Report: Social Security disability fund to run dry next year
Source: AP
WASHINGTON (AP) — The 11 million Americans who receive Social Security disability face steep benefit cuts next year, the government said Wednesday, handing lawmakers a fiscal and political crisis in the middle of a presidential campaign.
The trustees who oversee Social Security and Medicare said the disability trust fund will run out of money in late 2016. That would trigger an automatic 19 percent cut in benefits, unless Congress acts.
The average monthly benefit for disabled workers and their families is $1,017. The typical beneficiary would see a reduction of $193 a month.
"Today's report shows that we must seek meaningful, in some instances even urgent, changes to ensure the program is on stable ground for future generations," said Jo Ann Jenkins, the chief executive officer of AARP.
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ad37e2108fc84c4a8e091d7c5d30128e/officials-rating-health-social-security-medicare
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There are many DUers on SSDI or that have applied.
We have known about this since January. It was normal in the past to do the transfer.
http://www.ncpssm.org/EntitledtoKnow/entryid/2101/social-security-targeted-on-day-one-of-new-congress
Members of the new 114th Congress had barely taken their oaths of office today when they passed a proposal threatening millions of Americanswho receive Social Security benefits. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities describes the plan:
“Buried in the new rules that the House Republican majority {adopted} for the 114thCongress is a provision that could threaten Disability Insurance (DI) beneficiaries — a group of severely impaired and vulnerable Americans — with a sudden, one-fifth cut in their benefits by late 2016. The provision bars the House from replenishing the DI trust fund simply by shifting some payroll tax revenues from Social Security’s retirement trust fund.”
As NCPSSM’s Max Richtman explains, this move was pure politics:
“Today’s unprecedented House vote preventing a routine rebalancing of the Social Security Disability Trust Funds puts politics ahead of policy and partisanship ahead of people. This House Rules change would allow a 20% benefit cut for millions of disabled Americans unless there are broader Social Security benefit cuts or tax increases improving the solvency of the combined trust funds. It is difficult to believe that there is any purpose to this unprecedented change to House Rules other than to cut benefits for Americans who have worked hard all their lives, paid into Social Security, and rely on their Social Security benefits, including Disability, in order to survive.
A modest and temporary reallocation of part of the 6.2 percent Social Security tax rate to the DI Trust Fund would put the entire Social Security program on an equal footing, with all benefits payable at least until 2033. Democrats and Republicans have authorized this same strategy eleven times without controversy (including four times during the Reagan administration); however, this new House majority would rather play politics with the livelihoods of millions of Americans than solve this important funding issue. This sends a clear message to middle-class families about the House majority’s priorities -- targeting Social Security for cuts clearly ranks high on their list.”
FULL story at link.
Some people that have & use scooters require them in order to live, like those on SSDI than have progressive diseases like multiple sclerosis!!!
