Notice anything missing from your mailbox the last couple of years? That
would be your annual Social Security Statement. The Social Security
Administration (SSA) stopped mailing them around this time last year as a
cost-cutting measure. As taxpayers we can all applaud the roughly $70 million
in annual savings. However, the SSA also promised that an online version would
be available by year end. That target slipped as the agency wanted to ensure
the security of the online system before going live, a task they finally
accomplished earlier this summer. Now you can go to www.ssa.gov/mystatement, where you can set up an account and
thereafter enjoy secure access to your entire earnings record, amounts you have
paid into Social Security and Medicare, and the current estimate of your
benefits. SSA will continue to send paper statements to those sixty and over
until they retire and start their claim.
This is one of many cost-cutting
measures made possible by the Web. SSA is working to move more of its
interaction with the public online in order to relieve and possibly reduce the
growing demand at its field offices. Already roughly 41% of Social Security
claims and 44% of Medicare claims originate online. Imagine how much larger the
agency workforce of nearly 70,000 would have to be if these millions of claims
had to be first processed in the field offices!
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