Category Archives: Briefs

Congressional lawmakers are currently debating making changes to social security in order to reduce the federal deficit. These changes would consist of altering the way that the social security benefits are calculated. Currently the system uses CPI which stands for Consumer Price Index and this value is used to calculate the annual cost of living

In May 2012, it became possible to check your social security earnings and statement online at www.socialsecurity.gov/mystatement. The ACSI (American Customer Satisfaction Index has given this service a score of 89 which is competitive with the other social security government services such as the retirement estimator and the online retirement application Over one million people

The Baltimore Veteran’s Affairs office is currently the slowest in the country when it comes to processing claims for VA disability benefits. A recent report found that both the error rate and backlog of claims are also the highest in the country. With an error rate of 26.2% and around 16,800 claims that are over

Senator Mark Begich has reintroduced a social security bill this week while a companion bill was introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Ted Deutch. Both bills would extend the solvency of Social Security since it would require higher income families to pay social security all year. The formula for cost of living would

Michael J Astrue was the head of the social security program since 2007 and was nominated for the position by former president, George W. Bush. With his term coming to an end, he has taken some parting shots at congress over the current state of the program. He said that they have “really walked away

Michael J Astrue has been the Social Security Commissioner for the past 6 years, but he will be stepping down in February. The recession has caused an increase in the amount of people applying for disability benefits and he worked hard to reduce this backlog of applications. Social Security funds are expected to run out

If you receive a security check each month, you will no longer receive it starting March first. The US treasury is looking to save money by doing away with these checks and paying social security payouts digitally. When this begins, everyone currently receiving social security benefits will need to choose between having the money deposited

The Social Security Agency is aiming to process claims faster to help ease the burden for those who have a condition which causes them to be disabled. This is being done by the expansion of a program which fast tracks the processing of disability claims for anyone with a serious condition. For example, a few

Recently an 18 month investigation into the awarding of social security benefits has wrapped up and the conclusion was that the SSA has improperly awarded benefits to over 25% of the cases between 2006 and 2010. The findings of this report claim that this has the potential to cost tax payers millions. Since January 2009

If you have a disability, but were previously unable to participate in the Compassionate Allowances program, there is some good news for you. The Social Security Administration has added 35 conditions to the program resulting in a total of 200 conditions that are now covered. Compassionate Allowances are one method of speeding up the claims