…Even at the peak of boomer retirement, around 2030, most of the population will still be of prime working age, between 20 and 64. The percentage — about 55, according to the Social Security Administration — will be lower than it is today (59), but above the levels of the 1960s and ’70s, when it ranged between 51 and 54 percent. Not only will a larger portion of the population be of working age than in the past, but a much higher percentage of that group will be available to provide goods and services. Forty years ago, most women didn’t work outside the home; these days, about 60 percent do. See full article here:

This judge is blamed for the backlogs in Atlanta. Maybe the better story is that he says he was one of the office’s most productive judges. From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

A judge can be removed from his civilian job for double-dipping. Social Security has also filed papers to recover more than $309,000 in back pay and interest from Jennings.

By dividing his time between jobs, Jennings could not give Social Security his full attention, which in turn contributed to the nation’s mountainous backlog of disability claims, wrote William N. Cates, the administrative law judge who heard the case.

Jennings worked in Social Security’s Atlanta North office, known as the agency’s “backlog capital” of the country. With an average wait of 838 days, the office in May ranked as the slowest in the nation in resolving the appeals of people who say they are too sick or injured to work.

Jennings, who said he made more than $300,000 a year working for both Social Security and the Army, acted “purely for personal gain,” Cates wrote. “Judge Jennings’ dual employment and the ramifications thereof warrant his removal.”

See full story here:

MONTPELIER — The federal government has ruled that the Social Security Administration must extend benefits to the children of partners in same-sex unions even if the parent is not biologically related.

The U.S. Department of Justice opinion was in response to a case involving a Vermont couple. It says that the federal Defense of Marriage Act does not exclude the nonbiological child of partners in a same-sex union from receiving benefits.

The October 2007 opinion was made public this month.

The opinion refers to two Vermont women who entered into a civil union in 2002 and later tried to pass on the nonbiological parent’s disability benefits to their child born in 2003.

See original document:

Even those individuals who have little or no tax liability may qualify for a minimum payment of $300 ($600 if filing a joint return) if their tax return reflects $3,000 or more in qualifying income, which consists of earned income (e.g., wages, net self-employment income) as well as Social Security or certain Railroad Retirement benefits and veterans’ disability compensation, pension or survivors’ benefits received from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs in 2007. Many of these individuals normally wouldn’t have to file a 2007 return because their incomes are below the filing thresholds, but they will have to file a return in order to receive a rebate.

Where necessary, the following benefits (in any combination) must be reported on Line 20a of Form 1040 or Line 14a of the Form 1040A to meet the qualifying income requirement:

Social Security benefits reported on the 2007 Form 1099-SSA, which individuals should have received in January 2008. Those who do not have a Form 1099 may estimate their annual Social Security benefit by taking their monthly benefit and multiplying it by the number of months during the year they received the benefits.
Railroad Retirement benefits reported on the 2007 Form 1099-RRB, which should have been received in January 2008.
The sum of veterans’ disability compensation, pension or survivors’ benefits received from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs in 2007. Individuals may estimate their annual benefit by taking their monthly annual veterans’ benefit and multiplying it by the number of months during the year they received benefits.

IRS cautioned that Line 20a of Form 1040 and Line 14a of the Form 1040A are designated for Social Security. To qualify for the economic stimulus payments, these lines should also be used to include any qualifying Railroad Retirement or veterans’ benefits.

See article here:

See also See IRS site at this link:

Frm today’s New York Times:

For decades, people suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome have struggled to convince doctors, employers, friends and even family members that they were not imagining their debilitating symptoms. Skeptics called the illness “yuppie flu” and “shirker syndrome.”

But the syndrome is now finally gaining some official respect. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which in 1999 acknowledged that it had diverted millions of dollars allocated by Congress for chronic fatigue syndrome research to other programs, has released studies that linked the condition to genetic mutations and abnormalities in gene expression involved in key physiological processes.

The agency has also sponsored a $6 million public awareness campaign about the illness. And last year, it released survey data suggesting that the prevalence of the syndrome is far higher than previously thought, although these findings have stirred controversy among patients and scientists. See details here:

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — It seems simple enough: you pay for Social Security disability insurance out of every paycheck. Then, if you get hurt and can’t work, you collect that money.

But more and more people are finding they can’t always get what they’ve paid for — at least not very easily.
David Elices worked 20 years at the same job; all the time paying Social Security disability insurance. See full story under this link:

From The Buffalo News: Karen Furman’s son, Kelvin, was 10 when she applied to get federal income assistance for parents with disabled children. Kelvin is now 14, living in a group home and still waiting for the government to decide if he’s disabled.

The Buffalo Social Security hearing office, where Furman filed her claim, is so overwhelmed with cases that people wait an average of 669 days before a judge even hears their case.

In other words, not much has changed a year after The Buffalo News reported that people had to wait 688 days for an appeal hearing in Buffalo when they apply for Supplemental Security Income or Social Security Disability benefits.

“They want us to give up or die,” said Linda Fullerton, founder of the Rochester-based Social Security Disability Coalition. “They’re not taking the problem seriously enough.” See article here:

In Today’s Kansas City Star:

For critics, it’s an Orwellian nightmare: the government signing off on every single hiring decision made in the United States.

For backers, it’s the only logical way to discourage illegal immigrants, one using the nation’s only existing, all-encompassing — and currently flawed — database to block unlawful employment entering the country.

Under it, 55 million new hires each year in the U.S. would be scrutinized for fraudulent Social Security numbers.

… Barbara Kennelly, president of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, said the new workload would overwhelm an understaffed administration. Already, she said, “disability cases are piling up and needy people are waiting years to receive their benefits.” See Details here:

…. The number of workers applying for SSDI disability payments increased
to 2.2 million in 2007, 2.6% more that in 2006, while the number of
disabled workers approved for payments declined to 37.6 percent, the lowest
approval rate in the history of the program. Despite the increase in
monthly SSDI payments, now averaging $1004 per worker, payments are less
reliable and have not kept pace with the growing financial needs of
disabled workers, putting the financial security of workers and their
dependents at greater risk. See full detail and statistics here:

A New York Times Editorial:

….forcing Social Security to take on the enormous burden of immigration enforcement would be a harmful diversion from its core mission and could strain the bureaucracy to the breaking point.

That would have frightening implications for millions of people who are supposed to be served by the Social Security Administration, particularly the elderly and those who are disabled. With Social Security struggling to provide existing services and the sunset of the baby boom approaching … now is no time to pile on more responsibilities. The backlog of pending disability cases at the initial level is more than 500,000, and more than 750,000 people who have appealed rejected claims are awaiting decisions. As of February, the average wait on an appeal was more than 500 days. See full editorial here:

From Kathleen Pender in today’s San Francisco Chronicle:

…How does the government assign these numbers? Is there anything you can tell about a person from his or her number? And in using the last two digits, is the IRS favoring one group over another?

It turns out that the first three digits - called the area number - are based on the ZIP code of the mailing address listed on the application for a Social Security number. It can usually tell you something about a person’s origins.

Within each area, the next two digits - called the group number - are assigned in consecutive order as applications come in. Instead of going from 01 to 99, however, the Social Security Administration follows an odd-even numbering pattern. Within each group, the last four digits are assigned in consecutive order from 1 through 9999.
See more here

Today’s The American Civil Liberties Union newsletter commends the House Ways and Means Committee for holding a hearing today on the backlog of Social Security disability claims. The ACLU has submitted a written statement to the committee.

Social Security disability backlogs are at an all-time high, with the average wait time lasting 499 days and in some regions upwards of 700 days. At the same time, the Social Security Administration (SSA) staffing levels are at their lowest levels since 1972. All this translates into unreasonable delays in Social Security disability claims processing, with thousands of people with disabilities facing tremendous economic hardship including bankruptcy, homelessness, and in some cases suicide.

At a time when Congress should be focused on clearing up the Social Security disability backlogs, Some members of the House of Representatives are pushing a vast increase in the workload of the already overburdened SSA – mandatory verification of every worker in the U.S. More details here: