Transcripts For CSPAN2 Stephen Goss Discusses Social Securitys Sustainability 20170829

Lets give them a good round of applause. [applause] its a chock full day. Youll start hearing people give you insight to Social Security and a lot of it in depth of the actuarial perspective which are the lifeblood of the Social Security so youll be hearing but the key to this day, in my view and i hope to be here the whole day, is the last session real have a chance to put together a Social Security long term solvency program. Youll hear a lot of the options discussed and to do it yourself. This is an amazing city. I relocated here last july from new york, you might be surprised to think im from new york and what i love about the city is that everyone is connected. Im taking over this morning and my driver says where can i take you and my driver said i told him the barber center. Barbara jordan, theres a center named after Barbara Jordan and i said yes, did you know who she was. He said not only do i know she was but i had a radio show in washington, 50 years ago on the station it doesnt exist, wo okay and i interviewed Barbara Jordan before anyone knew she was pretty had been elected to congress yet. I interviewed her and i said to myself this woman will make history. He was shocked that there was a building named after her. This is what i love about washington. Everyone is connected to someone else. A couple of things that are a housekeeping nature that we like you to do relief today. One is there is a white sheet thats the evaluation of the program and this means a lot to us so please relief today fill it out so that we can assess the presentation themselves. And if you want to participate in the door prize you got to stay for the whole day. Hows that for an incentive . In lunch you need to fill out a card and that will make you eligible for the door prize itself. Before we kick off our first panel i thought we should play a game and the game is called who said this . I will review some quotes and see if you can guess who said this. These are all famous, political figures. If no one gets it without a hint i will give you one hint. I was going to impersonate each of the people until i heard cspan was here in is that i cannot embarrass myself in my family was glued to the tv set right now. Who said this question should any Political Party attempt to abolish Social Security and unappointed insurance you are not here that party again in our political history. Who do you think said that . Hint, a former president of the United States. Who said truman . Close. A former republican president of the United States. Nope, not reagan. Dwight eisenhower. Good, you got one. Number two, this is not a political figure but some i thank you know. One line i draw on how to keep Social Security future is on raising the eligibility age for Social Security and medicare. Sounds fair since people are living longer but it isnt. Lower income workers are the ones who find it hardest to keep working after 65 and they will get penalized with lower benefits. Hence, its a columnist. A female columnist. For the new york times. Not marine doubt, i wish marine would write some villages. Gail collins. Shes been doing great work on this. Said this . I dont believe theres a red state in america where people believe you should cut medicare and Social Security. Current member of the senate. From a blue state. Not a democrat. Bernie who said bernie . Very good. Bernie sanders. Number four, listen carefully. There is a lot of room for improvement in Social Security. We owe our children the most financially sound system possible. They deserve to be protected by it. Senator, republican, a leader of the party, mitch mcconnell. Amazing, right . Who said this . Here is what i would tell people of my generation, 40 and older, there isnt going to be Social Security. There isnt going to be it if we dont make some forms to save the program now. Take a wild guess. Got the party right, other side of the congress, a senator, iran for president. My generation, no, not john mccain. Marco rubio. Good. Is a marco rubio quote when he turned 40. We will keep the promise of Social Security by taking responsible steps to strengthen it, not by turning it over to wall street. Who do you think said that . Its a former president. No. A recent former president. Barack obama. You got to now, youre ahead of the pack. A few more in the will turn it over to more substance discussion. Actually, let me go to heres one thats important. Its time to stop the raid on the Social Security trust fund and start allowing americans to invest their Social Security taxes in personal savings accounts. You think said that . No, you wouldve thought it would of been george bush because thats what he tried to do but its someone who is in government today. Not paul ryan. Youll keep saying paul ryan until you get it right. [laughter] he is in the administration today. He is the Vice President of the United States. Mike pence. Two more to go. I have a statement on Social Security and i consider it a breach of faith to renege on its promise that it would be a rotten thing to do. Do you think said that . This goes back a long time in history. He was a congressman, one of the most powerful congressmen of his time in the early 80s. Tip oneill. Excellent. Heres the last one. Im going to keep Social Security without change except im going to get rid of the waste, fraud and abuse. Candidate donald trump. Point of all of this is that a lot of things have been said about Social Security and a lot of it based on misconception, misunderstanding and myth. That is why today we are demystifying this program. I hope you have a meaningful day. Let me turn it over to the executive and will start the next panel. Thank you. [applause] thank you, bill. Good morning everyone. Thank you for taking the time to come today. I know theres other things competing for your time and i hope you will find it satisfying. In particular, my colleague has put tremendous thought into making it a day that would be useful to you and fun and interactive and we encourage you to prepare questions. Restarting our two panels provide Background Information on Social Security, why it is a born, how it is financed and will try to leave a lot of time at the end of the sessions for questions. Keep those in mind as we go. The rest of the day starting around 11 00 will be interactive with discussion among your tables, presentations, debate and it should be a fun day. My background is in social comparative policy they spent most of my career in europe, germany, and in some extent, france. Ive done work on International Social policy. If youre interested in talking i have one probably cure from japan. Welcome. Hes studying the american Pension System to help inform the understanding of the japanese system. If you are interested in that i be happy to work with you on that and talk with you today or with you in the future. I also want to thank our staff, elliot and alexander, for putting in the work in janel on our comp steam for making this possible. Thank you. I know that jill and janel would appreciate me alerting you to our. Its on the screen. If you want to tweet during any of the sessions, to your thoughts or remarks please do. We want to create a lively twitter presence this event, as well. We encourage you to participate. There are good briefs in your packet that you might find helpful beyond today. There is one on Social Security finances and i highly recommend to you on call the one system, two funds and three insurance perspective. It is not simply individual savings for retirement but an Insurance Program where you pay in and have protection, a variety of protections in the does a good job of explaining that. Like to welcome our panelist. First, im going to read the full biographies because i think it is important since where you are all Young Professionals and where they got today in the past that they took in the positions they assumed over the course of the careers because it might be interesting for you to see the different pathways available to you. An executive director is an Excellent Organization and the National Member is parading into generally strategies and programs. This is coordinated. [inaudible] [inaudible] under her leadership legislation is passed to help families in areas from housing to family caregiving to child welfare. She received her masters of social work from syracuse university. She is a social worker. She was the National Academy of social insurance intern in 2000. Many of our interns have gone on to careers in social insurance field. Lisa has been advocating to protect the rights and improve the Economic Security of people with disabilities posting on the Social Security dispel the Interest Program and supplemental security program. Healthcare including medicare and medicaid, employment programs, and Longterm Services for the past 18 years. Which is a vice chair of the board of directors for citizens with disability as well as the cochair for this Social Security tax. Shes worked so security initiation on capitol hill for republican and democratic chairman of the Senate Health education, labor and pensions committee. You can see theres a range of career path that you can take if youre interested in working in this field. She received her jd cum laude from georgetown and a masters in debt for an mba from northwestern university. Our third panelist had another event and she will be coming to us in the middle of the panel because she had to finish up her previous speaking engagement. I will introduce her british the founder, president , ceo of Global Policy solutions, social change in strategy form and the center for the nonprofit think an Excellent Organization. She started her own organizati organization, both nonprofit and forprofit arm on social policy field. Dedicated to making policy work for the people and their environment more than 20 years of experience in the government, notforprofit in business sectors, she directed Effective Research for philanthropic, academic clients. [inaudible] shes a member of the National Academy of social insurance, the National Black political scientists and the Insight Center of color network. She holds a ba in clinical science from mass medications from a m university. She is a board member of the National Academy of social insurance. With that, i welcome our panelist. Good morning. Its an honor to be here. As was mentioned, i was a 2000 intern and i have to say that there was nothing it was a big part of my inspiration for my career in washington dc after being a social worker for number of years and the connections i made during my internship really were key in terms of building connections here in washington. Hang on to those connections and work them. They are important and its a privilege to be an alumni of this program. I am here to talk about Social Security is a program for all generations and to give you a little bit of background on my organization will help the context for that. Generations united was founded in the mid 1980s when there was a talk about hitting the generations against each other. We have an image of an older person in a younger person back to back in the image you have here is that there are each going to walk ten spaces, turnaround, shoot in the last person standing get the resources. This is not an image we felt was helpful and its not reality. So, at that time, generations united was founded then by the National Council on aging, aarp and the Childrens Defense Fund to say we are actually a Caring Society and we recognize that investments in one generation actually benefit the other and investments in the Younger Generation benefits old and older, young. We all live in families and we need to be advocating together and looking at ways we can connect our communities and care for each other. With that in mind, we focus on issues that connect the generation and certainly Social Security epitomizes a program that shows our independence as a community and recognize that when we are so together the fabric of our communities we are sowing the social compact that makes us healthy and strong as a country. Independence, interdependence is a good thing and we need to support and nurture thats. I will focus on Social Security being more than a Retirement Program. We have a lot of folks familiar with the Social Security in Retirement Program and we have on the disability component and i will focus specifically on how Social Security benefits children and youth throughout its multiple components. On that note, we actually know that more than 6. 5 million children receive Social Security as part of their Family Income. In 2016, the Social Security administration distributed 2. 6 billion each directly to benefit children. In fact more benefits go to children from Social Security than any other federal program. Lets talk about the types of Social Security that benefit families and children. It is a Family Support program and will start with the survivors benefit which is perhaps the most obvious benefit for children. Survivors goes to unmarried children who are under 18 and it is actually the only life Insurance Program for the vast majority of the children and the United States and protects 90 of children in the case where they would lose a parent. I want to tell you a story where we are playing guessing games this morning. I want to tell you a story of a couple of successful individuals that benefited from Social Security. We will start with randy. When frannie was a baby she lost her father who was a decorated world war ii veteran in a car accident. She left her mother widowed with five kids including frannie. As soon as frannies younger sister started school her mom got a job working hours in a supermarket. Her paycheck in a small widowed benefit and survivors benefits from Social Security werent always enough to keep the heat on during the main winters but they did put food on the table. You can guess who frannie is. Penny is married to senator al franken. Next, when his father died unexpectedly from a heart attack a 16 yearold boy and his family were left to fend for themselves. However, they had Social Security survivors benefits to help them. This individual said i did a lot of growing up fast then and it gave me a pretty cold, quick lesson which was that life is short so make the best of it. Social security was key in providing for his family. That young mans name is paul. Any guesses . [laughter] you finally got it. Thats right. Next, i want to mention the disability benefit in terms of the benefit for children. This disability a benefit for Social Security not only do adults that have disabilities get to benefit themselves but if they are caring for children there is an additional child benefit that is really critical for children. We have more than 400,000 in disability benefits that are provided and it serves approximately 17 million children. Next we will go to the retirement benefit. Again, folks are familiar typically with retirement as a program for retired adults but did you know that there is actually Retirement Benefits for children. That is available to dependent children for retired individua individuals. We have more than 350,000 children receiving a benefit. This benefit is particularly important to families that we refer to as granite families and thats families were grandparents or other relatives are raising children. This particular picture is woman who was raising her grandson who has fetal alcohol syndrome and she needs to provide fulltime care for him so its a Critical Program in situations like that. We know that about 7. 6 million children across the country live in households that are headed by a grandparent or another relative and two and half million of those families neither of the child parents are present so we know the grandparents or other relative is providing full time care for the child and we know that the presence of a grandchild living in the household of an older adult is actually a predictor of hunger among older adults. Even with Social Security, 21 of graham. Headed families are poor and without them that would raise to 59 or more. Its a critical benefit for grand families. I know that my colleagues will talk about ssi but i just want to mention that large numbers of children benefit from ssi, as well, which is a program thats not part of the formal Social Security program but its administered by the Social Security administration. Finally, i know were talking about Social Security solvency and i think in addition to making changes to keep the program solvent is an important time to talk about other type of improvements to the program. I want to briefly mention the benefit. In 1965, Congress Expanded eligibility for Social Security through the age of 22. And was the first member of my family to attend college. Several years into my studies i faced a double tragedy. When i was 21 my mom died. The following year my father died of a heart attack. My 13 year old sister moved in with my aunt and uncle. We both dependent on Social Security survivors benefits from our deceased parents. Once my locker got all the grant i became my sisters legal guardian. Social security made a world of difference for my family. Any guesses . You got it. Senator lindsey graham. Suggest a few examples of successful individuals who relied on this Critical Program as young people. Then the question i have for you is what was so security in for you and your family . Please be think about it as the Critical Program not just one to be thinking about when you and retirement of one that could be critical in terms of supporting your family at any moment in time. Heres just a free resources some generations united that it want to share. We have a number of resources specifically the focus of childrens benefit from salsa screwed on our website at www. Gu. Org. And my Contact Information and other Resources Available from generations united. And i were in there. Thank you. [applause] good morning. I dont have a powerpoint hunches going to talk at you. And that i have a lot of examples, but it will be somewhat interactive. Im going to talk about the Social Security disability Insurance Program primarily a little bit about ssi as well. The Supplemental Security Income Program and tell you a little bit about what the difference is. Theyre both administered by the solstice could administration and the use of the same definition of disability but you become eligible for them in different ways. There different eligibility requirements. So i want you to take a second and imagine youre out cleaning your gutters and you fall off a ladder and you break your spine, you have an injury to your spinal cord and you cant work. How would you pay for your rent . How would you get your groceries covered . How would you pay for medications and rehabilitation that you might need . You might not know what but you are already insured through the Social Security disability Insurance Program, most likely. I will talk to you a bit about how you get injured but most likely you are already insured. The Social Security disability Insurance Program covers more than nine in ten workers in the u. S. , and its part of the interest package we all pay for when we get our fica, or federal insurance contributions act deduction made from our paycheck. Part of that goes to medicare which if you hear for the other Intern Academy you learned about that. And then part of the coast to Social Security. You pay 6. 2 of your wages to go to Social Security. Part of that gets deposited into the Old Age Survivors Insurance Trust Fund apart gets deposited in the Disability Insurance trust fund to pay for disability benefits, should you need them. The fact is that for a 20yearold you have a one in four chance, actually a little bit more than a one in four chance of becoming disabled before you retire. And Social Security Disability Insurance is there to help you if that happens and replace wages. Of that 6. 2 . 2 that you pay into fica taxes, currently 1. 185 goes into Disability Trust fund. The rest goes into the old age Survivors Trust fund. Thats higher than it usually is because two years ago in 2015 we had to reallocate those taxes because of so Security Disability program was facing a shortfall and ssdi beneficiaries would receive a benefit cut had congress not stepped in and reallocated. So i the normal percentage that was set about, over 30 years ago, in the 80s, is. 9 of that 6. 2 you faith and your employer pays goes into the Disability Trust fund. Of the 61. The 61. 5 million peoo receive Social Security benefits, about 10. 5 million, or 17. 1 , receive those benefits to the di program. 8. 7 million of those are workers with disabilities, and as you were told the rest of those are founding members of people with disabilities. We spend about 10. 5 billion in benefits per month, and its about 130 billion a year that we pay to people with disabilities and their families through the disability Insurance Program. So you may have heard from new story saying the dissolute program is growing at a control, theres too many beneficiaries. And that i just want to take a second talk about that for just a second, and the growth of the program is not out of control. It was very much predicted. We have a baby boom thats moving through our Social Security system, and people in the baby boom generation reached their high disability years so if more people getting disability benefits. And also women became insured at the same rate that men are because in the 1970s women started working and earning injured status which ill talk about in the second how you do that, and are now collecting benefits at almost the equal percentage, our insured at an equal percentage and collecting benefits almost at an equal percentage to men. The last factor that did contribute to such high levels of receipt of disability benefit is one that will be important for you to think about when you have your conversations later, thats it in the 1980 they raise the retirement age. The article it almost 118 people getting solstice could he Disability Insurance benefits, is 65 years old. Half a million people. So had we not raise the retirement age about 65, what happens is when you get your disability benefit, its based on the same insurance formula that you retirement benefit would be. So its based on your primary insurance amount. You get the same benefit you get if you retire at your full retirement age, and what happens is you just automatically move from one trust fund painter benefit to the other when you reach retirement, and at that point people would have converted at 65 to get old age and survivors benefit. Instead theyre staying in there until they reach their full retirement age which is up to 67. As you think about raising the retirement age make sure think about the impact on the Disability Trust fund as well. So we were expecting that growth. Its leveling off but its really, really important for the people who receive it. So i do someone get solstice could Disability Insurance . You have to be in charge which means you have had to work and paid into the system. You had to have 40 quarters of coverage or credits generally to be insured for Social Security benefits in any of the programs. But because people may not have worked on if their younger when they get a disability i dont need as many credits. For example, if youre under 24 you have to six credits earned in the three years ending when your disability starts. It goes up from there but its made so that if you have worked six credits, so year and a half and paid into the system at age 24 you would be insured. So thats why said probably most of you are insured even if you didnt know it if you had a disabling condition, then you would be insured. So what is the definition of disability . We think about disability, a lot of people, 57 million approximately in the u. S. Have a disability. Not all of them are going to be eligible for ssdi. There are probably 30 definition of disability in federal programs and their based on what the purpose of the program is. The purpose of the ssdi program is replace wages for people who can no longer earn them as part of the Social Security insurance package. And so it has a very narrow strict definition of disability to become eligible. Ill read you the definition and talk quickly about what each piece means that its the inability to engage in any substantial gainful activity, or sga come by reason of any medically determinable physical or mental impairment which can be expected to result in death or which has lasted or can be expected to last for a continuous period of not less than 12 months. So cant perform substantial work, medically determinable impairment that you prove with evidence, and must have lasted or be expected to last at least 12 months result in death. So that is a really strict definition, substantial gainful activity is defined by a monetary amount. You can earn more than 1170 per month. Thats considered substantial work and substantial gainful activity by Social Security. And you have to have an impairment that battle to prevent you from doing the job that you did before but prevent you from doing any job that exist in sufficient numbers in the national comedy. If you cant your own job but you could do other work you would not be eligible for benefits under this program. So its a very strict definition. Definition. In fact, in the oecd countries the only stricter definition is in korea. Where the most strict and least generous convert all our oecd partners. The benefits are modest pic as an agent uses same formula as the old age and survivors Insurance Program but the average method benefit is 1131 a month which equates to only 14,000 to you which is less than you would earn working fulltime at minimum wage. And it all replaces a percentage like also security benefits due of your previous income. The average is much lower also for younger workers because its based on your previous work history. So the average for 25yearold is only 655 a month. So who receive Social Security benefits . Going back to what jaia talked about, i would say its really important that you think of this aas a system that protection throughout your lifetime, but one in 7010 workers or ssdi beneficiaries are over the age of 50. One in 18 is 65, and to the person whos receiving benefits, they dont know which trust fund the benefits are coming out of. What they know is they can depend on those benefits being seamless for them throughout the work history for any reason the wage earner can network with its disability, death or retirement, they will get the that will help support them and the family. In addition when you get ssdi you also become eligible for medicare after 24 month waiting period. So it also helps provide healthcare for you in the event that you cannot work. How important are the benefits to ssdi to the people who get them . You want me to just finish . Okay, yeah. You should wrap up. Okay. One in five people rely on these benefits for more than 90 of their income. And it is especially important for beneficiaries who are not married. Because they dont have a spouses income to depend on. So 71 of unmarried beneficiaries get more than half their income from ssdi. 34 of unmarried beneficiaries get at least 90 of their income from ssdi. So when you take it into account, its extremely important only about one in three people have in a private Disability Insurance that they make it through work. So it really becomes the only source of income for many workers comp and its there to protect you and, over nine in ten workers in the event of a disability i want to say one more thing about what jaia mention about pitting generations against each other. Because they really tried to do that when we were trying to shore up the Disability Trust fund. They said youre going to steal from the Retirement Trust fund to pay for disability benefits. And the communities, the aging community, the disability community, well get together to say no, thats not right. This isnt insurance system that we built together to protect all of us against any event that happens where we can no longer earn wages. And the Disability Insurance is an integral part of that system. And as i mentioned most of the workers are older or even now about 65. And so we need to think of the system as one system. When you change the retirement age, that affects the Disability Insurance trust them. If you make changes to the benefit formula, that has an impact on disability beneficiaries. If you were to add a cola, the cola can apply to every program or sometimes people just say lets improve the cola for older people, or give people who are desperate im sorry. Cost of living adjustment, inflation protection built into the Social Security system. So if you only apply it, if you say well, Older Workers should get a different cost of living based on the expenses that older people faced and you dont apply to Disability Program as well, then that has an impact as well as everything to change, its one system. You have to think about disability when you think about making changes to Social Security. Thank you. [applause] lets start the q a for our first two speakers. Ive a couple of questions for speakers. Starting with you, lisa. There are variety of proposals and there has been this past year and in recent years to reform Disability Insurance. First lets start with how this proposal could affect people with disabilities. There have been proposal to encourage return to work which of course everyone thinks is a good idea when its possible. What percentage of the injured disability beneficiaries do you think are capable of returning to fulltime work . How would the proposal to encourage or in some cases you more than a coach him to return to work . How would they affect people disabilities on the ground . So thats a really good question. As we mentioned the standard for disability eligibility is extremely strict. So people have to really not be able to work at a substantial level to be approved. Now, in some cases people can do some work, but they cant do work in many cases at a selfsupporting level. We should have every support in place for people, but we should not expect any large percentage of people returning to work at a selfsupporting level and not needing continued support. I think the other thing thats really important to keep in mind is that when people with disabilities go to work its really good for them. Its good for thei for the help. Its good for them to be able to contribute, but they often require a variety of services and supports to assist them in that work. So they may need a job coach. They may need a personal care attendant. They may need many things that often go to work, accessible, affordable transportation. All of those things have to be in place for people with disabilities to work. Many times these proposals you are talking about are accompanied by cuts to those of the programs. So you cant ask someone to go to work and think at the very supports and services that allow them to do that. In addition, medicaid is one of the only providers of many of those types of services that i just mentioned. And often medicaid has this very low income and asset limits for people to retain those services and supports. So we have to take a look at those people with disabilities who can work, at whatever level they can, we should support them in their ability to do that and make sure they have those services and supports. But if earning money or saving money will jeopardize those services and supports, people with disabilities, its literally a lifeanddeath situation for them or the ability to get out of bed in the morning, theyre not going to risk that to go to work. We have to think about holistically, and there are a lot of people who have disabilities as i mentioned who dont qualify for the Social Security Disability Program. And if it would also need to think about how do we support people who have disabilities but cant work at a selfsupporting level, but can do some work, provide them with some form of income supplementation, may be either the tax code or a different way. I think we you think about that outside of the Social Security system. Because its purpose, it does well. We shouldnt try to adapt this program to meet all the needs of people with disabilities. The rest of our support system has not kept up with the changes in attitudes, the changes in the ability to people with disabilities over the past few years. You make a great point, and i think its very interesting you are calling attention to the welcome, maya. Looking at a Disability Insurance versus the paradigm looking at people, people with disabilities trying to work, try to make its me, trying to support their families, trying survive. And weve had very little discourse in this country about how can we as a nation make it easier for people with disabilities to survive and thrive and work to whatever extent they are able to, that discussions up in one weve had. The discussion rather has been how does the Insurance Broker affect the federal budget . How does medicaid affect the federal budget . How can these budget lines be reduced over the next ten years or the next, and longer time. These are two different completely different paradigms. I think its interesting you call attention to that. In light of that what would you say if someone is concerned with the budget paradigm, as many people are, what are some ways to extend the solvency of the disability Insurance Program in a way that wouldnt hurt people with disabilities in a way that some of the proposals might . I wish i had a really easy answer for that question, but i think that the only way to do that is to increase revenue. And i think its important to keep in mind that no matter what we do there are going to be the large of people who get disability benefits are still going to need them. Theres a huge unmet need in the other. I was talking about, and we need to address how do we support people with disabilities to work, how do we help them when they are working, maintain attachment to the labor force. Make sure you dont have to go apply for income support to get the other things that they need that help them work. And aside from addressing the revenue shortfall, a modest one, think about insurance, Social Security at a know you talk about this a lot later, they havent had a premium increase for the Insurance Program since the 1980s. So we really need to think about this, think about how your other insurance premiums go up every year, and we need to address that. There is no magic bullet from the budget side, other than addressing revenue. And i think that any cuts to benefits for people with disabilities who rely on Social Security disability would be devastating. With that wed like to welcome maya. We had just lies lined up if you want to go to the podium. We had your slides lined up. If youd rather present there, thats fine as well. No, thats okay. Terrific. All right. So good morning. Its my pleasure to be here before you, the National Academy of social insurance, academy interns. I want to knowledge might in turn, william k who is sitting right there. Weve always been pleased to welcome every summer an intern and have always been stellar and william k is a given. I want to congratulate each of you on this awesome opportunity. That means i if you selected tht means that you with the best of the best payouts want to congratulate you on your commitment to understanding the social insurance structure in this country. And also to pursue possibly career that leverages social insurance as a vehicle for change and certainly for human economic activity. I want to also acknowledge william and his entire team at the academy. They are doing a fantastic job educating the public about the importance of social insurance. And so with that, today i would like to talk to you about Social Security as an economic stabilizer, not just for communities across the country but for families, households, and more specifically, children. When were talking a Social Security, you will know that the popular perception is that Social Security is an old age program. In fact, you ask anybody out there on the street and you asked about Social Security and automatically Start Talking about seniors, older adults and retirement. But did you know that Social Security is one of the most important and one of the nations largest antipoverty programs for children . Did you know that . Im here today to tell you that that is absolutely the case. The only Bigger Program there is is the National School Lunch Program as administered through the schools. But Social Security is bigger than ssi. Its bigger than tanf. Its a very important and Significant Program for the Economic Security of low income children in this country. And so because it so important, we felt like that the nation was doing us, the population, a disservice are not necessarily unveiling for the country how important Social Security is for children. And so we did a report in 2014 called, 2015, called overlooked overlooked but not forgotten. Social security lifts millions more joy out of poverty. What we did is that although more children out of poverty. If you look at the Social Security rolls, in 2014 it showed a partly 3. 2 million children were receiving directs also scaredy benefits from the Social Security program. You go to their Social Security website. You look up at the report. Usc 3. 2 million children. What our Study Reveals is that actually and undercount. We are actually looking at, in 2014, approximately 6. 4 million children benefited from Social Security, either directly meaning they were directly head of household that was her savings Social Security because of their eligibility, or indirectly. This is important, meaning they livelive in a household where someone in the household was receiving Social Security and as a result of someone in that household receiving Social Security, they benefited, too. Okay . So its important to understand. And with that its also important to understand that there is a racial and ethnic breakdown to this. White children actually still represent the majority, the largest number of direct and indirect child beneficiaries on Social Security. However, the number of direct and indirect beneficiaries on Social Security who are of color is on the rise. The number of latino children, the number of child beneficiaries and latino households has grown on average by 4. 2 annually, between the years 20012014. That indicates Social Security is an increasing, and ever increasing source of revenue for latino families. And so at the same time, we know the families that identify their ethnicity or race as other than white, black or latino have also seen exponential growth pixel Asian American and other families have seen exponential growth of approximately 12. 7 annual growth. Thats both indirect and direct. So its important to understand that there is a growth in this indirect category, and multi generational households, multi family households are actually driving this increase. In times of among children of families who receives also scaredy benefits, the average percentage of Family Income from Social Security is important to understand Social Security benefits. As Household Income overall test i did in this country or decline in the past few decades, Social Security income has become an even more important source of Financial Security for children and families that receive direct and indirect benefits. Contributing 39 to Family Income in 2014. But if you look at the distribution over the racial and ethnic composition of the household you see that africanamerican households really rely on that Social Security income. That social se, without it, many of these t 20 . And for africanamerican children the poverty rate was increased to nearly 58 without Social Security benefits. Thats an increase of 17 percentage points. Latino children latino children, that 45 . For white children its a 39 , g driven by these Multigenerational Families. And so about twothirds of indirect child beneficiaries live in Multigenerational Families consisting of three or more generations. Or they live in these skipped generation households that includes family of grandparents and grandchildren only. So its important to understand that even grandparents can be caring for their grandchildren, and still, those children, those grandchildren are benefiting from those Social Security benefits. The number of children living in multiple generation families has been rising in chile overtime. Exponentially overtime. This is across all the racial and ethnic groups. And the Fastest Growing group that have been rely on these household are asianamerican and Latino American families. So with that i just wanted to point out that Social Security is not just an old age program. Social security serves people at all stages of life. It is especially important to children. So the next time somebody tries to tell you that Social Security is just for seniors you cannot tell them differently. You can also tell them that it is one of the nations largest antipoverty programs for kids. Thanks. [applause] thank you, maya. So there are many proposals in congress over the years, year for year they return to reduce Social Security benefits and increase incentives to save their 401 k s or iras how would that affect children, it seems like an efficient idea you could save individually, you get a better return on your investment, you can monitor your account balance. Anyone likes to do that. And maybe you could be better off if you contribute to Social Security. But how would that affect children . Jaia, why did you go first and then the other panelists can join. Certainly. The families that we work with, in particular i will highlight the families with grandparents or other relatives raising children this is not something the plant on. Often these families actually were saving for retirement and suddenly those Retirement Savings are turning into College Savings or they are being spent down to pay for the health care needs, put diapers on babies, formula, all of these things. These are not families that have the luxury of time to be investing dollars. And for them Social Security has been critical to provide for their needs fix it is a different circumstances. These are families where Tragedy Strikes and it is unexpected. So the arrangement for saving for retirement as a whole different set of circumstances and considerations. Anyone else . If i understood your question correctly, it was how does come how to policies that actually focus on building 401 k savings and other things affect children . If they are paired with Social Security benefits. If you were to cut benefits while at the same time Retirement Savings. Let me just say this prayer i retirement system in this country is broken. The fact of the matter is that because of structural factors in the labor market, proximally half of American Workers dont get access to a taxdeferred retirement vehicle to their places of employment. And disproportionately, lower income families and households of colors are amongst those that do not have a retirement benefit connected to their work. That is a structural flaw which means that in and of itself, by design we actually have households that already answering the retirement system with nothing except Social Security so its important to understand that when were talking about policy that boosts retirement plans and boost 401 k~ s in this and that, that they are not talking about approximate half of American Workers and their families. And of the sun that actually do have access to those Retirement Benefits, what Social Security does, allows their dollars to extend. Its important to know that in many ways Social Security is a wealth protector. Because you dont actually have just been down your other assets, its a benefit you get regardless of your wealth status. That means that you have more resources in order to meet your families needs if you do have private wealth, private retirement accounts, et cetera. So any policies that go toward supporting Retirement Savings or strengthening 401 k s would perhaps put families for receiving salsas getting a Retirement Savings and perhaps a better position, but recognize that the 401 k 401 k system is broken and thats another story. We can go into. A couple points. One, i think its important to remind, to be reminded there are several features both into the salsasocial decision that beneft lowincome workers. One is that causally adjustment that we talked about so that helps the benefits keep up with inflation. You dont get any costofliving adjustment in a 401 k . The other is the benefit formula is progressive, meaning that lower wage workers receive higher percentages of the income in income replacement than to lower income workers. Those are not protected in 401 k s either. And what happens when someone, investments go wrong and they dont have income . What would we build into help protect them . It seems a very risky step to take. Finally, i would say for people with disabilities and disability can happen at any age, you can be born with one, you can acquire one in your teens or when youre older. You have a shorter work life when you have a disability. You would have less time to pay in. Remember i told you all of these parts of the Social Security system are integrated. If you cut benefits and retirement, your cutting disability benefits. So we have to think about how we would protect people with disabilities who are not going to income to place into a retirement account at a going to be relying on savings and other benefits for a much longer period of time if we are thinking, wouldnt you think about it for making some changes to the way people buy in and havhowthey save for retirement. Thank you. So questions from all of you. Michelle. Thank you so much i am concerned about increasing number of people who are caring for both children and older adults in this country, and im wondering if somebody takes time out other paid workforce or shift to a parttime schedule a fortune or older adults how does impact the eligibility for salsa could benefits and what are the policy options surrounding Social Security adequacy for caregivers and parttime workers, whether they are caregivers or not . So there currently are not any but there are proposals to that effect. Many people are talking about establishing a caregiver credit within the Social Security program. Currently, he could take time out of the workforce to care for a Family Member, chile, older adults, whatever, that is look as, you are not working. You are basically giving no credit toward your so security while you taking time out. And to bid on the length of time you worked before after you had to actually have those caregiving duties, you could or could not have the numbers that you need in order to earn your retirement benefit. That being said, what it tends to do is reduce the formula, youre a comma in a way your aim. That range of the lower level of earnings over your lifetime. And that is a being in terms of the ultimate benefit that you do get. So youre basically penalize if you take time out of the workforce. Actually your penalize you take that out of the workforce for any reason, whether it be for caring for a Family Member or unemployment. And so the caregiver credit would seek to offset that by changing the formula to add a benefit for those years of zero earning. That would offset, and im forgetting the exact formula, but it would offset that negative aspect of caregiving. Thanks for a great panel. My question is, if people have invisible disabilities, you cant see a disability all the time, how are you qualified for Social Security . So you would go to the same process as someone who might have a visible disability, and you provide evidence from your doctors or of the people who assist you. So if you go see a social work he or a psychiatrist or any other professional, they provide medical evidence. So there are, Social Security uses in the regulation something they call medical listings, and those listings include visible and not visible disabilities. And its the same standard you have to show with evidence that you have a disability at that impairment is severe and that it prevents you from doing, at the time that you are applying, is preventing you from doing substantial work, above that substantial gainful activity level i mentioned. In order to be qualified for Disability Insurance be unable, can you get the precise definition . You ha have to be unable to engage in substantial gainful activity based on a physical or mental, a medically determinable physical or mental impairment, or a combination of physical and mental impairments, that is expected to last or has lasted at least 12 months or result in death. Essentially the definition is you are unable to work to a significant extent to make more than about 1100 a month. In discussions about encouraging return to work among people with disabilities or receiving Social Security physical insurance is a board to keep in mind they were always determined at a very thorough process with medical expertise and judges often being at fault, determined to be unable to work to significant extent. Thats why pick up a benefit in the first place. That population is a population that is extremely challenged to be able to work to significant extent. While we want to support their ability to work its not realistic to expect a large percentage of the population to return to work. Its important to keep that in mind. Do we have other questions from the audience . Thank you undoing. Good morning. Related to sga that were talking earlier, my understanding is that why or how whats the difference between the blind population for sga for blind people and sga for the nonblind . So for example, a blind person earning almost 2000, or 1800, while the nonblind population is 1400. Whats the difference . Im trying to understand that. Its a sensitive issue but i think for disability people there are various reasons, but just find understand that and what are some barriers . So i guess i will take that. I think, its a very good question could you restate was sga is . With substantial elective is a lot of money, you first become eligible you can be earning more than substantial gainful activity. Its also the level at which if you are getting benefits your benefits can be terminated if you earn above that amount for a certain amount of time after the apply a lot of work and sinister i think its important to know it there are a lot of work incentives built into the so Security Disability program. I do have time to go into the but it is important to keep that in mind. The blind sga level is vividly higher than the sga level for people who have a disability other than blindness jerk i think that the level for people who have disabilities other than blindness have always been too low, and it has been racing vividly in recent years and it now does come up by a costofliving adjustment. I would say there is no great policy reason behind that difference. That difference was created years ago, and i would say that the Blind Community has some great lobbyists who helped get a different level. I think we need to work to increase the level of sga for everybody, and again i think we have to think about supporting people with disabilities to work in a different way than we currently do, and we need to think about how we can support everyone to work at the level to which they are able, and provide them with the services and support that they need without risking those services and supports by earning and saving. We should be thinking about how we do that and all of our programs are people with disabilities as well as thinking about how we come up with a different way to provide income supplementation for people who have work capacity that may not be able to be selfsupporting because of their disability. And i would echo that and say that we really do need of a Robust National discussion about how it would make it easier for people with disabilities to work. Thats a completely, a different discussion, discussion of how to get people with disabilities off of the disability rolls. Those are two different perspectives. Wind is from a human site and the other one is just. From the budgetary subject the budgetary site is important perspective and will be discussing it in our next panel, and how we can improve the finances of the program but the purpose of this bill was to talk about the human purpose of these programs. As you move forward in your careers you always have to balance both of these paradigms, the human perspective, the Public Policy of Social Security and Social Security income and the budgetary perspective which is of course also very important. So with that im sorry were at a time. We have to move on to our next panel what you think our panelists. [applause] [inaudible conversations] good morning. Welcome to session two, Social Security financing and policy option. Thank you all for being here with us today. I wanted to start by just getting a show of hands and saying how many of the people in this room think they would get at least a penny from Social Security . All right, probably twothirds, threequarters. So there is a gallup poll that came out i think a year two ago that asked all working age americans that question. And 51 of them said they didnt think they would see a penny from Social Security. You can interpret that several giveaways but i think its pretty shocking to see how little faith people have when theyre playing for the own retirement of how much they would get. Whether they actually believe that it was more symbolizing the lack of faith or mistrust in the political system, obviously is up for question. But it was pretty shocking to me that it was a figure i think that really brings us to the discussion were going to have your today, and look at Social Security longterm sustainability and the financing structure, and how we do make aa sustainable for the long run so that he will be there in some shape or form probably with modifications for when you all are in need and ready to claim benefits. So i just want to start very briefly by letting anyone know about a commission that we had at the Bipartisan Policy Center that was called the commission on Retirement Security and personal savings. It was cochaired by former senator kent conrad and jim lockhart was the senior official in both bush administrations, the number two at the Social Security administration of that a group of 19 members who worked for two years. Big it was a labor of love. They met about a doz