The 2014 Board of Trustees report for the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds was released on July 28, 2014. The report concludes that even if no further Congressional action is taken, the combined Social Security Trust Funds will be able to pay 100% of scheduled benefits until 2033! After the year 2033, even without further funding changes, benefits would still be payable at the rate of 77% using incoming payroll tax revenue. However, the Report concluded that the need to remedy the Disability Insurance Trust Fund is more immediate, with depletion of the reserves projected to occur in 2016, the same year as found in the 2013 report.
It was the opinion of the Trustees, that the most propitious manner to remedy the project shortfall in the Disability Insurance Trust Fund, is by joint consideration of the payroll tax for both employees and employers. While legally separate, the trust funds are usually considered together. Thus, an imbalance between the payroll tax paid by employers v. employees needs to be rebalanced.
COMMISSIONER
After serving as Acting Commissioner since February 2013, Carolyn Colvin was nominated by President Barack Obama to the the Commissioner of Social Security, for a term that ends in early 2019. Ms. Colvin has been the Acting Commissioner since the term of the prior Commissioner, Michael J. Astrue, ended in early 2013. Prior to that, she was the Principal Deputy Commissioner of SSA for two years, having been confirmed by a unanimous vote of the Senate Finance Committee.
Ms. Colvin was hired in 1963 at SSA as a clerk stenographer and has spent her entire career in public service at the local, state and federal government levels. At hearing, Ms. Colvin discussed current anti-fraud efforts underway at SSA, including use of “data analytics” to root out potential fraud.
