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Social Security: Brief Facts and Statistics
This report provides brief facts and statistics about Social Security that are frequently requested by Members of Congress and their staffs. It includes information about Social Security taxes and benefits, the program's impact on recipients' incomes, federal tax receipts, federal spending and the economy, administrative information, and selected facts about Medicare.
Social Security: The Windfall Benefit Provision
This report discusses the windfall elimination provision, which reduces the Social Security benefits of workers who also have pension benefits from employment not covered by Social Security. Its purpose is to remove an advantage these workers would otherwise receive because of Social Security's benefit formula that favors workers with smaller amounts of Social Security-covered career earnings. Opponents contend that the provision is basically inaccurate and often unfair. In both the 107th and 108th Congresses, five bills have been introduced that would modify or repeal the provision.
Social Security: Brief Facts and Statistics
This report provides brief facts and statistics about Social Security that are frequently requested by Members of Congress and their staffs. It includes information about Social Security taxes and benefits, the program’s impact on recipients’ incomes, federal tax receipts, federal spending and the economy, and administrative information.
Social Security Reform: Current Issues and Legislation
This report discusses The Social Security reform, which is an issue of interest to policy makers that arises in various contexts, from improving retirement security to reducing federal budget deficits. The report looks at the Social Security debate, Social Security future projections, and public opinion on Social Security reform. It also looks at past reform measures, from the 109th-112th Congress, none of which received congressional action.
Social Security Reform: Current Issues and Legislation
Report that looks at the Social Security debate, Social Security future projections, and public opinion on Social Security reform. It also looks at past reform measures, from the 109th-112th Congress, none of which received congressional action.
How Social Security Benefits Are Computed: In Brief
This report discusses how Social Security benefits are currently computed, including information about eligibility, earnings, cost-of-living adjustments, factors that can affect benefit levels, and benefits for dependents.
Social Security: Raising or Eliminating the Taxable Earnings Base
This report discusses the Social Security taxes that are levied on covered earnings up to a maximum level set each year. In 2010, this maximum—or what is referred to as the taxable earnings base—is $106,800.
Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
This report discusses the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, enacted in 1974, which is a needs-based program that provides cash benefits designed to ensure a minimum income to aged, blind, or disabled persons with limited income and assets.
Social Security Reform: Bills in the 106th Congress
The Social Security system is projected to have long-range funding problems. Although the system’s income currently exceeds its expenditures, its trust funds are projected to be depleted in 2037. Concern about the problem and a belief that the remedy lies partly in economic growth that could be bolstered by changes to the system have led to introduction of a number of bills incorporating varying degrees of reform. This report describes the funding problem in some detail, summarizes many of the reform bills introduced in the 106th Congress, and provides a list of other related CRS reports.
Social Security Benefits for Noncitizens: Current Policy and Legislation
Concerns about the number of unauthorized (illegal) aliens residing in the United States and the totalization agreement with Mexico signed in 2004 have fostered considerable interest in the eligibility of noncitizens for U.S. Social Security benefits. This report examines the issue and discusses current legislation pertaining to it.
Current Social Security Issues
Social Security is the focus of intense public interest. Projected long-range funding problems, public skepticism about its future, and a growing perception that Social Security will not be as good a value for future retirees as it is today are fueling calls for reform. This report discusses a number of the major Social Security issues currently drawing congressional attention.
Social Security Reform
This report examines the debate over the future of the Social Security system. It includes discussion of recent developments; background and analysis with information about the basic debate, specific area of contention, reform initiatives; and relevant legislation.
Social Security: Calculation and History of Taxing Benefits
This report discusses the calculations that go into taxing Social Security benefits, which prior to 1984 were exempt from taxation but have since been taxed at gradually increasing levels.
How Social Security Benefits Are Computed: In Brief
This report discusses how Social Security benefits are currently computed, including information about eligibility, earnings, cost-of-living adjustments, factors that can affect benefit levels, and benefits for dependents.
Social Security: Calculation and History of Taxing Benefits
This report discusses the calculations that go into taxing Social Security benefits, which prior to 1984 were exempt from taxation but have since been taxed at gradually increasing levels.
Social Security: Trust Fund Investment Practices
This report describes Social Security trust fund investment practices under current law.
Social Security Reform: Legal Analysis of Social Security Benefit Entitlement Issues
This report addresses selected legal issues which may be raised regarding entitlement to Social Security benefits as Congress considers possible changes to the Social Security program, and in view of projected long-range shortfalls in the Social Security Trust Funds.
Social Security: Calculation and History of Taxing Benefits
This report discusses the Social Security system that provides monthly benefits to qualified retirees, disabled workers, and their spouses and dependents.
Social Security Reform
This report provides background and analysis on social security reform. The report discusses the most recent development, the basis for the debate, specific areas of contention and reform initiatives.
Social Security: What Happens to Future Benefit Levels Under Various Reform Options
The report first examines several benefit-constraint options. Among them are raising the age at which full Social Security retirement benefits can be received, changing the way initial benefits are computed, and constraining cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs). It also illustrates the effects of creating new personal savings accounts and presents their projected impact as a supplement to, or partial replacement of, the existing system, or as a means to close the gap between the benefit levels promised by the existing system and what can be paid under its projected future income. Finally, because across-the-board cuts may be seen as too severe for several types of recipients, other options that would ameliorate their effects, including one that would raise revenue, are also illustrated.
Social Security: The Cost-of-Living Adjustment in January 2002
This report discusses the Social Security recipients that receive a costof- living adjustment (COLA) in January of each year. An automatic Social Security benefit increase reflects the rise in the cost of living over roughly a 1-year period
The Structure of Social Security Individual Account Contributions and Investments: Choices and Implications
Policymakers have debated creating a system of individual accounts (IAs) as part of Social Security for many years. This report describes policymakers’ administrative and structural choices regarding the collection and investment of assets in a system of individual accounts.
Social Security: Raising or Eliminating the Taxable Earnings Base
This report discusses the Social Security taxes that are levied on covered earnings up to a maximum level (base) set each year. It includes information about how the base has been determined demographically and how it has changed over time, as well as possible future implications and impacts of either raising or eliminating the base, with arguments for and against.
Social Security Primer
This report provides an overview of Social Security financing and benefits under current law. Specifically, the report covers the origins and a brief history of the program; Social Security financing and the status of the trust funds; how Social Security benefits are computed; the types of Social Security benefits available to workers and their family members; the basic eligibility requirements for each type of benefit; the scheduled increase in the Social Security retirement age; and the federal income taxation of Social Security benefits.
Social Security: Calculation and History of Taxing Benefits
This report discusses the Social Security system that provides monthly benefits to qualified retirees, disabled workers, and their spouses and dependents.
Social Security Provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
This report discusses certain provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) that pertain to Social Security. The ARRA as passed by the House of Representatives and Senate provides over $1 billion in supplemental appropriations to the Social Security Administration (SSA) and provides for a onetime $250 payment to all SSI recipients and adult Social Security beneficiaries.
Social Security: Raising the Retirement Age Background and Issues
The Social Security “full retirement age” — the age at which retired workers, aged spouses, or surviving aged spouses receive benefits that are not reduced for “early” retirement — will gradually rise from 65 to 67 beginning with people who attain age 62 in 2000 (i.e., those born in 1938). Early retirement benefits will still be available beginning at age 62 (age 60 for aged widows and widowers), but at lower levels. This report discusses bills introduced in the last four Congresses that would, among other things, accelerate the phase-in of the increase in the full retirement age to 67, raise the early retirement age to 65 or 67, and raise the full retirement age to 69 or 70.
Social Security Notch Issue: A Summary
This report discusses recent attempts at legislative action regarding changes to the computation of benefits under Social Security Amendments of 1977 (P.L. 95-216), which directly affected retirees born in the 5- to 15-year period after 1916. These persons fall in the "notch" between previous Social Security legislation and those affected by the amendments.
Social Security Notch Issue: A Summary
This report discusses recent attempts at legislative action regarding changes to the computation of benefits under Social Security Amendments of 1977 (P.L. 95-216), which directly affected retirees born in the 5- to 15-year period after 1916. These persons fall in the "notch" between previous Social Security legislation and those affected by the amendments.
Brief Facts and Statistics
This report provides facts and statistics about Social Security that are frequently requested by Members of Congress and their staffs. It includes information about Social Security taxes and benefits, the program's impact on its recipients' incomes, federal tax receipts, federal spending and the economy, administrative information, and selected facts about Medicare.
Primer on Disability Benefits: Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
This report provides an overview on federal disability benefits programs including Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), which is an insurance program that provides benefits to individuals who have paid into the system and meet certain minimum work requirements, and Supplemental Security Income (SSI), which is a means-tested program that does not have work or contribution requirements, but restricts benefits to those who meet certain financial eligibility criteria.
Social Security Primer
Report that provides an overview of Social Security financing and benefits under current law.
The Government's Long-Term Fiscal Shortfall: How Much Is Attributable to Social Security?
This report discusses social security in the context of the federal budget. One rationale given for Social Security reform is the large long-term fiscal shortfall that Social Security is projected to face.
Social Security: What Would Happen If the Trust Funds Ran Out?
This report explains what the Social Security trust funds are and how they work. It describes the historical operations of the trust funds and the Social Security trustees' projections of future operations. It explains what could happen if Congress allowed the trust funds to run out. It also analyzes two scenarios that assume Congress waits until the moment of insolvency to act, showing the magnitude of benefit cuts or tax increases needed and how such changes would affect beneficiaries.
Summary of Major Changes in the Social Security Cash Benefits Program: 1935-1996
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Social Security: The Trust Fund
This report covers how the Social Security program is financed and how the Social Security trust fund works.
Social Security: What Would Happen If the Trust Funds Ran Out?
This report explains what the Social Security trust funds are and how they work. It describes the historical operations of the trust funds and the Social Security trustees' projections of future operations. It explains what could happen if Congress allowed the trust funds to run out. It also analyzes two scenarios that assume Congress waits until the moment of insolvency to act, showing the magnitude of benefit cuts or tax increases needed and how such changes would affect beneficiaries.
Social Security: Brief Facts and Statistics
This document provides facts and statistics about Social Security that are frequently requested by Members of Congress and their staffs. Its purpose is to provide quick answers to basic questions about the program. It should not be treated as a guide to Social Security. The reader is advised to consult other publications for explanations of how eligibility and benefits are determined and how the program is financed. Among them are two pamphlets published by the Social Security Administration (SSA) entitled Basic Facts About Social Security and Understanding Social Security which are contained in the Congressional Research Service (CRS) Info Pack IP 153S, Social Security: An Introduction. SSA also issues numerous other pamphlets on various aspects of the program as well as a lengthy Handbook on Social Security. For other possible sources that provide data and basic descriptive material, see the references listed at the end of this document.
Social Security: The Relationship of Taxes and Benefits for Past, Present, and Future Retirees
In recent years considerable public attention has focused on Social Security's treatment of younger versus older workers. Analysts sometimes have addressed this issue by examining the value Social Security provides each generation of workers in relation to the Social Security taxes they pay. These are referred to as "moneys worth" analyses.
Social Security: Summary of Major Changes in the Cash Benefits Program
Title II of the original Social Security Act of 1935 established a national plan designed to provide economic security for the nation's workers. The system of Old-Age Insurance it created provided benefits to individuals who were age 65 or older and who had "earned" retirement benefits through work in jobs covered by the system.
Social Security Reform
Although the Social Security system is now running surpluses of income over outgo, its board of trustees projects that its trust funds would be depleted in 2038 and only 73% of its benefits would be payable then with incoming receipts. The trustees project that on average the system's cost would be 14% higher than its income over the next 75 years; by 2075 it would be 45% higher. The primary reason is demographic: the post-World War II baby boomers will begin retiring in less than a decade and life expectancy is rising. By 2025 the number of people age 65 and older is predicted to grow by 73%. In contrast, the number of workers supporting the system would grow by 13%.
Social Security Reform
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Social Security Reform
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Social Security: Taxation of Benefits
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Social Security Reform
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Social Security Reform
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Social Security Reform
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Social Security Reform
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Social Security Reform
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Social Security Reform
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