Transcripts For CSPAN2 Stephen Goss Discusses Social Securitys Sustainability 20170810

Earlier this week . All right, so youll hear a little overlap. Its in the 30th year of existence, 30 years ago robert ball, wilber cowan, bob meyers, legendary in the insurance, realized we needed an academy for two major purposes, number one, existing social insurance scholars so they could support each other and advance the field and at that time 30 years ago we scoured the country and could come up with just about 100 people in this entire country who were legate get mat social insurance scholars. As you know, today the economy has about a thousand members so in 30 years weve had a very nice growth, but the second goal of the academy and this is the essence of what today is, back as a magnet to attract younger people. At that point, you know, the academy 33 years ago, younger people were me, with the boomer generation and it was a fear that we boomers were just not understanding why we have programs like Social Security, medicare, workers comp, Unemployment Insurance. So the founding members of the economy found about six of us tabbed us on the shoulder and said come help us start this new organization. And the magnet was to attract people to the field. Today is the academys fog network. We couldnt do a program like this without support and our major supporter has been the ford foundation. A phenomenal partner, everything the academy does is through a frame work of inequality, which the academys board really recognizeds as the overriding conditions of our time. And the academys policy work is led by the vicepresident for policy will is moderating this. And then a good round of applause. [applause] its a chockful day. Youll start hearing people give you insights to Social Security. A lot of it in depth from the actuarial perspective. Actuaries are part of the life blood of Social Security in terms of looking at funding. Youll be hearing a lot. The key to my day, i hope to be here the whole day, the last session youll get a chance to put together a Social Security, longterm solvency program. Youll hear a lot of options discussed and have a chance to actually 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, everyone is connected so im taking the uber this morning and my driver says, where am i taking you . I said youre taking me to the Barbara Jordan center. Barbara jordan, theres a center named after her . Yes, do you know who she was . Said i had a radio show in washington 50 years ago on a station that doesnt exist wook and i interfered Barbara Jordan, she hadnt been elected to congress and as i interviewed her, i said, this woman is going to make history and hes shocked theres a building named after her. This is what i love about washington, everybody seems to be connected to somebody else. One of the housekeeping things, theres a white sheet, an evaluation of the program. That means a lot before you leave today, fill it out so that we can assess the presentations themselves. And if you want to participate in the door prize youve got to stay for the whole day, how is that for an incentive and at 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. Im going to read you some quotes and see if you can guess who said this. These are all famous political figures the and if no one guesses it without a hint, ill give you a hint. I was actually going to impersonate the people until i heard cspan was here and i could not embarrass myself or my family. Who shade this should any Political Party attempt to abolish Social Security and Unemployment Insurance you would not hear of that party again in our political history. Who do you think said that . Its a former president of the united states. Who said truman . Close. A former republican president of the united states. No, not reagan. Dwight d. Eisenhower. Very good. Youve got one. Number two, this one this is not a political figure, but someone i think you know. One line i draw on how to keep Social Securitys future future secure, one line i draw raising the eligibility age for Social Security and medicare, it 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 theyll get penalized with lower benefits. A hint, its a columnist. A female columnist. The new york times. Not maureen dowd. I wish she would write gail collins. Great work on this. Number three, who said this . I dont believe theres a red state in america where people believe you should put medicare ap Social Security. Who do you think said this, current member of the senate, from a blue state and not a democr democrat. Bernie, who said bernie, very good, bernie sanders. Number four listen carefully to this one. Theres a lot of room for improvement in Social Security. We owe our children the financially sound as possible. They deserve to be protected by it. Senator, republican, a leader of the party. Mitch mcconnell. Amazing, right . Not amazing. Who said this . But here is what i would tell people of my generation, 40 and over. There isnt going to be Social Security. There isnt going to be Social Security if we dont make reforms to save the program now. Take a wild guess. Close. Got the party right other side of the house, ran for president. My generation, who turns 40. Marco rubio, youve got it. Very, very good. A marco rubio quote when he turned 40. We will keep the promise of Social Security by taking the responsibility steps to strengthen it, not by turning it over towall street. Who do you think said that . Its a former president , no, a recent former president. Barack obama. Youve got two now, ahead of the pack. A few more and well turn it over to more substantive discussion. Actually, let me skip, let me go to a couple others. One thats very important. Ready, 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. Who do you think said that. No you thought it would be george bush, thats what he wanted to do. Its someone in government today. Not paul ryan. Going to keep saying paul ryan until hes right. What was your drivers name this morning . Paul ryan . Hes in the administration today. He is the vicepresident of the united states. Mike pence. Two more to go. I have a statement on Social Security, i consider it a breach of faith to renege on its promise, it would be a rotten thing to do. Who do you think said that . This goes back a long time in history. He with as a congressman, one of the most powerful congressmen of his time in the early 80s. Who said tip oneill . Excellent. And the last one i bet you all guess. Im going to keep Social Security without change, except im going to get rid of the waste, the fraud and the abuse. Candidate donald trump, now president donald trump. Point is a lot has been said about Social Security, a lot based on misconception and misunderstanding and myth. Thats why today were demystifying this program. And we will have a very busy day and let me turn it over to the next panel. Thank you. [applaus [applause] thank you, bill. So, good morning, everyone, thank you for taking the time to come today. I know that many of the things competing demand on your time. And in particular, my colleague has put tremendous thought into making this a day that would be useful fou and fun and interactive and we encourage you to prepare questions as you hear the first two panels. Were starring out with two panels to provide something on Social Security, why its important, how its financed and well try to leave a lot of time at the end of the sessions for questions, so keep those in mind as we go. Then the rest of the day starting around 11 00 is very interactive with discussion among your tables. Presentations, some debate, so it should be a fun day. My background is in social comparatives, and in germany and france and work on international policy. If anyone i have a colleague here from japan, so, welcome. Hes studying the american he thinks about system to help inform the understanding of the japanese system. If any of you are interested in that id be happy to work with you op that today. Talk with you or work with you in the future. I want to echo bills comment to thank our staff. Theyve put in tremendous work to make this event possible so thank you. I know that jill and janelle would appreciate me alert you to our hash tag, its on the screen. If you want to tweet the remarks, your thoughts, please do. We want to create a lively twitter presence for this event as well. We encourage you to participate. There are some good briefs in your packet you might find helpful and beyond today. One on Social Security finances. Theres a holistic understanding of what social insurance is and particularly with regard to Social Security. That its not simply individual savings for retirement, but its an Insurance Program and you pay in and have a variety of protections and this brief, i think it does a good job explaining that. As will our panel today. Id like to welcome our panelists, first im going to lead their full biographies. Its important where you are all young professionals, how they got to where they are today over the course of their careers. It might be interesting to see the different pathways available to you. So, a deputy executive director at generations united, an extent organization with which the Academy Works often. Promoting intergenerational policies, strategies and programs. And included coordinated efforts for the valuable role of Social Security in children and adults. And the National Center on grand families, a leading voice affecting families headed by grandparents or kinship families ap shell tell you more. And helping families ranging from housing to family care giving to welfare. She avenued a pass and shes worked in Child Protective Services and many capacity with individuals and families from a variety of backgrounds. And so many of our interns have gone on to careers in social insurance fields. Lisa is from the National Organization of claimants. And shes been working to protect people with disabilities, focusing on Social Security Disability Program and supmentals. Shes with the consortium of individuals with disabilities and Social Security task force. Shes worked for Social Security administration on capitol hill for republican and democratic chairman of the senate health, education and labor and pensions committee. For federal to strengthsen people with disabilities. Theres a range of career paths you can take if youre working in this field. And she hfrom Northwestern University a member of the National Academy of Social Security insurance. And my third panelist will come to us in the middle of the panel because she had to finish up a previous speaking engagement. Let me go ahead and introduce. President and Global Policy solutions, a social change Strategy Firm and a nonprofit think and activist organization. Shes interesting because she started her own organization, both a nonprofit and a forfederal government and for 20 years in the government and of the directed Successful Research for an array of nonprofit, sfch and corporate clients. She was named Aspen Institute and shes aperiods on cnbc, fox, cspan. And shes insight experts of color network, she holds a ba in Political Science, ma in ph. D. And Political Science from purdue university. A Board Academy member of Social Security insurance. With that, ill welcome my panel. I believe youre up first. Good morning. Its an honor to be here. As ben mentioned i was a 2000 intern and my experience there was a beg part of may 17 year career in washington d. C. After being a social worker for a number of years and connections i made during my internship why really key in terms of building text connections in washington. Hang onto those connections and work them, theyre important and its a privilege to be an alumni of this program. Im here to talk about the Social Security as for all generations and to give you abouting on my organization will help with the context of that. In the mid 1980s, there was talk of pitting generations against each other. We have an image of an older person and younger person back to back in fatigues. The image is theyll turn around and shoot and we did not think this was helpful or realty. And there was a council of aging, aarp and Childrens Defense Fund to really say, you know what . We are actually a Caring Society and we recognize that investments in one generation actually benefit the other. And investments in the Younger Generation benefit old and old are young. We all live in families and we need to be advocating together and look at our communities and care for each other. With that in mind we focus on issues that connect generations and certainly Social Security epitomizes a program that shows our independence as a community. And really recognize when were sewing together the social fabric of our communities, we are sewing the social compact that makes us healthy and strong as a country. Interdependence is a good thing and we need to focus and nurture that. Im focusing on Social Security is more than a program. We look at the Retirement Program and focus on the disability components. Im going to focus specifically how Social Security benefits children and use throughout its multiple components. On that note we know that 6. 5 million children receive Social Security as part of their Family Income. In 2016 the Social Security administration distributed 2. 6 billion each month directly to benefit children. And in fact, more benefits go to children from Social Security than any other federal program. So lets talk a little about the types of Social Security that children and families, again, its Family Support program. Well start with the survivors benefit, which is perhaps the most obvious for children. It goes to unmarried children under 18. T the it protects 98 of children in the case where they would lose a parent. So i want to tell you a little story where were playing guessing games this morning and tell you a story of a couple of successful individuals that benefitted from Social Security so were going to start with franny. When franny was a baby she lost her father, who was a decorated world war ii veteran in a car accident leaving her mother widowed including with franny. As soon as her second sister went to school, she got a job. The small paycheck and survivors benefit from Social Security wasnt always to make the winter any guesses about who franny is . Franny is married to senator al franken. Next, when his father died unexpectedly from a heart attack, a 16yearold boy and his family were left to fend for themselves. However, they had Social Security survivors benefits to help them. And this individual says i did a lot of information there. A quick lesson that life was short and make the best of it, but 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 just want to mention the disability benefit in terms of benefit for children. This disability in terms of the disability by Social Security, not only do adults that have disabilities get a benefit themselves, but if they are caring for children theres additional child benefit thats critical for children so we have more than 400,000 in disability benefits that are provided and serves approximately 17 million children. Next well go to the requirement benefit. Again, folks are familiar typically of retirement as a program for retired adults, but did we know that theres actually a requirement benefit for children. And thats available to dependent children for retired individuals and we have more than 350,000 children receiving that benefit. This benefit is quickly important for families we called grandfamilies where grand parents are raising children. This particular picture is a woman raising her grandson who has fetal alcohol syndrome and she needs to provide fulltime care for him. Its a Critical Program in situations like that. We know 7. 6 million children across the country live in households headed by a grandparent or another relative and two and a half million of those families there is neither of the childs parents are present. So we really know that that grandparent or other relative is providing fulltime care for the child and we know that the presence of a grandchild leaving in the house old is a old older hunger moppi amongst older adul. And from the families that are poor it would raise to 5 or more. Ap i and i want to note that children benefit from ssi not part of the Social Security program, but administered by the Social Security administration. And finally, i know were talking about st. Louis value accepts i. In addition to making changes, its important to make other types of improvements to the program and i want to briefly mention the Social Security student benefits. In 1965 Congress Expanded eligibility of Social Security through the age 22 for those enrolled in college and this really enabled many, many young people to complete their Higher Education who wouldnt have been able to and actually two childrens who children whose benefitting were below the line. The benefit was eliminated in 1981 and its an important piece to consider reinstating student benefits to help families like this and this is going to be your last quiz, at least from me this morning. And here is our last individual to benefitted from Social Security. I grew up in a family of modest means in South Carolina and was the first member of my family to attend college. Several years into my study i faced a double tragedy. When i was 21 my mom died. The following here my father died of a heart attack. My 13yearold sister moved in with my aunt and uncle and she and i both defended on Social Security benefits from our deceased parents. I became my sisters guidance and Social Security made a difference for our families. Got it, senator lindsey graham. Just a few examples of successful individuals who relied on this Critical Program as young people. Now, the question i have for you is what would Social Security be meaning to you and your family. Please think about it, not just when youre entering refire department, but it could be critical at any moment in time. Here is a few resources that i want to share. We have a couple that are for childrens benefits at www. Gu. Org. And my Contact Information and other Resources Available from generations united and ill end there. Thank you. [applaus [applause] good morning. I dont have a power point so im going to talk at you. I dont have a lot of examples, but it will be somewhat interactive. So, im going to talk about the Social Security disability Insurance Program, primarily a little about is. Si as well, the Supplemental Security Program and tell you a little about what the difference is. Theyre both administered by the Social Security administration and use the same definition of disability. You become eligible for them in different ways, they have different eligibility requirements. So, i want you to take a second and imagine youre out cleaning your gutters and fall off the ladder and break your spine, you have an injury to your spinal cord and cant work. How would you pay for your rent, how would you get your groceries covered . How would you pay for medications and rehabilitation you might need . You might not know it youre already secured during the Social Security Disability Program, most likely. Most likely youre already insured and the Social Security Insurance Program covers more than nine in ten workers in the u. S. And its part of the insurance package we all pay for when we get our fica or federal contributions act deducted from our paychecks. Part goes to medicare. And if you were here for the other learning academy, you remember that. The other port part goes to Social Security and part in the old agars Survivors Trust fund and part of that into the Disability Trust fund to pay for disability benefits should you need them. The fact for a 20yearold, you have one in four chance of becoming disabled. Of that 6. 2 that you pay into fica taxes, currently a percentage goes into the trust fund and the other into the old age and Survivors Trust fund. Thats higher because in 2015 we had to reallocate the taxes because the Social Security Disability Program was facing a shortfall and that g. I. Beneficiaries would have received a benefit cut had congress not stepped in and reallocated. There was one over 30 years ago is. 9 of what you pay and the rest goes into the Disability Trust fund. Of the 61 and a half million, 17. 1 receive benefits through the di program. 8. 7 million of those are workers with disabilities and as i told you the rest are Family Members or people with disabilities. And we spend about 10. 5 billion dollars in benefits per month and that is about 130 Million Dollars a year that we pay to people with disabilities and list families through the people with disabilities Insurance Program. You may have heard that there are too many beneficiaries. And i just want to take a second and talk about that for just a second. The growth of the prom was not out of control. It was very pretty much, and we have a baby boom thats pofg through our Social Security system. And people in baby boom years reach their highest and we have nor people getting in 1970s, women started working and earning insured status and ill talk about how you do that and collecting benefits almost equal percentage, are insured and collecting benefits almost equal percent sanl to men. The last factor that did greet to high receipt of disability benefits is one for you to think about when you have your conversations later. In the 1980s, they raised the. Retirement age. Half a million people, so, had we not raised the retirement age above 65, what happens, when you get your disability benefit its based on the same insurance formula that your retirement benefit would be so its based on your primary insurance amount and you get the same benefit you get if you row fired at full retirement age. What happens is, you just automatically move from one trust fund paying your retirement benefit. And at that point we have gone for old age retirement and so if you think about raising the retirement age, think about the impact on the Disability Trust fund as well. So, we were expecting that growth. Its levelling off, but its really, really important for the people who receive it. How does someone get Social Security . You have to have worked and paid into the system. You have to have 40 quarters of coverage or credit generally to be insured for Social Security benefits in any of the programs, but please may not have worked that long, and for example, if youre under 24, you have to have six credits used. Its made so if you have worked six credits, so a year and a half and paid into the system at age 24 you would be injured. Thats why i say most of you probably are insured, if you didnt know it. If you have a disability condition or impairment. And what is disability. 57 million approximately in the u. S. Have a disability. Not all of them are going to be eligible. There are 30 definitions of Social Security in the program and based on what the purpose of the program is. These are to no longer earn them as part of Social Security pence package. It has a narrow strict definition of disability. And ill read this. Its the inability to engage in any substantial activity or sga by reason of medically determined physical or mentally impairment which could result in death or could be expected. Cant perform substantial work, must have lasted or expected to last 12 months at least or death. Its defined by a monetary amount. You cant earn more than 1,170 per month. Thats considered substantial work, and substantialal gainful activity by Social Security. And you have to have an impairment that not only prevents you from doing the job you did before, but any in sufficient numbers in the national economy. So, if you cant do your own job, but you could do other work, you would not be he will available for benefits under this program. So its a very strict definition. In oecd countries the only stricter definition is in korea. We are the most stricts and least generous compared to our partners. The old survivor Insurance Program. Average is 1,171 a months, which equalities to only 14,000 a year, which is less than you would ernl working fulltime at minimum wage. The average for much younger workers, its based on your previous work history. The average for a 25yearold is only 655 is month. So who receives Social Security benefits . Going back to what we talked about, i would say that its important that you think of this as a system that protects you throughout your lifetime, but one seven in ten workers or ssdi beneficiaries are over age 50. One in 18 is 65. And to the person who is receiving benefits. They dont know which trust fund theyre coming out of. And throughout their work history, if for any reason the wage worker cannot work, they will get a benefit to help support them and their family. In addition when you get ssdi you become eligible for medicare after a 24month waiting period so it helps provide health care for you in the evident you cannot work. So how important are the benefits to ssdi to the people who get them . Yeah, okay, yeah. So 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, 711 of unmarried british beneficiaries get half from ssdi and others get at least 90 of income from ssdi. So, when you take it into account its extremely important only one in three people have any private Disability Insurance that they my may get through work so its the source of income for workers to in the event of a disability. One more thing about what i mentioned about pitting generations against each other because they really try to do that when we were trying to shore up the Disability Trust fund. They said youre going to deal with the Retirement Trust fund to pay for disability benefits. The aging community, Disability Community came together to say thats not right. This is an insurance system to protect all of us against any evident that happens we can and the insurance is an integral part of that system and most of the workers are older or even now above 65. And so, we need to we need to think of this system as one system. When you change the retirement age, that affects the insurance. If you were to add a cola, the cola can apply to every program and some say lets improve cola im sorry, cost of living adjustment, built into the Social Security system so if you only apply it to if you say, well, Older Workers should get a different cost of living based on expenses that older people face and dont apply it to the Disability Program as well, then that has an impact as well as everything you change, its one system. So, you have to think about disability when you think about making changes to Social Security. Thank you. [applaus [applause] thank you, lets start the q a for first two speakers. I have a couple of questions for our speakers. Starting with you, lisa. There are a variety of proposals and there have been in this year and recent years to reform Disability Insurance. How, first lets start with t the how this proposal could affect people with disabilities. There have been proposals to encourage return to work which of course everyone thinks is a good idea when its possible, what percentage of the insured disability beneficiaries are capable of returning to fulltime work and how about encouraging those and in some cases more than encourage them to return to work. How would they affect disabilities on the ground. Thats a good question. As we mentioned the standard for Social Security eligibility is extremely strict. So people have to really not be able to work at a substantial level to be approved. In some cases, he can this do some work, but not in a selfsporting level. We should have every support in pla place, but we should not expect any large number of people returning to work at a selfsupporting level and not needing continued support. The other thing thats important to keep in mind, when people with disabilities go to work its good for them, its good for their health, its good for them to be able to contribute, but they often require a variety of services and supports to assist in that work so they may need a job coach. May need a personal care aten attendant. And many times proposals youre talking about are accompanied by cut to those other the programs so you cant ask someone to go to work and cut 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 a 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 the services and supports. But if earning money or saving money will jeopardize services and support people with disabilities, its literally, a life and jail spags for them. Fuhr not going to risk that to go to work. We have to think holistically. There are many who have disabilities who dont qualify for the Social Security Disability Programs. 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 supplementtation maybe through the tax code or a different way. I think we need to 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 much people with disabilities. The rest of our support system has not kept up with the changes in attitudes, the changes in the abilities of people with disabilities over the past few years. So you make a great point and i think that its very interesting youre calling attention to the welcome, maya, calling attention to the paradigm, the budget paradigm and insurance and a look at people with disabilities trying to work and try to make ends meet and support their families and try and survive and weve had little discourse in this country, how can we in the nation make it easier for people with disabilities to survive and thrive and to work to whatever extent theyre able to . That discussion is not one weve had. The discussion rather has been how does the Social Security affect the federal budget. How does medicaid affect the federal budget and how can they be reduced over the next ten years or there are two different paradigms. In light of that, if someone is concerned with a budget paradigm, which many are, what is a way to extend the solvency of the program in a way that wouldnt hurt them. I wish i had an easy answer for that question, i think 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 percentage of disabilities benefits will need them. Theres a huge area in what i was talking about, we need to address how do we support people with disabilities to work, how do we help them maintain attachment to the working force, that they dont have to go to the support and other things that help them work. Aside from addressing the shortfall, Social Security, i know youre going to talk about this a lot later, they havent had a premium increase for this Insurance Program since the 1980s. We need to think about this, think how your other premiums going up over year and we freed to address that. There is no magic bullet in addressing revenue. I think any cut to benefit for people who rely on Social Security disability would be devastating. With that id like to welcome maya. We have your slides lined up here if you want to address from the podium. We have your slides here if youd rather present there, but if youd like to click through no, thats okay. Terrific. All right. So good morning. Its my pleasure to be before you, the National Academy of social insurance, academy interns, i want to acknowledge my intern william kay sitting right there. We have always been pleased to welcome every summer an intern and theyve always been stellar and william kay is no different. I want to congratulate each of you on this awesome community. That means if you were selected that means you were the best of the best and i also want to graduate you on your commitment to understanding and understanding the social insurance structure in this country. And a career that levels social insurance as a vehicle for change and certainly for human activity. And i also want to acknowledge william and his team at the academy, theyre doing a fantastic job educating the public about social insurance. With that today id 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 about Social Security, you all know that the popular perception is that Social Security is an old age program. In fact, you ask anybody pout there on the street and ask them about Social Security and they automatically talking about soldiers, 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 administered through the skills. Social security is an important and Significant Program for the Economic Security of low income children in this country. And so, because its so important, we felt like it would that the nation was doing us the population a disservice by not necessarily unveiling for the country how important Social Security is for children and so we did a report in 2014 called in 2015 called overlooked, but not forgotten, Social Security lifts children out of poverty. What we did, although the youre looking at the Social Security rolls. Over three million children were receiving benefits from the Social Security program. Go to the Social Security website, you look up the report, youll see 3. 2 million children. What our study revealed is thats actually an undercount. Were actually looking at in 2014 approximately 6. 4 million children benefitted from Social Security either directly, meaning they were directly in a household that was receiving Social Security because of their eligibility, or indirectly, and this is important, meaning that they lived in a household where someone in that household was receiving Social Security and as a result of someone in that household receiving Social Security, they benefitted, too, okay . So its important to understand. And with that, its also important to understand theres a racial breakdown to this. The benefits on Social Security, the number of direct and indirect beneficiaries of Social Security who are of color is on the rise. The number of latino children, the number of child beneficiaries in latino households has grown on average by 4. 2 annually between the years 2001 and 2014. That indicates that Social Security is increasing, an ever increasing source of revenue for latino families. Apso, at the same time, we know that families that identify their ethnicity or race other than black, white or latino has seen growth. Asianamerican families, 12. 7 growth. Both direct and indirect. So its important to understand that there is the growth in this indirect category and multigenerational households and multifamily households are driving this increase. In terms of the among children and families that receive Social Security benefits, the average percentage of Family Income from Social Security is important to understand. As Household Income overall has stagnated in this countries or declined 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. Contracting, 39 to Family Income in 2014. But if you look at the distribution between the households, you can see they rely on Social Security inbound come. Children, africanamerican children live in households where 46 approximately of Family Income relies on the Social Security benefits. Of course, as you can see, 39 of white households where children live and where latino children live rely on it as a source of income for their families. Its also important to understand that Social Security without it, many of tease children would be living in desperate poverty. Social security substantially reduces poverty rates wrong all children who receive scattered showers benefits by almost 20 . For africanamerican children the poverty rate was increased to nearly 58 without Social Security benefits, an increase of 17 . For white children 39 and for quote, unquote, other children, 29 . So Social Security is a very important source in terms of making sure that children that live in these households are not living in poverty, so, also, of course, the drive the driver for the increase in indirect, children receiving high school benefits are driven by the Multigenerational Families. Twothirds of the children live in Multigenerational Families consisting of three or more. So its important to understand that even grandparents could be caring for their grandchildren and those children are benefitting from the Social Security benefits. The number of children living in Multigenerational Families have been rising exponentially over time. Between 8 to 11 to 2014. This is across all ethnic groups. Fastest growing groups relying on these households are asianamerican and latinoamerican families. So with that, i just wanted to point out that Social Security is not just an oldage program. Social security serves people at all stages of life and it is especially important to children. And so the next time that somebody tries to tell you that Social Security is just for seniors, you can now tell them differently and you can also tell them that it is the one of the nations largest antipoverty programs for kids. Thanks. [applaus [applause] thank you maya. There are many proposals in congress over the years, year for year to return to reduce Social Security benefits and increase incentives to save through 401 k s or iras. How would that affect children . It seems like an efficient idea you could save individually, get better return on your investment, monitor your account billion balance, everyone likes to do that and maybe better off than if you contributed to Social Security. And lisa why dont you go first and then other panelists can go. Certainly, the families that we work with, highlight families of grandparents that are raising children, this is not something that they planned on. These families were saving for retirement and suddenly those Retirement Savings are turning into College Savings or spent down to pay for Health Care Needs to put diapers and 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 so these are very different circumstances, these are families where Tragedy Strikes and its unexpected. So, the arrangement for saving for retirement is a whole different set of circumstances and consideration. Attacks preferred retirement vehicle to their places of employment. Disproportionately lower income families and households of color 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 are already entering the retirement system with nothing except Social Security. So its important to understand that when we are talking about policies that boost retirement plans and boost 401 k s and this and that, that theyre not talking about approximately half of American Workers and their families. And of the same as 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 to spend down your other assets. It. Its ability get regardless f 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. Any policies that go towards supporting Retirement Savings or strengthening 401 k s with perhaps put families are receiving Social Security and Retirement Savings in perhaps a better position, but recognize the 401 k 401 k system is brokn and thats another story. We can go into. A couple of points. One, i think its a portrait by us, to be reminded there are several features both into the salsas goodie system that benefit lowincome workers. One is cost of living adjustment 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 lower wage workers receive higher percentages of their income in income replacement that low income workers. Those are not protected in 401 k s either. What happens when someones investment 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 sit for people with disabilities and disability can happen at any age, you can be born with one, you can acquire one in your teens, you can acquire when when youre older, you have a shorter work life. You would have less time to pay. Remember i told you, all of these parts of the Social Security system are integrated. If you cut benefits in retirement you are cutting disability benefits. We have to think about how we would protect people with disabilities who are not going to have income to place into retirement account and it going to be relying on savings and other benefits from much longer part of time if we are thinking, when we think about if we are making changes to the way people paid in and have a save for retirement. Thank you. Questions from all of you. Michelle. Thank you so much. I am concerned about an increasing number of people who are caring for both the children and older adults in this country, and im wondering if some it takes time out of the paid workforce or just a parttime schedule to care for children or older adults how does this impact the eligibility for social good benefits . What of 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, if you take time out of the workforce to care for a Family Member, children, older adults, whatever, that is booked, you are not working. You are basically getting no credit towards your Social Security while youre taking time out. And then on the length of time you work 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, your aim in a way. That means that you have a lower level of earnings over your lifetime. That is a being in terms of the ultimate benefit that you do get. You are basically penalized if you take him out of the workforce. You are penalized you take time out for any reason whether that be for caring for a Family Member or unemployment. And so they caregiver credit would seek to offset that by changing the formula to add a benefit for those years of zero earnings. That would offset, and im forgetting the exact formula, but it would offset that negative aspect of caregiving. Yes. 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 through the same process as someone who might have a visible disability, and you would provide evidence from your doctors or other people who assist you. So if you go see a social worker, a psychiatrist, or any of the professional they provide medical evidence. Social security uses in the regulation something they call medical listings, and those listings include visible and not visible disabilities. Its the same standard project to show with evidence that you have a disability and that impairment is eager and that it prevents you from doing, at the time you are applying, is preventing you from doing substantial work above that substantial gainful activity level that image and. In order to be qualified with disabilitieDisability Insurancee unable, could you get the precise definition . You 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. The definition is your unable to work to a significant extent, makes more than about 1100 a month. In discussions but encouraging return to work among people with disabilities receiving Social Security spilled insurance keep in mind they were determined at a very thorough process with medical expertise and judges often being appalled, determined on unable to work and thats what you get the benefits 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 everyone. Good morning. Related to sga that we talked about earlier, my understanding is that why or how whats the difference between a blind population for sga, for blind people, and sga for the nonblind . So for example, a blind person earning almost 2000, or 1800 while a nonblind population with 1400 and whats the difference . Im still trying to understand that . Its a sensitive issue but i think for disability people there are various reasons, but just trying to understand that and what are some barriers . So i guess i will take that. Its a very good question could you restate what sga . Substantial gainful activity is a lot of money, when you are first become eligible you cant be earning more than substantial gainful activity. Its also the level at which it caregiving benefits your benefits can be terminated if you earned above that amount for certain amount of time after the apply a lot of work incidents. I think its important to note there are lot of work incentives built into this also duty Disability Program. I dont have time to go into them but it is important to keep that in mind. The blind sga level is significantly higher than the sga level for people who have a disability other than blindness. I think that the level for people who have disabilities other than blindness have always been too low, and it has been raised significantly in recent years and it now does go up by a costofliving adjustment. I would say that is no great policy reason behind that difference, the difference was created years ago, and i would say that the Blind Community has some great lobbyists who helped to 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. 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 supports the need without risking the services and supports by earning and saving. We should be thinking about how we do that in 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 worked capacity but name not be able to be selfsupporting because of their disability. I would echo that and say we really do need to have a Robust National discussion about how do we make it easier for people with disabilities to work. Thats a completely, i different discussion, a discussion of how to get people with disability off the disability rolls. Those are two different perspective. One is from a human site and one from a budgetary site. The budgetary site is important perspective and we will discuss it on her next panel. The finances of the program and how we can approve the finances of the program but the purpose of the span was to talk about a human purpose of these programs. As you move forward you always have to bounce both of these paradigms, the human perspective, the Public Policy purpose of Social Security supplemental security income and the budgetary perspective which is also very important. With that im sorry were out of time. We have to move on to next panel so want to thank our panelists. [applause] we will be talking about, a couple of minutes. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] this live seminar hosted by the National Academy of social insurance will continue next with a discussion on social securities financing and policy options. The panel will include the agencies chief actuary stephen goss and deputy chief actuary karen glen. The seminar is taking place at the Kaiser Family foundation in washington, d. C. , with the next panel resuming shortly on cspan2. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] good morning. Welcome to session two, social securities financing and policy option. Thank you all for being here with us today. I want to start by just getting a show of hands and sing humming of the people in this room think they would get at least a penny from Social Security. All right. Probably twothirds,