LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Social Security Administration: Benefits
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Santa Monica, CA -May 3- Effective August 1, 2006, the Social Security Administration (SSA) will implement major changes in disability benefits programs. Though changes are aimed at getting benefits faster, they may be making it more complicated. A statement at www.whitehouse.gov/omb/bedget/fy2007/ssa.html, SSA states that in 2005 “those … denied benefits initially and again upon appeal had to wait on average 14 months for a decision.” Thus, review times on SSI and SSDI claims are excessively slow for those in need of disability income. Ronald Miller, Managing Director of Disability Group states, “the time to apply for benefits is now, before changes in the system further limit the rights of claimants.”
Projections in a recent report by the Congressional Budget Office (which are probably more realistic than the very cautious projections of the Social Security Administration) say that the trust fund will run out in 2052. The system won't become "bankrupt" at that point; even after the trust fund is gone, Social Security revenues will cover 81 percent of the promised benefits. Still, there is a long-run financing problem.
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The Social Security Act was a comprehensive law consisting of 11 titles, or subjects. Six of the titles detailed specific programs, while the others established methods of taxation to fund the programs, formed the organization of the controlling government body (the Social Security Board), and established guidelines for the creation of public health facilities. The six original programs were Old-Age Assistance, Old-Age Benefits (for retirement), Unemployment Compensation, Aid to Dependent Children (ADC), Maternal and Child Welfare, and Aid to the Blind. To most Americans Old-Age Benefits for retired adults became synonymous with the term social security. The federal government alone operated this program, whereas states ran the others with grants from the federal government.
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Filing an application for SSD benefits with the Social Security Administration is an easy process to get started with. However, this does not only refer to the initial application stage. It refers to the entire disability process which can even lead all the way to the appeals stage. The approval process can become long and tedious. Social Security Administration does not really tell how long the approval may take exactly.
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During the 1970s and 1980s, concern arose about the financial integrity of the Social Security trust funds. The balance was shifting between money coming in from taxes and benefits going out of the funds, and it became clear that the trust funds could be depleted without some reforms to Social Security operations. To stem these developments, the administration of President Ronald Reagan passed a set of major legislative changes to Social Security laws in 1983. These changes included the cancellation and, in some cases, taxation of certain benefits. The Congress ... legislated a gradual increase in the full retirement age, raising it from 65 to 67 for individuals born in 1960 or later. The Reagan administration also began to consider returning the SSA to its original status as an independent agency.
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* The first person to collect monthly Social Security benefits was a legal secretary by the name of Ida May Fuller. She paid a total of $24.74 in Social Security taxes and received a total of $22,888.92 in Social Security benefits (numbers not adjusted for inflation). Ms. Fuller started paying taxes at the outset of the Social Security program and retired three years later at the age of 65. She lived to be 100 years old. [93]
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