Tuesday, September 07, 1999
Social Security mailing future benefits calculations to all
BY BEN L. KAUFMAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
New, personalized benefits statements from Social Security will go into the mail Oct. 1.
The agency expects to send out 500,000 a day until an estimated 125 million are mailed. Then it will start again on the next year's calculations and statements.
The goal is to send annual statements to workers about three months before their birthdays. People with January birthdays will get statements first.
Only by request before
Congress ordered the mailings to help people check their Social Security accounts and plan their retirements. The statements are revisions of the earnings and benefit statements that Social Security has provided on request for 11 years.
“It will help me plan,” said Temple Parker, 32, of Fairfield, a mother of three and an accountant with the Hamilton County Department of Human Services. “If it's not enough, I'd better start investing.”
She had no idea what her benefits would be when she becomes eligible for full benefits in 35 years.
Steven Parton, 43, of Milford, and Terry Caudill, 47, of West Chester, who work in collections at Provident Bank, were similarly uncertain.
Mr. Caudill liked the idea of retirement information. “Right now, I'm worried about it. I want to know what's going to be there when I get there.”
Tax lawyer David E. Hathaway, 55, of Anderson Township said that the new mailing was “not a bad idea” but that his benefit amount would be “laughable,” given his retirement plans. “I want to eat and have a place to stay and travel. ... Most people that I deal with use it as fun money.”
In current dollars
Statements will report the agency's calculations for retirement, disability and survivors' benefits in current dollars, as well as instructions for correcting errors.
Spanish versions can be requested.
Social Security estimates that it will cost about $70 million a year to send the statements.
About 37 million statements have been sent out since 1988 in response to requests.
Commercial Data Center Inc. of Miamisburg, Ohio, has the initial three-year contract to produce the mailings.
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Social Security mailing future benefits calculations to all
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