A new effort to gather stories about the importance of Social Security in our society has been launched. The Social Security Stories Project is seeking story submissions from the public, with a goal of receiving 1,000 stories by the end of July. The stories will then be reviewed for possible inclusion in a new book to be published in honor of the 75th anniversary of Social Security on Aug. 14, 2010. …

“We are hoping the younger generations will interview their parents and grandparents on the subject which is why our website offers interview questions,” says Barbara Burt, executive director for the Frances Perkins Center, a nonprofit organization leading the project as part of its mission to honor and learn from Frances Perkins (the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet). A pioneering woman in and ahead of her time, Perkins was U.S. secretary of labor for Franklin Delano Roosevelt. She was champion of the New Deal, close friend and advisor to FDR. See link here:

The Huffington Post ran an article today with Mark Miller’s reality check on the rhetoric about Social Security going broke: “… Social Security also has that big surplus, which has been accumulating since the last “fix” to the program was implemented during the Reagan years. That fix included a gradual boost of the retirement age from 65 to 67, and a substantial boost in payroll taxes that fund Social Security. Those changes were intended to raise a substantial cushion for the future retirement of all those boomers. It worked, and the money sits in something called the Social Security Trust Fund.

“True, as boomers start to retire in greater numbers, there won’t be enough current workers coming along behind them to keep the program solvent on a pay-go basis. That means the surplus funds will be drained — eventually. As in … 2037. But even then, income coming into the fund would cover about 75 percent of benefit payouts.”
See article here:

The Arizona Republic reports that an “unprecedented increase in the number of Americans who delay retirement could accelerate over the next two decades, helping to ease the pressures on Social Security and Medicare, according to a RAND Corporation study.

‘The study differs from government projections indicating a leveling off in the number of older Americans who remain employed. Lawmakers should consider dismantling barriers that discourage some older people from staying in the workforce, the study adds.

“Changes in pensions, longer life expectancy, less disability at older ages and more women in the workforce are all trends that are gaining momentum and are likely to cause more Americans to delay retirement,” RAND researchers think the forces causing people to delay retirement or re-enter the workforce are strong enough to keep the current trend going until at least 2030.

‘Among them, a more highly educated workforce has allowed more people to obtain jobs that are more fulfilling, less physically challenging and better paid than in decades past.”
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The Social Security system remains backlogged and although there is some improvement at the hearing level, one can question whether this is just because more cases are lagging behind at the initial and reconsideration levels of appeal. THe Associate Press takes on this issue here:
“Nearly 2 million people are waiting to find out if they qualify for Social Security disability benefits. It will be a long wait for most, even if they eventually win their cases.

The Social Security system is so overwhelmed by applications for disability benefits that many people are waiting more than two years for their first payment. In Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota and other states, the wait can be even longer.

The Social Security commissioner, Michael J. Astrue, says the delays are unacceptable, particularly for people who have paid payroll taxes for years to support the system and now are unable to work because of debilitating medical problems. Astrue has had some success in reducing a case backlog that has plagued the system for years. But a spike in new applications, linked to the economic recession, threatens to swamp the system again.

Claims typically increase in a bad economy because many people who worked despite their disabilities get laid off and apply for benefits.

About 3.3 million people are expected to apply for benefits this year. That’s 300,000 more than last year and 700,000 more than in 2008.”
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5guw84_hAq02tLZCuigFPyIZg_rKwD9FJDQQG1 See story here: