Social Security

NSCLC believes that protecting Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits is a priority. Throughout our history, we have fought to preserve these safety net programs through working with the Social Security Administration, challenging unfair practices in the courts, and, in collaboration with others, defended the programs from harmful change.

Several proposals have been offered by policymakers in 2010-11 to change Social Security as we know it. The arguments for change have tied the problems with future solvency to the current federal budget deficit even though the program has nothing to do with it.

NSCLC is a member of Social Security Works, a coalition that
seeks to strengthen Social Security, not cut it. We also work closely with the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, a national membership organization, and the Leadership Council of Aging Organizations, a coalition of 66 aging organizations, on related advocacy issues.

• Table Helps Calculate Medicaid Eligibility Under Pickle Amendment
  Dec. 5, 2011 - Social Security announced this fall for the first time since 2009 that there will be a cost of living adjustment in Social Security and SSI benefits effective January 1. This adjustment will affect the calculation of Pickle Amendment el...



• Treasury Rules Governing Garnishment of Directly Deposited Benefits
  Effective May 1, 2011, rules went into effect governing garnishment from accounts into which certain exempt federal benefits are directly deposited.  The new rules are designed to assure the account holder of uninterrupted access to at two months wort...



• Policy Issue Brief: Does the Social Security COLA Need to be Changed?
  (6/30/11) As policymakers debate changing the cost of living adjustment, NSCLC recommends a switch to the CPI-E as the basis for calculating the COLA for Social Security, veterans and other federal benefits. READ THE BRIEF



• Increasing the Social Security Retirement Age Cuts Benefits and Drives Up Administrative Costs
  This policy Issue Brief discusses the serious long-term negative impact of increasing the Social Security retirement age. Read the Issue Brief: Increasing the Social Security Retirement Age Cuts Benefits and Drives Up Administrative Costs.



• Social Security & Federal Checks Must Be Direct Deposited
  With some exceptions, if someone applies for federal benefits on or after May 1, 2011, they must receive all checks through direct deposit from now on. The Department of the Treasury has promulgated a final regulation [75 Fed. Reg. 80315 (Dec. 22, 2010...



• What is Direct Express?
  DIRECT EXPRESS DEBIT CARDS Since 2008, people receiving Social Security or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits who do not have a bank account have had the option of receiving benefits in the form of a prepaid debit card instead of a paper ch...



• Social Security Cuts Would Hurt Low-Income Older Adults
  Statement of Paul Nathanson National Senior Citizens Law Center SOCIAL SECURITY CUTS WOULD HURT LOW INCOME OLDER ADULTS WASHINGTON --The National Senior Citizens Law Center is concerned that proposals contained in the National Commission on Fiscal...



• Social Security Modernization: Options to Address Solvency and Benefit Adequacy
  On May 18, 2010, the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging released a new committee report. Click here to access the report.  



• Social Security Administration Retreats from “Unknowing Flight” Doctrine and Will Pay Hundreds of Millions in Back Benefits
  This article in the Clearinghouse REVIEW Journal of Poverty Law and Policy has details of the Martinez settlement.  



• Government Stops Unlawful Social Security Suspensions; Agrees To Repay More Than Half A Billion in Back Benefits
  August 11, 2009                                     Government Stops Unlawful Social Security Suspensions; Agrees To Repay More Than Half A Billion in Back Benefits   More than 200,000 people eligible again throu...