The Social Security Administration has laid off 7,000 workers. Here’s how it may impact your benefits.
Transcript:
Bob Powell: I don’t think it’s going to create a collapse in the short term. And that’s for a couple reasons. One is the social security act is is the law. And at the moment, until the law changes, people will still get their benefits. Now, what people do need to worry about, at least in the short term, is the possibility that when the trust fund becomes depleted in 2033, they could see a reduction in their benefits on the order of 21% and that could be across the board cut for everybody. If congress doesn’t act to replenish the trust fund in some form or fashion.
So, as you think about what could happen because of cuts to the social security administration, there are a couple key action steps to take. One is to make sure that you create a my social security account. Go to tsa.gov to establish an online account. And this will help protect you against fraud and allow you to review your earnings history. And then speaking of your earnings history, you want to make sure that you’re looking at your record for any errors.
And you want to make sure if there are errors that you contact social security immediately to correct them. Then the next thing you want to make sure that you do is to secure your social security card. You want to put that in a separate secure location. Maybe you have a fire box in your home. You can put it in there and then whatever you do, don’t rush to make a filing decision.
The staffing cuts at SSA should not influence when you decide to file for benefits. Ultimately, you want to consider what’s in your best interest as opposed to what’s happening at SSA. And then, when in doubt, seek professional help. There are a number of organizations and institutions where you can go to get free help. There’s something called the registered social security analyst and you can find them at RSA. Com and then there are some free resources. Aarp has a social security resource center. The center for retirement research at Boston college also has information about social security.
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