Alexandria, VA (PRWEB) June 17, 2013
Seniors are closely following the debate more than Social Security, and a new survey indicates powerful assistance for two main alterations that could restore Social Securitys extended-term solvency. The survey, performed by The Senior Citizens League (TSCL), 1 of the nation’s largest nonpartisan seniors groups, identified that 52% of seniors strongly favor, and another 30% somewhat favor, raising the Social Safety maximum taxable wage base. In addition, 87% help banning the use of earnings from jobs worked beneath invalid and fraudulent Social Safety numbers by unauthorized immigrant workers to figure out entitlement to Social Security and other federal advantages.

Why raise the maximum? In 1993 the taxable maximum was eliminated for Medicare payroll taxes. But at the moment, workers who earn a lot more than $ 113,700 pay no Social Safety taxes at all on earnings more than that amount. That includes each Member of Congress and President Obama, notes TSCL Chairman Larry Hyland. The tax max increases annually by the growth in national average wages.

Low and middle-income earners pay taxes on all of their earnings. In current years, nonetheless, the share of total wages earned in the U.S. and subject to Social Security payroll tax has declined due to the fact the earnings of the most highly paid workers have grown quickly. Most of the proposals to improve the taxable maximum would also raise benefits of the affected workers by counting earnings above the old cap in the benefit formula. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated that eliminating the taxable maximum would extend the Social Safety solvency as considerably as 50 years.

Why ban the use of earnings from unauthorized perform to figure out Social Safety benefits? Under present law Social Safety utilizes all earnings to calculate Social Security advantages. That signifies earnings of unauthorized immigrants from jobs worked beneath invalid and fraudulent Social Security numbers (SSN) can be employed both to qualify for rewards and for the calculation of the initial retirement benefit. There is no official published information on the amount of wages on file attributable to aliens operating without authorization, but the Social Safety Administration maintains an earnings suspense file that represents an estimated $ 763.5 billion in wages from 2000 by means of 2010 , most of it believed to be attributable to illegal workers. Beneath immigration reform, that could mean a massive new liability for Social Safety in the future, triggering far more rounds of cuts and greater taxes.

TSCL strongly believes that earnings under invalid SSNs should be also be invalid for entitlement to positive aspects, says Hyland. Document fraud, identity theft and violation of immigration law should not be rewarded with Social Safety advantages, specially as Congress considers cutting Social Safety expense-of-living adjustments (COLAs), he states.

To discover more and uncover out how a lot you could lose by COLA cuts, pay a visit to http://seniorsleague.org/chained-cola-calculator/. To discover a lot more, visit http://www.SeniorsLeague.org.

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With about 1 million supporters, The Senior Citizens League is a single of the nation’s largest nonpartisan seniors groups. Situated just outside Washington, D.C., its mission is to market and help members and supporters, to educate and alert senior citizens about their rights and freedoms as U.S. Citizens, and to defend and defend the rewards senior citizens have earned and paid for. The Senior Citizens League is a proud affiliate of TREA The Enlisted Association. Please visit http://www.SeniorsLeague.org or get in touch with 1-800-333-8725 for far more data.