Disability insurance: Not working
The Economist, January 23, 2015
For years, Doug, who lives in Binghamton, New York, suffered from bipolar disorder. In 2003 he enrolled in the federal disability insurance (DI) programme. With his illness now properly treated, he has been looking for work since 2013, without much luck. Because he worked full-time in a shop a decade ago, he would lose…
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MYTH:
“Chained CPI would cut the 2014 Social Security cost-of-living increase of 1.5 percent to 1.2 percent.” - Robert Romasco, president of AARP
FACT:
If the more accurate chained CPI was used to determine the 2014 cost of living increase, seniors would see a 1.7 percent increase as opposed to this year’s increase of 1.5 percent. What does a 1.7 percent increase…
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The Social Security and Medicare trustees released our annual reports last Friday, May 31. These reports set forth the state of program finances as required under the Social Security Act. There are six trustees; four of them (the Secretaries of Treasury, HHS and Labor as well as the Social Security Commissioner)…
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Included in the President’s budget proposal was a change to the way Social Security measures inflation – moving from the current measure to the chained Consumer Price Index. As Treasury Secretary Lew stated during his testimony before the Ways and Means Committee on the President’s budget, “The Chained CPI is a more accurate measure of inflation in that it does a better job of…
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