I was talking to an idiot so I called again...and again...same answer. I kept thinking that I wasnt giving them the right info or something cause I kept getting shot down.

Can anyone explain why there is such a dramatic difference between SSD and the other SS's?​

 

[gypsy2621]

pips&peeps :

As someone else stated in an editorial on the web page, we need to stop giving SS benefits to people who have never paid in.

Thats something I tend to agree with.

I know when my Husband worked through last years hurricanes and ice storms the amount they took out of just his pay check alone weekly was well over $1,000.00.
Out of his company there are 44 crews of 20 people, and at each person paying in that amount or more it should have made a huge dent in the deficit. Now that was his company alone ,factor in all the other companys that worked those storms, the amount is huge. but yet Social security is broke? why where does it go, why isnt it there for people who dearly need it?
I get so frustrated that people who worked all their lives and paid into this benifit will not get the help they need when they need it most. It makes me want to vomit the way things are going.
They need to stop taking money out of Social Secuirty to pay for pet projects and lobbied stupidity.​

 

[beak]

Quote:
From what I have read there is no real fund. It is funded by current contributions deducted from your pay check. When it first started it worked out well because there were 8 people contributing for every one person getting benefits. Now with all the boomers and the fact that we live much longer they need more recipients. Once the boomers start tipping over it will come back in line more. Maybe we really should consider death panels.

 

[Whispering Winds]

My DH is on SS, because of disability, and I shiver and shake thinking that if it goes belly up or we lose his medical insurance when he does retire from the company that employs him. If either happens, we will lose everything we have worked for all these years because of his medical costs and medicines. We have to stop giving money to people who don't deserve it. If you don't become a citizen, if you don't work and pay in to the SS fund, if you don't want to speak our language, if you keep having children but don't want to work and help support this country, then you need to leave. I mean no disrespect to those that do, shoot there are full blooded Americans who don't work and expect to be taken care of too, but chances are they have/had family who DID contribute, so while its not fair, its still better than those whe give back nothing. Also, raise the amount that stops the SS being taken out. Make it $200,000 a year . . .that will put a lot more funds back into the system. And, its not fair for some high end income person never to pay into the system and still be allowed to draw. . .if you make that much money without ever paying into SS, then you should have invested in some other money market for your retirement. Just some of my thoughts on this. There has to be a solution, but as we all know, its going to get into the pockets of the rich, and that has always been a big no-no in this country.
It is time for everyone who lives and reaps the rewards of this country to step up to the plate and be accountable for what they owe back. JMHO.