No increase in Social Security benefits expected for 2016

[TexasTowelie]

Source: Dallas Morning News

WASHINGTON — For just the third time in 40 years, millions of Social Security recipients, disabled veterans and federal retirees can expect no increase in benefits next year, unwelcome news for more than one-fifth of the nation’s population.

They can blame low gas prices.

By law, the annual cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, is based on a government measure of inflation that is being dragged down by lower prices at the pump.

The government is scheduled to announce the news Thursday, when it releases the Consumer Price Index for September. Inflation has been so low this year that economists say there is little chance the September numbers will produce a benefit increase for next year.

Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/local-news/20151011-no-increase-in-social-security-benefits-expected-for-2016.ece

[Scuba]

1. It would be nice if the President would mobilize people for this cause, but I guess ...

... a "moderate Republican" President just ain't gonna go there.

[TexasTowelie]

2. The graver danger facing Social Security

is for Social Security Disability Insurance recipients. If Congress does not approve the transfer of funding from the SS fund to the disability fund then disability recipients could see benefits cut by 20% at the end of next year.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/get-there/wp/2015/07/23/a-cut-to-social-security-disability-benefits-is-around-the-corner/

[Scuba]

4. Has the "moderate Republican" President had anything to say about that?

[TexasTowelie]

6. This is taken form a legal Website, but apparently he is trying to do something:

President Obama’s recently-released Fiscal Year 2016 Budget proposes a reallocation of payroll taxes to fix the anticipated shortfall in the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) trust fund, along with increased employment assistance for people with disabilities and additional funding for the hiring of administrative law judges to handle disability benefit appeals.

The SSDI trust fund holds excess payroll taxes collected in years when the government was taking in more money than it was spending on SSDI benefits. However, in recent years, the government has collected fewer payroll taxes than it has paid out in SSDI benefits, forcing it to spend the trust fund reserve in order to fully fund the SSDI program. If changes are not made, the trust fund will run out in 2016 and SSDI benefits will be cut by approximately 20 percent in order to balance the program’s budget.

The Social Security Administration has proposed solving this problem by reallocating a small percentage of payroll tax revenue away from the Social Security Old Age and Retirement trust fund and into the SSDI trust fund. However, the House of Representatives, in one of its first orders of business in 2015, passed a rule change that would prohibit it from reallocating money between the two trust funds, something that has been done frequently in the past, unless the reallocation does not affect the actuarial stability of either fund.

In his proposed Fiscal Year 2016 Budget, President Obama advocated the SSA’s position, calling for the temporary reallocation of funds in order to buy time for Congress to develop a permanent solution to the SSDI funding problem.

In addition to the trust fund reallocation, President Obama’s budget also contains several other items of note for people with disabilities. The budget requests $400 million to set up new programs such as supportive employment services and incentive programs for employers who hire people with disabilities, and it also requests additional funding to hire administrative law judges to handle the massive backlog of disability appeals.

http://sosalegal.com/presidents-budget-proposes-disability-trust-fund-fix-other-assistance-for-people-with-disabilities/

[Scuba]

7. Why do you suppose he's not shouting about it from the rooftops? Maybe he should ask himself ...

What Would Bernie Do?

[TexasTowelie]

8. Has Bernie said much about it?

When I searched the only thing I found was one article from February.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the independent who serves as ranking member on the Budget panel, angrily accused the GOP of “manufacturing a crisis” to hide its intent to resurrect past proposals to cut Social Security benefits and privatize the system.

But by the end of Wednesday’s three-hour hearing, Sanders seemed more confident that the threatened disability cuts will be averted next year. And however partisan the proceedings, they were largely polite with a touch of comedy.

Sanders, with his sometimes wild white hair, populist politics and potential presidential ambitions, cut a fiery figure. Enzi was invariably soft-spoken, polite, an accountant by training and also a problem solver in the vein of the late Sen. Henry Bellmon (R-Okla.), who was a major figure in budget debates in the late 1970s.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/02/gop-plea-on-social-security-disability-do-something-obama-115120#ixzz3oM3tmsyc

[Scuba]

10. Yes, and not just yesterday ...

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/08/25/304387/bernie-sanders-introduces-bill-to-lift-the-payroll-tax-cap-ensuring-full-social-security-funding-for-nearly-75-years/

[TexasTowelie]

12. That is the Social Security Trust Fund

which is different than the Disability Trust Fund. The Social Security trust fund is solvent until around 2035, but the disability trust fund will be insolvent at the end of 2016.

Currently I am not hearing much from any of the candidates (Republicans or Democrats) about this issue and it is very important to me since I'm applying for SSDI and my future is dependent upon the crisis being solved. All of the candidates in both parties need to address this issue because the lives of millions will be affected. A 20% reduction in disability benefits will also have an impact on the general economy since this is not money that is hoarded away in a mattress. I agree that Social Security does need to be shored up in the long term, but this is a more urgent issue that needs resolution quickly

My GOP congressman is coming for a town hall this week (I'm in a small town) and I'm hoping to question him about the looming insolvency. There isn't much time to shore up the Disability Trust Fund and with the election occurring I am concerned that this issue will be punted down the road.

[cstanleytech]

15. One other problem is the literal hell anyone on SSDI is put through if they somehow

can get a job with extra reviews and stuff not to mention the whole reducing the below poverty level amount they get already because they earn something else.

[Vinca]

3. It's gone from "let them eat cake" to "let them eat cat food."

[TexasTowelie]

5. My cats will be very upset if they are deprived of their morsels.

Elect Morris. More morsels in every food dish!

[djean111]

9. As agreements like the TPP and TTIP drive wages down, this will get worse. As planned.

However, in recent years, the government has collected fewer payroll taxes

The most ardent proponents of the TPP here at DU seem to be relishing the thought of American jobs leaving, or Americans making less money. Unless the cap is lifted quite soon, of course the Social Security fund will suffer.

Again, I believe, as planned.

[bigwillq]

11. What a great country.

We should be proud.

[turbinetree]

13. Great, just great...............................

while I understand how COLA works, because of commodity prices and all, but somehow I think it should be tied to the 3 trillion plus fiasco called Iraq, which was put on a credit card, and the wasted hearings called Benghazi, or senseless attack on planned parenthood, or the 50 plus right wing votes trying to eliminating health care in this country, or feeding the homeless and the children, or decimating public education and giving that money to charter voucher schools, or not getting unemployment insurance money for those that should have something instead of standing on street corner with a card board sign, or two congressional district representatives that are trying to still fast track Social Security to be privatized.
I am sure that this aforementioned rant is a COLA cost if taken out of the proverbial box.

It is amazing how we the public give tax breaks for a oil company and there corporate welfare, just so that we the senior citizens can get a COLA off gas and oil.
But when it comes to food, air and clean water costs, apparently that is off the table.
And just think drug prices are going up next year, if and when you go into medicare, which is taken right off the top every quarter when you are on social security and that's not included as a COLA function, so now you get less social security money you put in-------------------great, just great, don't need any COLA for drug price increase.

This just shows who has the power in my opinion



Honk------------------for a political revolution Bernie 2016

[closeupready]

14. When gas prices rise, no adjustment UP on that basis is made. Yet,

when gas prices go down, they take it into account.

Deceitful.