The Social Security Administration says it has updated its online calculator so people enrolled in Medicare - but haven't taken Social Security benefits yet - can get an immediate and personal estimate of their future Social Security benefits.

Before the calculator, the agency says, Medicare beneficiaries would have to go to their local Social Security office to ge an estimate.

“With more people delaying retirement beyond the Medicare eligibility age, it is critical that they also have access to this easy-to-use online tool,” said Social Security Commissioner Michael J. Astrue, in a statement announcing the calculator upgrade.

Posted by Eileen Ambrose at 2:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Social Security
        

Shoppers still aren’t spending. The nation’s retailers reported another month of miserable sales Thursday, with July sales falling by around 5 percent, according to various groups that track retail spending.

One of the things that hurt retailers was that there weren’t as many sales and clearance merchandise, some analysts said. Stores ordered less inventory, so had less excess merchandise to mark down and get rid of.

But in talking to consumers at the Mall in Columbia yesterday, just about everyone was in search of a bargain. Most said they weren’t going to buy if the merchandise wasn't discounted and were planning their trips around a store’s sale.

Macy’s CEO Tony Lundgren recently told the Wall Street Journal: “The only way customers are going to start buying at full price again, (is) when they can’t have their own way on discounts. The key is to give good value, but it doesn’t have to be 80 percent off.”

The dilemma for retailers is if they sell at too steep of a discount, they don’t make a profit. If they don’t make a profit, they have to downsize and cut jobs and you know the rest.

But perhaps the clothes are marked up too high in the first place if they’re able to discount some and still make a profit.

What do you shoppers out there think? Will you even think of buying anything at full price?

Posted by Andrea Walker at 9:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Cheap/Frugal, Social Security
        

Seniors will be happy to note that their Social Security benefits will increase 5.8 percent starting in January, the highest annual cost-of-living adjustment since 1982. The boost comes in response to higher prices for food and energy.

The increase will mean about $60 extra for seniors nationwide. The 786,000 Marylanders receiving Social Security benefits on average as of December 2007 received about $1,020 a month, according to the Social Security Administration.

But a reader called with a question I'd like to answer in case others were wondering, too: what about Medicare premiums for 2009?

It turns out that although Social Security benefits are rising ...

Continue reading "Social Security benefits go up, Medicare premiums stay the same" »

Posted by Liz Kay at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Healthcare, Social Security
        

Politicians may be too chicken to fix Social Security’s financial problems, but what about you? Can you make the politically tough decisions to shore up the system?

Find out by playing the Social Security Game, created by the American Academy of Actuaries. The online game  gives potential fixes and the pros and cons of each option.

For instance, raise the age to get full retirement benefits to 70 by 2030, and all of Social Security’s solvency problems are cured. But workers in physically demanding jobs won’t be happy because they may have to work longer longer. And employers won’t be too pleased, either, because older workers mean higher health care costs.

Right now, the program runs at a $2.2 trillion surplus. But with millions of baby boomers retiring in the next several years, the picture changes. By 2017, Social Security will begin paying out more in benefits than it collects in taxes. By 2041, the surplus is spent. There are still enough taxes from workers and employees, though, to pay 78 percent of promised benefits.

So, how would you fix this shortfall? Play the game and let us know the choices you made.

Sam Davis of Towson played the game recently. He says he took a bite “from present, near future retirees, and younger workers.” He favors accelerating the increase in the retirement age to 67, reducing cost of living adjustments starting next year and raising the amount of wages subject to Social Security taxes. These steps are more than enough to fix the system’s problems.

“It boggles my mind to think that our legislators couldn’t solve this problem given the great info available,” he writes.

Play on!

Posted by Eileen Ambrose at 4:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Social Security
        

Social Security is a political hot potato. And this election year, politicians are promising to come up with solutions to financially shore up the system, although details are sparse.

Instead of waiting for leadership on high, tell us how you fix a system. Play the online Social Security Game. It was developed by number crunchers at the American Academy of Actuaries and updated annually.

The game gives you options and then calculates how much each option would go toward resolving Social Security’s problem. Understand, whatever fixes you come up with, will have a cost that will make some people upset.

For instance, Social Security’s solvency can be fully fixed by gradually raising the age to get full Social Security benefits to 70 by 2030. The problem, though, is that some workers have physically demanding jobs and need to stop at 62. Raise the age for full retirement benefits, and these workers will see their benefits shrink, too.

On the other hand, you could argue by 2030 there will be a lot fewer people doing physically demanding jobs because of technology and the drop in manufacturing.

Anyway, play the game and let us know how you would solve the problem.

Sam Davis of Towson read my article on the presidential candidates on Sunday’s paper about Social Security, and called for a revival of the game.

He wrote in an e-mail: “Your article did not mention one of the primary problems standing in the way of the fixing process, namely the Federal Legislature. Our Senators and Representatives do not want to tackle this issue, when in fact, absent any leadership from the Executive Branch, they have had years since this issue was first raised, and covered well in the Sunpaper of December 12, 2004. Imagine that, nearly 4 years of knowing the solutions to the problem with no action by our representatives! Please do your fellow citizens a favor and resurrect this great piece of reporting, update it, show how much time has cost us in the various remedy's outlined in that piece, and ring the clarion call and point the finger at who can act on this problem.”

Play on!

Posted by Eileen Ambrose at 2:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Social Security
        

Yesterday’s column about married women having trouble getting their tax rebate led to an interesting, and somewhat disturbing, response from reader Angela Phillips.

The IRS must match the name on a tax return with Social Security records and cannot — by order of Congress — cut a stimulus check if the names don’t match. It’s an anti-fraud measure. So women who didn’t notify Social Security that they were changing their name after marriage found that their return didn’t match the maiden name still on Social Security’s records.

But the article went on to mention that after Sept. 11, a federal law was passed to assure the authenticity of driver’s licenses that are so often used as a form of identification. States typically match the name of a driver’s license applicant with Social Security’s records.

The Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration says it has been doing this since 2003. If the names don’t match, an applicant won’t get a license, the state agency says.

Not so, says Phillips.

In May, when her driver’s license was about to expire, she went to the MVA’s Glen Burnie office to renew her license. A staffer there noted that her name didn’t match with the record at Social Security. So far, so good. That’s what’s supposed to happen.

Phillips told the woman she had changed her name when she got married seven years ago. The MVA worker asked Phillips if she had a credit card that would verify her new name, Phillips says. Phillips answered that she did have a credit card, but not on her.

Without any further verification, Phillips says, the staffer changed the name on her driver’s license.

When Phillips read the article yesterday, she was disturbed how easy it was for her to get a license by just telling the clerk that she uses a different name.

“It’s scary,” Phillips says. “They don’t know me from Adam. They took my word for it.”

Phillips wasn't the only one surprised by how trusting the MVA is in the post 9-11 era. About two weeks ago, Phillips went to Social Security’s offices to officially change her name on the agency’s records. A worker there told her she would need to bring in her marriage certificate and a driver’s license with her maiden name.

But Phillips told Social Security that her driver’s license has her married name. “They weren’t happy,” Phillips says.

The Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration pulled Phillips' record. Spokesman Buel Young says when Phillips renewed her license in 2001, she notified the MVA then that her name had changed. (That is before the law took effect, and in fact, could have been before Sept. 11.) 

Young says Phillips likely showed some evidence at that time, like a marriage certificate, and she received a license under her married name. The agency is reviewing its records to find out what verification she provided, Young says.

"Given that we already verified her previous name with her name in the system prior to this, she was permitted to renew her license because it already had been renewed in 2001 with the married name," Young says.

Young says Phillips was advised during her recent renewal to change her name with Social Security, and the record shows she has done that, he says.

Whew! It's comforting to know that the Maryland MVA had a sound explanation of why Phillips was able to renew with her married name.

Posted by Eileen Ambrose at 2:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Social Security
        

What if you had to submit your Social Security number to read this or any other blog? Ridiculous, you say? You’re right.

But there plenty of businesses that demand Social Security numbers although there is no good reason for them to have it. And with the poor track record of so many companies to protect our information, giving up a Social Security number to every group that asks for increases the risk of identity theft.

The Federal Trade Commission today is holding its second day of hearings on the use of Social Security numbers by the private sector and how to restrict it.

A Consumers Union survey released at the hearing shows how common it is for businesses to demand the numbers. According to the 1,016 consumers surveyed, in the past year:

More than one-quarter were asked for a Social Security number from service providers like cable TV and cell phone carriers.

Forty-two percent were asked to give full or partial numbers over the phone or Internet to access services or verify their identity.

One in seven consumers got mail — not counting tax documents — that carried their Social Security number.

Sixty percent were asked for the number by a financial institution or a retailer issuing credit.

And about half received requests for their number from health care providers.

The next time a business asks for your Social Security number, don't give it up if you don't think there is a legitimate reason for the company to have it. Businesses may balk, or they might agree to accept some other form of identification.

Continue reading "Keeping Social Security numbers private" »

Posted by Eileen Ambrose at 12:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Social Security