Social Security And Retirement Practices

The Social Security system is perhaps the most successful government social insurance program in the nation 's history; and began with the Social Security Act in 1935. Social Security is a needed federal system that encourages income stability to millions of people across the United States. This is accomplished by giving a stable flow of income to replenish lost wages that occur as a result of disability, retirement, or death of a family member. There are about 59 million people in the U.S. that receive Social Security. Most of them are the required 65 years of age or older. Sadly about half of the 59 million people rely solely on Social Security to pay their bills and everyday necessities.

Social Security Provides Important Retirement Benefits: According to the Social Security Administration, nine out of 10 Americans over the age of 65 receive retirement

  (a) Cuts in Medicare. The elderly on Medicare will see their benefits changed dramatically. The biggest item being used to pay for the new program is more than $500 billion in cuts to the Medicare program at a time when 72 million baby boomers become eligible for it in the next decade. The second biggest move to pay for this is by raising and expanding the Medicare tax.

One of the biggest issues that will be affected is Social Security benefits and medical care for everyone. Today twelve percent of the total population is age 65older; by 2080 it will be up to 23%. However at the same time the working-age is shrinking every year, right now the working-age it is 60% and it is believed to drop to 45% by 2080. Social Security is experiencing low work-to-beneficiary ratio which will fall from 3.3 percent in 2005 to two percent in 2040. That is the year that is believed to be when the Social Security trust fund will have been exhausted. Due to this there will be significant challenges that policymakers and all future Americans. Because of that policymakers are now encouraging many to delay retirement and some people are even suggesting that retirement benefits be lowered the main reason for the suggestion is people are living longer than they used to.

For years, Social Security has provided retired, disabled, as well many other Americans with financial security when they lacked or had little income later in their lives. Now, Social Security is being overwhelmed as the American population continues to grow. The Baby Boomers, or the demographic group born in the post- World War II era, from 1946-1964, have been the main reason for the prevalence of this issue. Millions were born during this era and by 2012 they were eligible for the full benefits of Social Security. Two years after that and for the first time ever, Social Security had to draw from its fund and since then they have not collected a surplus of taxes. Recent predictions show that by “2035, the number of Americans over age 65 will jump from today's 48 million to 79 million,” showing that this is just the start of Social Security’s problems to come. By 2035, I will hopefully be in my mid-30’s, wondering if one I would be able to afford retirement and without this system, I’m a bit unsure.

     Several federal agencies today support and administer the various Social Security programs. The programs associated with Social Security include Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI), Medicare, Unemployment Compensation, and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). For people who have worked for a living, OASDI and Medicare provide support during their older years and when they have stopped working. Unemployment Compensation provides temporary financial help during periods between jobs. SSI provides income to people who cannot work for various reasons. The OASDI

Social Security, as we know it today, began as the “Economic Security Act” in 1935, and it wasn’t until later that activist Abraham Epstein coined the phrase “Social Security”. In its earliest form, the government paid benefits only to the primary worker in the household, but in 1939 the act was rewritten to include survivor’s benefits for spouses and children. The very first recipient of social security received 17 cents, paid to him in January 1937. The first person to receive monthly benefits began to do so in 1940. In the three prior years, this person had contributed a total of $24.75. By the time of her death in 1975 (at the age of 100) she had collected $22,889 (http://people.howstuffworks.com/social-security-number6.htm). By contrast, the first person to ever be issued a social security number (in 1936) died in 1974 at the age of 61 without ever receiving a single social security payment (however, his widow did). This is the “math” of social security and it doesn’t always add up in a logical way.

     There is much-heated debate on the issues of Social Security today. The Social Security system is the largest government program of income distribution in the United States. People are concerned that they won't see a dime of what they worked so hard to contribute into the Social Security system for so many years. Social Security provides benefits to about forty-three million Americans. Not only to retired workers, but also to their spouses and dependents of the workers who die prematurely. It also provides benefits to disabled workers and their dependents. Social Security appears to most people like a simple retirement saving’s account. After all, you generally

Economic uncertainty, coupled with the retirement of the baby boomers, skyrocketing medical costs, and rising life expectancy, have left our lawmakers at their wits end in regards to our ever-expanding budget. Barr states, “Contrary to popular belief, long-term trends Policymakers are now acting upon this, by enacting a policy beginning in 2017 and ending in 2036, to gradually increase the Social Security tax by “1/20th of 1 percent”. As of now, “employers and employee pay 6.2 percent tax to Social Security on earnings up to $110,000.00, while self- employed workers pay both the employer and employee share for a combined total of 12.4”. Our current policy works on pay-as-you-go basis, in which, current workers finance the benefits of

to work beyond the early retirement age. Would the average retirement age for Weslovakian workers increase or decrease in response to these two changes, or can you

one hand, there will be less people working in jobs subject to social insurance contributions due

2020 there will only be 2.4 or less for each retiree. By the year 2010-2015

Although mandatory retirement is not largely popular, it still has an effect on many older workers and how they plan for retirement. "Mandatory retirement involves less than 1 percent of the work force and so opens up only a small fraction of the total jobs", because

     Social Security is the federally administered insurance system. Under current federal laws, both employer and employee must pay into the system, and a certain percentage of the employee’s salary is paid up to a maximum limit. Social Security is mandatory for employees

In recent years the phrases thirty is the new twenty and fifty is the new forty have become commonplace. This is in large part to adults being healthier, stronger, and living longer than ever before. In fact, the life expectancy in the United States is at the highest rate ever. Women can expect to live on average until the age of eighty-one and men to the age of seventy-six. As with all progress, there are some negative consequences. People are living longer which requires longer social security payouts. Therefore, there has been much debate on whether or not to raise the retirement age. The debate is highly heated and with several pros and cons.