The Social Security Administration, an independent federal agency,
publishes a newsletter called "Social Security Today."
Here is the most recent issue I found on the web site www.ssa.gov

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                  Social Security Today

      Volume 1, Number 5--An official publication of the
       Social Security Administration -- March /April
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ADVISORY COUNCIL SETS STAGE FOR TALKS

The recent report of the Advisory Council on Social Security sets
the stage for national dialogue on the future of the Social
Security system. Although the council was unable to reach
agreement on how to best finance the program, it did reach
agreement on key issues designed to protect the program and its
beneficiaries. For instance, there was agreement that:

*  It is of great importance to the nation that a compulsory
   Social Security system be continued.

*  Maintaining full cost-of-living adjustments is one of Social
   Security's most important contributions to individual security
   and should be continued.

*  Social Security benefits should not be "means-tested" because
   it would discourage personal savings.

*  Benefits of low-wage workers should be protected.


The council also reached agreement on several other issues,
including the following key items which would improve the
economic health of the program. These include:

*  building up additional reserve funding;

*  extending mandatory coverage to newly-hired state and local
   government employees, to achieve the long-standing goal of
   universal coverage; and requiring that current beneficiaries
   share in any sacrifices that might be necessary, preferably by
   applying some new taxes to Social Security benefits.

THREE ALTERNATIVE PLANS

The council developed three options for future financing of the
program.

The "Maintenance of Benefits" option would maintain the present
Social Security benefit structure essentially as is, while
partially reducing the long-range deficit through several small
steps (such as taxing benefits to the extent they exceed what the
worker paid in). To eliminate the remaining deficit, the plan
would consider investing part of the trust funds in the stock
market, which should allow the funds to earn a higher return than
when invested in government securities (as the law currently
requires).


The "Individual Accounts" option would gradually lower the growth
of Social Security benefits, while also creating mandatory
individual accounts funded by additional employee contributions
of 1.6 percent of payroll. The accounts would be held by the
federal government, and individuals would have limited choices on
how to invest the funds.

The "Personal Security Account" plan would gradually replace
Social Security with a "two-tiered" system. For example, the
first tier would be a flat monthly benefit of about $410 in 1996
for workers with 35 years of employment. The second tier would be
the privately owned Personal Security Accounts, financed by
taking five percentage points of the current payroll tax and
redirecting it to the personal security account. Unlike the
Individual Accounts plan, the funds in these accounts would not
be held or managed by the federal government. Under this plan,
there would also be a transition cost equal to an additional 1.5
percent of payroll for 72 years, including the repayment of
additional funds that would need to be borrowed from general U.S.
government revenues in the early years of the transition.


A FOUNDATION FOR DECISION

The work of the Advisory Council provides a good foundation for
the task that lies ahead - ensuring that the Social Security
program will be the best one for future generations of Americans.

SOCIAL SECURITY IS PREPARING FOR BABY BOOMERS' RETIREMENT

Wednesday will become an important day in the lives of future
Social Security beneficiaries. It's the day that their Social
Security benefits will be paid.

People who apply for benefits beginning May 1, 1997 will not
receive their benefit on the third of the month as in the past.
Instead they will receive it on a second, third, or fourth
Wednesday of the month. When a person applies for benefits, the
Social Security representative will tell him or her when to
expect benefit payment. The benefit award notice will also have
this information. Benefits received in June will use the new
cycling schedule.

The day a person receives benefits will be determined by the
birth date. Here's how it works:

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Birth date between the:           Benefit paid on the:
     1st - 10th                     Second Wednesday
    11th - 20th                     Third Wednesday
    21st - 31st                     Fourth Wednesday
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Generally, the day in the month a person receives benefits will
depend on the birth date of the person on whose record benefits
are paid. For example, a retired or disabled worker's benefit
payment day will be determined by his or her birth date. A
spouse's benefit payment day will be determined by the worker's
birth date.

People who currently get Social Security will continue to receive
benefits on the third day of the month. The same is true for
people who begin receiving benefits from both Social Security and
Supplemental Security Income (SSI). SSI will continue to be paid
on the first of the month.

Adding new benefit payment days will let Social Security give
better service to all beneficiaries and callers. This becomes
increasingly important as Social Security prepares for the
retirement of baby boomers. Over the next 25 years, the benefit
population will grow from the current 50 million to more than 76
million. By spreading benefit payment dates over the month,
Social Security will be able to provide faster, more efficient
service, especially to those who call Social Security's toll-free
number 1-800-772-1213 about their monthly benefit.

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MEET A BENEFICIARY
Larry Wineke
Social Security helps heart transplant patient

On his 38th birthday, Larry Wineke began to feel ill with extreme
shortness of breath and flu-like symptoms. Noting that his
symptoms failed to improve and he grew weaker, his doctor
referred him to a local hospital where medical tests revealed
that an infectious virus was slowly destroying his heart.

Doctors treated him with various medications that allowed him to
continue working as a science teacher and football coach at
Calvert Hall College High School in Baltimore. But eventually,
Larry suffered a setback that required surgical intervention.
Though surgery helped, his condition continued to deteriorate
until only a heart transplant could save his life.

Receiving financial support from the community, Larry was able to
have his name placed on lists at two hospitals to receive the
transplant.  "By that time, I could not work. But I did not know
I could file for Social Security disability," he said. "I thought
Social Security was only for retirement."

Larry was near death before a donor was found. In November 1995,
surgeons wheeled him into the operating room at Johns Hopkins
Hospital where he received a heart transplant. He remained
hospitalized for three months.

Now, at age 44, he is back to work, recovering from the surgery
and his long stay in the hospital.

"It was a miracle," he says. "I never gave up hope because of the
support of my wife, the community, the doctors, and nurses. But
now I have many bills to pay for my surgery and medication."

Larry contacted his local Social Security office in the fall of
1995 and began receiving regular monthly benefits. Now he says,
"My Social Security disability benefits really help out. We were
able to keep our house."

Though Larry is back to work, his Social Security disability
benefits are extended until he is further along in his recovery.
The family, which includes Larry's wife, Sue, and their two sons,
Michael, age 16, and Ryan, 14, are happy to have their father
back in good health and can enjoy life once again.

DISABILITY AT A GLANCE

Disability under the Social Security program is based on the
inability to work. The person also must be insured under the
Social Security program. To be considered disabled, one must be
unable to do any kind of work for which he or she is suited.
Since Social Security generally does not pay benefits for partial
disability or for short-term disability, the impairment must be
expected to last for at least a year or result in death. Social
Security disability benefits can be paid at any age.

A disability beneficiary is automatically enrolled in Medicare
after getting benefits for two years. In addition, certain family
members may also qualify for benefits on the record of a disabled
person.

Many disability beneficiaries attempt to go back to work. To help
them succeed, Social Security provides work incentives which
allow for cash benefits and Medicare coverage.

If you would like more information about the disability program
or work incentives, call our toll-free number 1-800-772-1213.

DISABILITY REDESIGN UPDATE

Beginning April 1997, the Social Security Administration plans to
test a claims process model that combines key disability redesign
initiatives. Testing will take place at eight sites around the
country, and will have a universe of 30,000 cases randomly
selected over a 9-month period.

The combined model will test the following redesign features:

*  A single decisionmaker--A highly trained disability examiner
   in the State Disability Determination Service will be
   authorized to sign the disability determination form for most
   cases. Mental impairment cases and Supplemental Security
   Income childhood disability claims will require the signature
   of a medical consultant.

*  Pre-decision interview for initial claims--If a decision will
   be less than fully favorable to the claimant, the
   decisionmaker will offer the claimant a pre-decision
   interview, either face-to-face or by telephone.

*  Elimination of the reconsideration step--If a claimant chooses
   to appeal a decision, the first level of appeal will be a
   hearing before an Administrative Law Judge.

*  Adjudication Officer--When a hearing is requested, the
   adjudication officer will work
   representatives to define the issues for appeal by obtaining
   new evidence and developing the claimant's record. Where the
   evidence warrants it, the Adjudication Officer may issue a
   revised fully favorable decision, and eliminate the need for a
   hearing.

Data on sample cases will be collected after all appeals have
been decided.

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COMMISSIONER'S MESSAGE
John J. Callahan
Acting Commissioner of Social Security

Hubert Humphrey once said that "the true moral test of government
is how it treats those in the dawn of life - the children; those
in the twilight of life - the aged; and those who are in the
shadow of life - the sick, the needy, the disabled."

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is our national answer to his
important  test. SSI lives our neediest, the elderly, blind, and
disabled a measure of financial security. SSI helps these men and
women living in poverty by providing a floor of income which they
can rely on.

Contrary to the image some try to create, SSI is not a program
filled with undeserving people getting rich off the federal
government. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, for
millions of Americans, SSI benefits are the only thing standing
between them and destitution. More than half of SSI's 6.5 million
recipients have no other source of income. And for another 2.4
million, SSI is a supplement to those elderly who receive the
smallest of Social Security benefits and have little additional
income.

We know that the accuracy of eligibility status is of paramount
importance to protect SSI itself, and, of course, the recipients.
Therefore, we have a number of procedures and initiatives in
place to ensure the integrity of the program.

Make no mistake: we have a zero-tolerance for fraud. With our new
Inspector General at the lead, in the past two years, we have
more than doubled our number of investigators working in the
field. We are also establishing new mechanisms, such as
computer-matching agreements with states and other public
agencies, for obtaining and verifying income and other relevant
information regarding continuing eligibility of SSI recipients.
We also encourage our employees and the public to come forward
with concerns; we now have a new national hotline,
1-800-269-0271, just for this purpose.

Further, we have agreements with approximately 3,500 federal,
state, and local prisons, to obtain ongoing reports on their
prison populations, so that we can suspend benefits for any SSI
recipient who is incarcerated, as is required by law.

Again, our zero-tolerance of fraud means that those few
individuals who attempt to cheat this important program know that
Social Security is tracking them down, will prosecute them, and
will seek the strongest punishment available under law.
Additionally, with our strengthening the eligibility process
review, and new programs which will help the disabled become
independent, SSI is not only facing the challenges of today; it
is ensuring the financial security for those who need it the most
for years to come.

WE WON'T KEEP YOU IN SUSPENSE

Each year, Social Security receives reports from employers across
the nation representing the earnings of millions of workers.
Social Security posts these earnings to the worker's earnings
record, and later uses them to determine eligibility for Social
Security benefits, and the amount of those benefits. A very high
percentage of the earnings reports Social Security receives are
correct, and posted timely.

Sometimes, however, Social Security will receive an earnings
report that does not match the name and Social Security number
already on our records. When that happens, the agency goes to
great lengths to find the correct record to which to credit the
earnings.

First, we apply some tolerances for common errors, such as the
use of nicknames, misspellings of names, or transposing a letter
in a name or a numeral in the Social Security number. If that
doesn't work, we attempt to contact workers or their employers to
resolve the discrepancy.

As a result of these and other efforts, we are eventually able to
post almost 80 percent of the earnings reports that originally
did not match. Only after we have exhausted all of these means do
we place the earnings in a "suspense file." This is a file where
earnings are placed that cannot be credited to a specific
earnings record. But, once an item goes into the suspense file,
it does not simply remain there. We continue to make all efforts
to post as many wage items as possible.


Social Security is concerned about the effect of any unposted
earnings on a person's eligibility and benefits. You can help by
taking the f
problems. Twelve weeks of training honed them into a team. When
they emerged as the Direct Service Unit, they set out to improve
the level of service Social Security provides to the public.

During its first phase of operations, the DSU is responding to
calls from the public to Social Security's toll-free number,
1-800-772-1213. In its first nine months, the unit of 155
employees responded to 312,510 customer inquiries.

The DSU also is a laboratory in which to test new ideas for
improving service. Currently, the DSU is being tested as a site
for answering Social Security questions posted on the Internet.


Feedback from customers has led to another proposal for testing.
Many customers want to file a claim for benefits using Social
Security's toll-free 800 number. The DSU is exploring ways to do
this.

The DSU is successful partly because employees love working
there. Many had served in jobs with no public contact and did not
feel connected to the primary purpose of Social Security, which
is to serve the public. "Now," says Art Webster, Director of the
DSU, "when the DSU receives a telephone call or answers a
question posted on the Internet that ends with a satisfied
customer, employees feel a sense of satisfaction." Receiving the
Hammer Award makes it even better.

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KEEP IN MIND

IRS MAY RECOMPUTE YOUR TAXES

"Checking it twice," is good advice at any time, and it would be
well to apply this wisdom to your income tax returns. This year,
for the first time, if you do not show a correct Social Security
number on your tax return, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) may
recompute your taxes. Recent changes in tax law require that
Social Security numbers be listed correctly on the return before
a person can claim a personal exemption, the child care
credit, or the earned income credit. When processing tax returns,
IRS checks the names and Social Security numbers of taxpayers,
their spouse, and all dependents born before December 1, of that
tax year.

If IRS discovers an incorrect or missing Social Security number,
they will recompute the income tax. For example, if you claim a
child care credit, but don't have a Social Security number for
the child, IRS will recompute the taxes and not allow the child
care credit.
   benefits, press or say 2;

*  proof of current payments, press or say 3;

*  Medicare information or a replacement Medicare card,
   press or say 4; or

*  the address and working hours of the office nearest you,
   press or say 5.

To speak with a representative, press or say 6, or remain on the
line.  Representatives are available between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.
When a representative answers, you may ask for one who speaks
Spanish and you will be connected with a Spanish-speaking
representative. If you speak a language other than English or
Spanish, you should have someone who speaks English or Spanish
with you when you call. Other languages are not available at this
time.  When the office is closed in the evening between 7 p.m.
and 7 a.m. and on weekends and holidays, two additional options
are available. For a list of--

*  pamphlets, press or say 6, and

*  general information messages, press or say 7.

For some services, you may be asked to leave your name, address
and, in some cases your Social Security number, so we can send
the information to you.

WHAT'S NEW

PUBLISHER'S BOX

Social Security Today is designed to provide timely and relevant
information about the retirement, survivors, disability, and
Supplemental Security Income programs, as well as important
Medicare information.

Each issue of Social Security Today contains items that should be
of interest to your constituency. Permission to reprint articles,
giving credit to the Social Security Administration, is granted.
We would appreciate your sending tearsheets when you reprint this
material.

We welcome your comments and invite suggestions for future
editions. Please direct your correspondence to Editor, Social
Security Today, Room 4-J-10 West High Rise, 6401 Security
Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21235, or fax to Margaret. D. Pagan
@ssa.gov; Social Security Today also is available at the Social
Security Internet site, http://www.ssa.gov.



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