Social Security

estimate On July 22, 2008, the Social Security Administration introduced a new online benefits estimator.[41][42] A worker who has enough Social Security credits to qualify for benefits, but who is not currently receiving benefits on his or her own Social Security record and who is not a Medicare beneficiary, can obtain an estimate of the retirement benefit that will be provided, for different assumptions about age at retirement. This process is done by opening a secure online account called my Social Security. For retirees who have non FICA or SECA taxed wages the rules get complicated and probably require additional help. Normal retirement age The earliest age at which (reduced) benefits are payable is 62. Full retirement benefits depend on a retiree's year of birth Year of birth Normal retirement age 1937 and prior 65 1938 65 and 2 months 1939 65 and 4 months 1940 65 and 6 months 1941 65 and 8 months 1942 65 and 10 months 194...

A basic income (also called basic income guarantee, Citizen's Income, unconditional basic income, universal basic income, or universal demogrant is a form of social security in which all citizens or residents of a country regularly receive an unconditional sum of money, either from a government or some other public institution, in addition to any income received from elsewhere. An unconditional income transfer of less than the poverty line is sometimes referred to as a partial basic income. Basic income systems that are financed by the profits of publicly owned enterprises (often called social dividend, also known as citizen's dividend) are major components in many proposed models of market socialism.[4] Basic income schemes have also been promoted within the context of capitalist systems, where they would be financed through various forms of taxation. Similar proposals for "capital grants provided at the age of majority" date to Thomas Paine's Agrarian ...

SSI benefits are not paid solely to US citizens, but may also be paid to aliens legally residing in the United States.Conversely, citizens may find themselves ineligible because they do not currently reside within the United States; exceptions apply for children of military parent(s) who were born overseas, were disabled or became blind overseas, or first applied for benefits overseas and for students studying abroad who were eligible for SSI in the month prior to leaving the US, whose absence will be for less than 1 year, and who are studying to enhance their ability to perform substantial gainful activity, sponsored by an educational institution in the US, and would not be available to the individual in the US.Several restrictions apply to the eligibility of aliens however. These include being in a "qualified alien" category and meeting an exception condition. There are seven categories of qualified aliens based on Department of Homeland Security (DHS) immigration status...

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a United States government program that provides stipends to low-income people who are either aged 65 or older, blind, or disabled.Although administered by the Social Security Administration, SSI is funded from the U.S. Treasury general funds,not the Social Security trust fund. SSI was created in 1974 to replace federal-state adult assistance programs that served the same purpose. The restructuring of these programs was intended to standardize the eligibility requirements and level of benefits.The new federal program was incorporated into Title XVI (Title 16) of the Social Security Act.Today the program provides benefits to approximately eight million Americans. The legislation creating the program was a result of President Richard Nixon's effort to reform the nation's welfare programs. At that time, each state had similar programs under the Aid to the Blind, Aid to the Permanently and Totally Disabled, and Aid to the Elderly. The Nixon ...

Tax on wages and self-employment income Benefits are funded by taxes imposed on wages of employees and self-employed persons. As explained below, in the case of employment, the employer and employee are each responsible for one half of the Social Security tax, with the employee's half being withheld from the employee's pay check. In the case of self-employed persons (i.e., independent contractors), the self-employed person is responsible for the entire amount of Social Security tax. The portion of taxes collected from the employee for Social Security are referred to as "trust fund taxes" and the employer is required to remit them to the government. These taxes take priority over everything, and represent the only debts of a corporation or LLC that can impose personal liability upon its officers or managers. A sole proprietor and officers of a corporation and managers of an LLC can be held personally liable for non-payment of the income tax and social se...

Joining and quitting Obtaining a Social Security number for a child is voluntary. Further, there is no general legal requirement that individuals join the Social Security program unless they want or have to work. Under normal circumstances, FICA taxes or SECA taxes will be collected on all wages. About the only way to avoid paying either FICA or SECA taxes are to join a religion that does not believe in insurance, such as the Amish, Christian Science or a religion whose members have taken a vow of poverty (see IRS publication 517 and 4361Federal workers employed before 1987, various state and local workers including those in some school districts who had their own retirement and disability programs were given the one-time option of joining Social Security. Many employees and retirement and disability systems opted to keep out of the Social Security system because of the cost and the limited benefits. It was often much cheaper to obtain much higher retirement and disability benefits b...

All workers paying FICA (Federal Insurance Contributions Act) and SECA (Self Employed Contributions Act) taxes for forty quarters of credit (QC) or more on a specified minimum income or more are "fully insured" and eligible to retire at age 62 with reduced benefits and higher benefits at full retirement ages, FRA, of 65, 66 or 67 depending on birth date.Retirement benefits depend upon the "adjusted" average wage you or your spouse have earned in the last 35 years and your respective ages. Wages of earlier years are "adjusted" before averaging by multiplying each annual salary by an annual adjusted wage index factor, AWI, for earlier salaries.Adjusted wages for 35 years are always used to compute the 35 year "average" indexed monthly salary. Only wages lower than the "ceiling" income are considered in calculating the adjusted average wage. If the worker has fewer than 35 years of covered earnings these non-contributory years are assign...