Advance Health Care Decisions

Powers of Attorney

Wills, Trusts, Estates

Guardianships

Medicare, Health Insurance

Medicaid in Nursing Homes

Long Term Care Financing

Social Security

Income Assistance

Nursing Home Issues

Other Consumer Issues:

1. What Social Security is and how it works

What most of us think of as “Social Security” is a social insurance program to which covered workers and their employers contribute over their work-lives. Over 90% of the country’s workers are covered by the system; most of the others are covered by federal, state or civil service systems.

Social Security not only provides retirement benefits for workers and their spouses as early as age 62, but also survivor benefits, disability benefits for disabled workers and their families, benefits for certain disabled children of retired or deceased workers, and benefits for divorced spouses if married to a worker for at least ten years. It is possible and often occurs that a current spouse or a widow and a divorced spouse collect on the same worker’s record. Neither benefit is reduced.

Social Security and Medicare taxes are collected by employers and paid to the Internal Revenue Service, which pays them over to the Social Security Trustees to pay benefits or distribute among the appropriate Social Security Trust Funds. Funds not needed soon to pay benefits are invested in special issue treasury bonds at market rates.

The Social Security Administration has a large web site at www.ssa.gov (it can be accessed through our web site; go to Links). The SSA site is huge and can be overwhelming; one helpful approach is to click on the "site map" to start a search on a particular topic. It is now possible to register for benefits, obtain an earnings statement and estimate of benefits on-line. Every local SS office offers numerous free pamphlets explaining different aspects of the program (many can be downloaded from the web site) or you can call Social Security at 1-800-772-1213 and ask for information to be mailed to you. (This takes patience; the lines are often busy.)

The SSA web site includes a highly readable history of the program, and each year the Social Security Trustees summarize the year’s events and make projections and recommendations. Click on “Trustee’s Report” to read current and past Reports.

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