The COLA, announced Thursday, Oct. 11, will increase the average Social Security retirement benefit by $39 a month or roughly $468 a year. The average single retired Social Security recipient is expected to receive $1,422 in December 2018 before increasing to $1,461 a month later. The COLA affects household budgets for about 1 in 5 Americans, … Read more
Advocates for older Americans are watching closely to see how the committee’s work might lead to retirement benefit cuts via a higher Social Security retirement age, smaller cost-of-living adjustments or higher Medicare eligibility ages. Meanwhile, a separate starve-the-beast exercise goes mostly unnoticed: a big squeeze on the administrative budget of the Social Security Administration (SSA). … Read more
The Washington Post Fact Checks Rick Perry’s Social Security Alternative Plan. What’s your take? The Texas governor has pointed to three Texas counties that have opted out of Social Security as one possible fix for the retirement program. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/rick-perrys-claim-of-higher-returns-from-social-security-alternatives/2011/09/30/gIQATVnuAL_blog.html
Perry and Romney battle over Social Security. Read Romney’s Op-Ed piece in Fox News and weigh in with your thoughts on what direction you think America should take to ensure future benefits. If I am fortunate enough to be my party’s nominee, I will advocate for solutions that keep Social Security strong for seniors now … Read more
Interesting article about the current social security system. What do you think? Is it a ponzi scheme? The income that Social Security has received in excess of its expenses has been placed into separate trust funds for the payment of pensions and disability benefits. In addition to the income that Social Security receives from the payroll … Read more
I came across an article a few weeks ago related to poverty that caught my attention. In turn a reader wrote in a response to the editorial that brought up a point about whether stay at home moms should be eligible to “earn” credits within the SSD “bank”. Here are some of the highlights from … Read more
As the treating physician, your opinion is vital to your patient’s Social Security disability claim. In fact, it may have “controlling weight” in determining the outcome of the claim. Under a 1996 policy ruling (SSR [Social Security Ruling] 96-2p), a treating physician’s medical opinion which is well-supported and not inconsistent with other substantial evidence in … Read more
“Medical equivalence” and the effects of treatment and obesity may also result in Social Security disability. Two added spinal disorders were among the changes to the Social Security musculoskeletal disability “Listings” which became effective February 2002. Arachnoiditis and pseudoclaudication, as defined and discussed in the Listings at 20 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Part 404, … Read more
In Volume I I of this JOURNAL, we published an article based on a memorandum from Social Security Deputy Commissioner, Susan M. Daniels, Ph.D., on Social Security Administration (SSA) policies for evaluating whether chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is disabling. The memo, dated May 11, 1998, was in response to a memo from an administrative law … Read more
This is the third in a series detailing how the Social Security “Listings” define certain types of disabling conditions. If your patient’s symptoms match or are equivalent to the criteria in the Listings, then your patient is “disabled” under Social Security law. Under the Listings for the musculoskeletal system, there are three categories of arthritic … Read more