News

Illegal immigrants get jobs using counterfeit, invalid, and stolen Social Security numbers that employers use to withhold payroll taxes and report earnings to the Social Security Administration. Immigration advocates argue that unauthorized workers have little chance of collecting benefits. "That changes once those workers gain a valid Social Security number," Hyland says. Social Security Administration policy allows noncitizens who have evidence of earnings under invalid Social Security numbers, to claim and reinstate those earnings for use in determining entitlement once they obtain a valid Social Security number. The earnings are then used to determine the initial retirement benefit amount..On Wednesday, the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee met with officials from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Government Accountability Office to discuss the removal of Social Security numbers from Medicare cards. According to Subcommittee Chairman Wally Herger, more than one million seniors have been victims of identity theft in the past year, largely because the Medicare cards they are encouraged to carry everyday contain sensitive information..The amount of money that the federal government owes to its creditors - including the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds - is now estimated to be as big as the entire U.S. economy. Economists warn that the situation can't continue without causing more economic crisis..NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: A table showing the full list of drugs compared and details on costs can be found here..Last week TSCL was part of a virtual meeting with Senator John Thune who, as the Majority Whip, is the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, after Majority Leader Mitch McConnell..This year, for the first time in decades, "expanding" Social Security became the platform of a major political party - the Democrats - while both presidential candidates, Clinton and Trump, expressed opposition to any benefit cuts. And lending credibility to the claims, legislation is pending in both the Senate and the House that would provide a boost to Social Security benefits and use a "seniors" CPI, the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly, to determine the annual cost-of-living adjustment. The legislation would finance doing this by lifting the payroll taxable maximum - which is currently capped in 2016 at the first 8,500 in earnings..More than 1,057 respondents participated in The Senior Citizens League's annual senior survey, which was conducted from January through March of this year. Participants confirmed that monthly household expenses made steep increases over the past year, far in excess of the dollar amount that their COLAs increased benefits. More than half, 56%, indicated their monthly expenses went up by more than Yet 50% of survey respondents said that their COLA increased benefits less than per month, after the increased Part B premium for 2018 was deducted from their Social Security benefits..For many years TSCL has led the fight to provide additional compensation to those affected..The Senior Citizens League supports legislation that would help lower both taxpayer and Medicare beneficiary costs, including a House and Senate bill that would prohibit surprise medical bills, allow Medicare to negotiate the cost of prescription drugs, and cap out-of-pocket spending on prescription drugs for beneficiaries. To learn more,.