Posted Jan. 13, 2015 | Last week, the House of Representatives adopted a sweeping rules package for the 114th Congress including a provision that would stop House lawmakers from transferring money from Social Security’s Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund to the program’s Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Fund unless lawmakers took steps to “improve the actuarial balance” of both funds The rule could destabilize Social Security by preventing a routine, technical fix. The Disability Insurance Trust Fund is expected to be depleted in late 2016, leaving the Social Security Administration able to pay only about 80 percent of benefits. Disability advocates support the proposal of Social Security’s Chief Actuary for a small short-term reallocation of payroll taxes to shore up the DI fund. This has occurred many times in past decades and in both directions between the Old Age/Survivors and Disability funds. The House rule disallows such reallocation and instead will mathematically require either a tax increase or benefit cut in the DI program. Read on.
Read the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities issue brief >
Courtesy of the AUCD Legislative News Brief