Thread: Social Security unfunded liabilities rise to $12.5 trillion, according to trustees re

Social Security unfunded liabilities rise to $12.5 trillion, according to trustees report

Jul 13, 2017, 2:58 PM

Social Security's unfunded liabilities total $12.5 trillion in present-dollar terms over a 75-year timeframe, the administration's trustees reported Thursday, an increase of $1.2 trillion from last year's estimate.

The trustees report showed that the projected exhaustion date for Social Security's combined trust fund is 2034, unchanged from a year ago. Medicare's trust fund, though, is in better shape than previously estimated and will run out a year later than previously anticipated, in 2029.

At those dates, beneficiaries would face the prospect of an immediate cut in benefits unless policy were changed in some way to avoid that outcome. Social Security beneficiaries would see a cut of about a quarter in their checks, which average about $1,360 a month at the end of 2016 for retirees.

In a statement, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that the programs are secure and will remain secure, but that "tens of millions of Americans rely on these programs and it is important that we ensure their long-term stability."

In order to preserve the programs, he said, "we should focus on strengthening the economy today," as compounding growth would ease the projected shortfalls. To that end, he called for enacting tax and regulatory reforms.

President Trump has declined to propose cost-saving reforms to Social Security retirement or Medicare. Many congressional Republicans, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, have called for reforming Medicare through a premium support model.

To close the 75-year gap in funding for Social Security liabilities through payroll taxes alone, according to the trustees, the government would have to permanently raise the rate 2.76 percentage points to 15.16 percent. Alternatively, benefits would need to immediately be cut by 17 percent for all of Social Security's 61 million beneficiaries.

Spending on Social Security and Medicare is expected to grow in the years ahead, according to the Congressional Budget Office, both because the population is aging and because healthcare costs are set to grow faster than economic output.

The baby boom generation began reaching retirement age in 2011 and will continue to retire in large numbers until 2029, at which point roughly one in five Americans will be seniors, according to the Census Bureau.

In the 1960s, there were four workers for each Social Security benefit. Today, that ratio is under three, and it is projected to fall to two during the 75-year timeframe.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/so...rticle/2628588

How many Cuban's, refugees, illegals on our Social Security?

How much has the government BORROWED AND STOLE from this fund?

Cut off ALL foreign aid, cut off refugee programs, cut off asylum and illegal alien programs, Visa's, and every pet project until every DIME is paid back!

Trustees project biggest Social Security increase in years

Originally Posted by Beezer

How many Cuban's, refugees, illegals on our Social Security?

How much has the government BORROWED AND STOLE from this fund?

Cut off ALL foreign aid, cut off refugee programs, cut off asylum and illegal alien programs, Visa's, and every pet project until every DIME is paid back!

If they are retirement age, even if they have never paid in a dime or lived here, they get SSI (funded by SS).

Every agency in the government "borrows" from the Social Security Fund because it is the only LIQUID fund in the government and they don't pay it back.

From 2011.

JUL 13, 2011 @ 02:25 PM 435,579

What Happened to the $2.6 Trillion Social Security Trust Fund?
Merrill Matthews , CONTRIBUTOR
Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

Here’s how President Barack Obama answered CBS’s Scott Pelley’s question about whether he could guarantee that Social Security checks would go out on August 3, the day after the government is supposed to reach its debt limit: “I cannot guarantee that those checks [he included veterans and the disabled, in addition to Social Security] go out on August 3rd if we haven't resolved this issue. Because there may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it.”

And Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner echoed the president on CBS’s Face the Nation Sunday implying that if a budget deal isn’t reached by August 2, seniors might not get their Social Security checks.

Well, either Obama and Geithner are lying to us now, or they and all defenders of the Social Security status quo have been lying to us for decades. It must be one or the other.

Here’s why: Social Security has a trust fund, and that trust fund is supposed to have $2.6 trillion in it, according to the Social Security trustees. If there are real assets in the trust fund, then Social Security can mail the checks, regardless of what Congress does about the debt limit.

President Obama’s budget director, Jack Lew, explained all this last February in USA Today:

"Social Security benefits are entirely self-financing. They are paid for with payroll taxes collected from workers and their employers throughout their careers. These taxes are placed in a trust fund dedicated to paying benefits owed to current and future beneficiaries. … Even though Social Security began collecting less in taxes than it paid in benefits in 2010, the trust fund will continue to accrue interest and grow until 2025, and will have adequate resources to pay full benefits for the next 26 years."

Notice that Lew said nothing about raising the debt ceiling, which was already looming, and it shouldn’t matter anyway because Social Security is “entirely self-financing” and off budget. What could be clearer?

Unconvinced, syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote a subsequent column questioning Lew’s assertions. “This [Lew’s] claim is a breathtaking fraud. The pretense is that a flush trust fund will pay retirees for the next 26 years. Lovely, except for one thing: The Social Security trust fund is a fiction. … In other words, the Social Security trust fund contains—nothing.”

Social Security status-quo defenders have assured us for the past 25 years that Social Security is fully funded—for the next 25 years, or 2036. So if there are real assets in the Social Security Trust Fund—$2.6 trillion allegedly—then how could failure to reach a debt-ceiling agreement possibly threaten seniors’ Social Security checks?

The answer is that the federal government has borrowed all of that trust fund money and spent it, exactly as Krauthammer asserted. And the only way the trust fund can get some cash to pay Social Security benefits is if the federal government draws it from general revenues or borrows the money—which, of course, it can’t do because of the debt ceiling.

Thus, the answer to my initial question is that the president is telling the truth now in the sense that he is conceding there’s no money in the trust fund to pay benefits; but he and other Social Security status-quo defenders have been deceiving the public for decades.

And here’s the real irony: Anytime someone has proposed personal Social Security retirement accounts as a way to ensure that people have real assets in their own account without bankrupting the government or future generations, defenders of the status quo would pounce, calling such a reform, in Al Gore’s words, a “risky scheme.” They have vociferously claimed that those trust fund assets are real and that only by having the government manage and control the accounts would seniors be guaranteed to get their retirement checks.

Well, we have the status quo and seniors may not get their checks. Had we shifted to a system of pre-funded, personal Social Security retirement accounts years ago, this wouldn’t even be an issue—because retirees would have their own money in their own accounts.

Yes, the accounts likely would have declined when the stock market went down, though not if the reform were structured like three Texas counties did 30 years ago (see here). But in case you haven’t noticed, Social Security revenues also declined during the economic downturn—because fewer people were working—so that the government is paying out more in benefits than it is taking in, and hence needing additional federal revenues, a fact admitted by Lew.

If the budget crisis has done nothing else, it has exposed the decades-long lie about the solvency of the Social Security trust fund. The trust fund may be backed by the “full faith and credit of the federal government,” as defenders constantly remind us, but if it had real assets the president wouldn’t be talking about seniors missing their checks.

(Update: For a second opinion, on July 16 an editorial in the Wall Street Journal made the same argument as this piece, even to the similar title.)
Merrill Matthews is a resident scholar with the Institute for Policy Innovation in Dallas, Texas. http://twitter.com/MerrillMatthews

https://www.forbes.com/sites/merrill.../#561c355b757a

About SSI and other benefits.

U.S. Government To Offer Each New Refugee Thousands Of Dollars In Social Services And Cash
KERRY PICKET
Reporter
09/18/2015


Refugees receive a plethora of services and assistance when they reach the shores of the America, according to a recently released study.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops posted a PDF on their website breaking down available assistance for refugees resettled in the United States. The information is based on a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

President Barack Obama initially said he wanted to bring in 10,000 Syrian refugees. The White House is now discussing raising that from 70,000 this year to 85,000 in 2016 and 100,000 in fiscal 2017, administration officials told Bloomberg News.

The numbers of refugees appear on track to grow and each refugee is offered a placement grant of $1,850 from the Department of State. This includes: pre-arrival, reception, initial housing food, clothing, referral services and social programs. The benefit eligibility are for those refugees who have been in the U.S. for up to three months.

Refugees needing cash assistance can get it through Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). This is temporary financial assistance and social services for those eligible low-income refugees with dependent children. Cash assistance for refugees who do not qualify for TANF can also be obtained through Refugee Cash Assistance. This is available for those in U.S. for up to 8 months.

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is also an option for incoming refugees and those who settled in the U.S. for up to nine years. This is cash is cash assistance for those low-income individuals who may be elderly, blind, or disabled.

Refugees who’ve been in the United States up to seven years are also offered medical financial assistance through Medicaid as well as through the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Otherwise, Refugee Medical Assistance is available for up to eight months for those individuals who are not eligible for Medicaid.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is made available to refugees for up to nine years while social services for refugees — including job training, placement, and retention for those settled in the U.S — are available for up to five years.

Ann Corcoran, founder of Refugee Resettlement Watch, first noticed the posting and comments, “At the top you will see that each refugee gets $1850 as a one time payment from the US Dept. of State (a family of 6 would receive $11,100). However, the contracting (non-profit) agency keeps about $750 of each refugee’s allotment for its own overhead.”

She later noted, “But, that is not all the contractor receives, most get tens of thousands of federal dollars to run myriad other programs through their offices including English language lessons, employment counseling, and even are granted federal dollars to develop community gardens for their refugee clients.”

http://dailycaller.com/2015/09/18/ea...are-for-years/

Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
is a United States government program that provides stipends to low-income people who are either aged 65 or older, blind, or disabled.

Although administered by the Social Security Administration, SSI is funded from the U.S. Treasury general funds, not the Social Security trust fund.

Supplemental Security Income - Wikipedia

	UNDER WHAT CIRCUMSTANCES MAY A NON-CITIZEN BE ELIGIBLE FOR SSI? A non-citizen (also called an "alien" for immigration purposes) may be eligible for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) if he or she meets the requirements of the laws for non–citizens that went into effect on August 22, 1996. In general, beginning August 22, 1996, most non-citizens must meet two requirements to be potentially eligible for SSI: be in a qualified alien category; and meet a condition that allows qualified aliens to get SSI. IMPORTANT: A non-citizen must also meet all of the other rules for SSI eligibility, including the limits on income and resources, etc.
	WHO IS A QUALIFIED ALIEN? There are seven categories of qualified aliens. You are a qualified alien if the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says you are in one of these categories: Lawfully Admitted for Permanent Residence (LAPR) in the U.S., which includes"Amerasian immigrant" as defined in P.L. 100-202, with a class of admission AM-1 through AM-8; Granted conditional entry under Section 203(a)(7) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) as in effect before April 1, 1980; Paroled into the U.S. under Section 212(d)(5) of the INA for a period of at least one year; Refugee admitted to the U.S. under Section 207 of the INA; Granted asylum under Section 208 of the INA; Deportation is being withheld under Section 243(h) of the INA, as in effect before April 1, 1997; or removal is being withheld under Section 241(b)(3) of the INA; A "Cuban and Haitian entrant" as defined in Section 501(e) of the Refugee Education Assistance Act of 1980 or in a status that is to be treated as a "Cuban/ Haitian entrant" for SSI purposes. In addition, you can be a “deemed qualified alien” if, under certain circumstances, you, your child or parent were subjected to battery or extreme cruelty by a family member while in the United States.
	UNDER WHAT CONDITIONS MAY A "QUALIFIED ALIEN" BE ELIGIBLE FOR SSI BENEFITS? If you are in one of the seven "qualified alien" categories listed above, you may be eligible for SSI if you also meet one of the following conditions: You were receiving SSI and lawfully residing in the U.S. on August 22, 1996. You are LAPR with 40 qualifying quarters of work. Work done by your spouse or parent may also count toward the 40 quarters of work, but only for getting SSI. Quarters of work earned after December 31, 1996, cannot be counted if you, your spouse, or parent who worked, received certain benefits from the United States government, based on limited income and resources during that period. IMPORTANT: If you entered the United States on or after August 22, 1996, then you may not be eligible for SSI for the first five years as an LAPR even if you have 40 qualifying quarters of coverage. You are currently on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces or you are an honorably discharged veteran and your discharge is not because you are an alien. This condition may also apply if you are the spouse, widow(er), or dependent child of certain U.S. military personnel. You were lawfully residing in the U.S. on August 22, 1996 andyou are blind or disabled. You may receive SSI for a maximum of seven years from the date DHS granted you immigration status in one of the following categories, and the status was granted within seven years of filing for SSI: Refugee under Section 207 of the INA; Asylee under Section 208 of the INA; Alien whose deportation was withheld under Section 243(h) of the INA or whose removal is withheld under Section 241(b)(3) of the INA; "Cuban or Haitian entrant" under Section 501(e) of the Refugee Education Assistance Act of 1980 or in a status that is to be treated as a "Cuban/ Haitian entrant" for SSI purposes; or "Amerasian immigrant" pursuant to P.L. 100-202, with a class of admission of AM-1 through AM-8. For purposes of SSI eligibility, individuals are not considered qualified aliens if they were admitted to the U.S. under the provisions of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000. Their eligibility is subject to the proper certification in such status by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and possession of a valid "T" non-immigrant visa. Once the alien obtains proper certification and is in possession of a "T" non-immigrant visa, he or she becomes potentially eligible for SSI.
	EXEMPTION FROM THE AUGUST 22, 1996 LAWS FOR CERTAIN NON-CITIZEN INDIANS Certain categories of non–citizens may be eligible for SSI and are not subject to the August 26, 1996 law. These categories include: American Indians born in Canada who were admitted to the U.S. under Section 289 of the Immigration and Nationality Act; or non–citizen members of a federally recognized Indian tribe under Section 4(e) of the Indian Self–Determination and Education Assistance Act.
	ADDITIONAL ELIGIBLE ALIEN CATEGORIES Victims of Severe Forms of Human trafficking: You may be eligible for SSI under certain circumstances if the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/orr/) and the Department of Homeland Security determines that you meet the requirements of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. Special eligibility for nationals of Iraq or Afghanistan: If you are an Iraqi or Afghan national who was admitted to the U.S. as a special immigrant, you may qualify for seven years of SSI benefits if you served as a translator/interpreter for the U.S. Armed Forces in Iraq or Afghanistan or if you worked for the U.S. government in Iraq.
	WE NEED PROOF OF YOUR IMMIGRATION STATUS If you apply for SSI benefits, you must give us proof of your immigration status, such as a current DHS admission/departure Form I-94, Form I-551 or an order from an immigration judge showing withholding of removal or granting asylum. If you have served in the U.S. Armed Forces, you may also need to give us proof of military service such as U.S. military discharge papers (DD Form 214) showing an honorable discharge. Your local Social Security office can tell you what other types of evidence you can submit to prove your alien status.
	WHAT IF YOU HAVE A SPONSOR? When you entered the U.S., you may have had someone sign an agreement with DHS to provide support for you. We call this agreement an affidavit of support, and we call the person who signs it your sponsor. If you have a sponsor, we generally will count his or her (and his or her spouse's) income and resources as your income and resources. Your local Social Security office can give you more information about these rules and how they apply in your case.
	BECOMING A U.S. CITIZEN You can get more information about becoming a U.S. citizen by writing or visiting the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website at www.uscis.gov or calling 1-800-870-3676 to get an application package for naturalization (DHS Form N-400).

THIS INFORMATION IS GENERAL.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CALL 1–800–772–1213 (TTY 1–800–325–077,
VISIT OUR WEBSITE (www.socialsecurity.gov) ON THE INTERNET,
OR CONTACT YOUR LOCAL SOCIAL SECURITY OFFICE.
https://www.ssa.gov/ssi/spotlights/spot-non-citizens.htm

All of the funds in the Social Security Trust Funds are invested in special securities issued by the US government so it appears that the money becomes available. The holder of the investment is 20 Trillion dollars in debt...

ocial Security Online	Trust Fund Data
Office of the Chief Actuary	Investment Holdings July 14, 2017

Investments held Investment transactions

The table below shows the investments held by the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) and Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Funds. Today, the trust funds hold only special issues. At times in the past, the funds also held publicly traded securities backed by the Federal government.

Investment type		Interest rate (%)	Maturity years	Total	OASI	DI
Special issues (available only to the trust funds)	Bonds	1.375	2018 - 2027	$233,477,580	$233,477,580	$ —
1.750	2018 - 2028	227,230,440	227,230,440	—
1.875	2018 - 2022	23,830,339	11,604,778	12,225,561
1.875	2023 - 2031	206,679,228	206,679,228	—
2.000	2018 - 2030	229,658,170	229,658,170	—
2.250	2018 - 2029	225,985,538	225,985,538	—
2.500	2018 - 2026	214,321,678	214,321,678	—
2.875	2018 - 2025	211,426,619	211,426,619	—
3.250	2018 - 2024	217,080,783	217,080,783	—
3.500	2018	86,900,994	86,900,994	—
4.000	2018 - 2022	60,375,960	60,375,960	—
4.000	2023	157,358,447	142,682,893	14,675,554
4.125	2017 - 2020	134,502,904	134,502,904	—
4.625	2017 - 2019	114,403,983	114,403,983	—
5.000	2017 - 2021	62,271,160	62,271,160	—
5.000	2022	141,750,297	130,607,701	11,142,596
5.125	2017 - 2021	164,424,836	164,424,836	—
5.250	2017	77,387,242	77,387,242	—
Certificates of indebtedness	2.375	2017	58,820,312	50,383,106	8,437,206
Total amount invested				2,847,886,510	2,801,405,593	46,480,917
Average interest rate a				3.032%	3.026%	3.386%

https://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/investheld.cgi


Trust funds and types of investments
The Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund and the Disability Insurance Trust Fund comprise the Social Security trust funds. Both funds are managed by the Department of the Treasury through their Bureau of the Fiscal Service. Since the beginning of the Social Security program, all securities held by the trust funds have been issued by the Federal Government. There are two general types of such securities:

• Special issues—available only to the trust funds
• Public issues—marketable Treasury bonds available to the public.

The trust funds now hold only special issues, but they have held public issues in the past.Special issue types and properties
There are two types of special issues: short-term certificates of indebtedness and long-term bonds.

• The certificates of indebtedness are issued on a daily basis for the investment of receipts not required to meet current expenditures, and they mature on the next June 30 following the date of issue.
• Special-issue bonds are normally acquired only when special issues of either type mature on June 30. The bonds generally have maturities ranging from one to fifteen years.1

The above properties of special issue securities are summarized in the following table.

Type of special issue	Investment frequency	Maturity
Certificates of indebtedness	Daily	Next June 30
Bonds	June 30	Generally 1 to 15 years1

Special issue redemption rules
When special issues need to be redeemed prior to maturity, the securities are redeemed in order of

1. Earliest maturity date;

Lowest interest rate for securities with the same maturity date.


https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/ProgData/specialissues.html