The Labor Department will announce the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for September 2013 tomorrow — the last missing piece that’ll determine the January 2014 cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) in Social Security. The department would normally have announced the CPI on October 16, but — like...
off the charts
POLICY INSIGHT
BEYOND THE NUMBERS
BEYOND THE NUMBERS
Social Security Keeps 22 Million Americans Out of Poverty
October 25, 2013
Social Security lifted 22 million people out of poverty in 2012, according to our updated analysis (with state-by-state data) of Census data. This includes not just 15 million elderly Americans but also many younger people, including 1 million children who either received their own benefits as dependents of retired, disabled...
Policymakers Should Sift Facts on Disability Insurance Carefully
October 1, 2013
Critics continue to offer potentially misleading claims about the Disability Insurance (DI) program — a vital part of Social Security that pays modest benefits to people who can no longer do substantial work due to a severe medical impairment — and a recent Washington Post...
“Gini Index” From Census Confirms Rising Inequality Over Four Decades
September 19, 2013
As our statement on Tuesday’s Census Bureau report notes, a key measure of inequality known as the Gini index was tied for its highest level on record in 2012,...
The Economist Gets It Wrong on Disability Insurance
September 13, 2013
A recent article in the Economist took an uninformed — and unjustified — swipe at Disability Insurance (DI), the part of...
Disability Benefits Are Hard to Get — Even in Recessions
September 3, 2013
We’ve noted before that economic downturns generally spur more applications for Social Security disability benefits — but have a much smaller effect on awards. (See graph.) That usual pattern is based on...
Happy 78th Birthday, Social Security!
August 14, 2013
Social Security marks its 78th birthday today. This highly successful program pays benefits to 57 million Americans. It’s the single most important source of income for its elderly beneficiaries, contributing on average two-thirds of income...
U.S. Seniors Are a Hard-Working Bunch
July 17, 2013
Financial pressures are leading many European Union (EU) countries to encourage older workers to remain in the labor force, the Social Security Administration (SSA) reports. By way of comparison, U.S. seniors are more likely to be in the workforce than their peers in almost every other developed country....