Social security rulings on federal old-age, survivors, disability, and supplemental security income; and black lung benefits.

Social Security, in the United States, currently refers to the Federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program. The original Social Security Act[1] and the current version of the Act, as amended encompass several social welfare or social insurance programs. The larger and better known initiatives of the program are: Federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance; Unemployment Insurance; Temporary Assistance to Needy Families; Health Insurance for Aged and Disabled (Medicare); Grants to States for Medical Assistance Programs (Medicaid); State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP); Supplemental Security Income (SSI). Social Security in the United States is a social insurance program funded through dedicated payroll taxes called Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA). The term, in everyday speech, is used only to refer to the benefits for retirement, disability, survivorship, and death, which are the four main benefits provided by traditional private-sector pension plans. By dollars paid, the U.S. Social Security program is the largest government program in the world. Largely because of solvency questions ranging from immediate crisis to large projected future shortfalls, reform of the Social Security system has been a major political issue for more than three decades. This book presents the latest issues and developments related to this program.

Find all of the following, explained in plain-English: How your Social Security retirement benefits, spousal benefits, and widow/widower benefits are calculated How your benefits are affected if you have a government pension or if you continue working while claiming Social Security How to decide when is the best age for you (and your spouse, if you're married) to claim Social Security in order to get the most out of your benefits Whether or not it makes sense to take Social Security early in order to invest the money How to check your earnings record on the Social Security Administration's website to make sure you're getting the full benefit you deserve How Social Security benefits are taxed and how this affects retirement tax planning Please note that this book does not cover Social Security disability benefits or Supplemental Security Income (SSI).

Millions of Americans experience some degree of hearing loss. The Social Security Administration (SSA) operates programs that provide cash disability benefits to people with permanent impairments like hearing loss, if they can show that their impairments meet stringent SSA criteria and their earnings are below an SSA threshold. The National Research Council convened an expert committee at the request of the SSA to study the issues related to disability determination for people with hearing loss. This volume is the product of that study. Hearing Loss: Determining Eligibility for Social Security Benefits reviews current knowledge about hearing loss and its measurement and treatment, and provides an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the current processes and criteria. It recommends changes to strengthen the disability determination process and ensure its reliability and fairness. The book addresses criteria for selection of pure tone and speech tests, guidelines for test administration, testing of hearing in noise, special issues related to testing children, and the difficulty of predicting work capacity from clinical hearing test results. It should be useful to audiologists, otolaryngologists, disability advocates, and others who are concerned with people who have hearing loss.

This volume represents the most important work to date on one of the pressing policy issues of the moment: the privatization of social security. Although social security is facing enormous fiscal pressure in the face of an aging population, there has been relatively little published on the fundamentals of essential reform through privatization. Privatizing Social Security fills this void by studying the methods and problems involved in shifting from the current system to one based on mandatory saving in individual accounts. "Timely and important. . . . [Privatizing Social Security] presents a forceful case for a radical shift from the existing unfunded, pay-as-you-go single national program to a mandatory funded program with individual savings accounts. . . . An extensive analysis of how a privatized plan would work in the United States is supplemented with the experiences of five other countries that have privatized plans." —Library Journal "[A] high-powered collection of essays by top experts in the field."—Timothy Taylor, Public Interest

This publication informs advocates & others in interested agencies & organizations about supplemental security income (SSI) eligibility requirements & processes. It will assist you in helping people apply for, establish eligibility for, & continue to receive SSI benefits for as long as they remain eligible. This publication can also be used as a training manual & as a reference tool. Discusses those who are blind or disabled, living arrangements, overpayments, the appeals process, application process, eligibility requirements, SSI resources, documents you will need when you apply, work incentives, & much more.