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Volume 43, Number 7

by Louis Esposito, David Podoff, and Aaron J. Prero

SSI: Trends in State Supplementation, 1974-78

by Sue C. Hawkins

Notes and Brief Reports:

Women social security beneficiaries aged 62 and older, 1960-79

Current Operating Statistics

List of tables

The Social Security Bulletin is the official monthly publication of the

Social Security Administration. Calendar-year data for each year 1939-

48 were published in the Social Security Yearbook and, beginning with

data for 1949, in the Annual Statistical Supplement to the Bulletin. (The

Supplements with data for each year 1949-54 were included in the

September Bulletin, 1950-55; beginning with 1955 data, the Supple-

ment is a separate publication.) Statements in Bulletin articles do not

necessarily reflect official policies of the Social Security Administration.

The Bulletin is prepared in the Office of Research and Statistics,

Social Security Administration, under the general supervision of Robert

Robinson, Chief of the Publications Staff, and the editorial supervision

of the managing editor. Suggestions or comments concerning the

Bulletin should be addressed to the Office of Research and Statistics.

The Social Security Bulletin is for sale by the Superintendent of

Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.

20402.

Price: $16.00 a year in the United States and $20.50 in all other

countries; single copies, $2.50. Price of the 1976 Supplement is $2.25.

Use of funds for printing this publication has been approved by the

Office of Management and Budget (June 30, 1981).

Note: Contents of this publication are not copyrighted; any items

may be reprinted, but citation of the Social Security Bulletin as the

source is requested.

ISSN 0037-7910

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH

AND HUMAN SERVICES

Patricia Roberts Harris, Secretary

SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION

William J. Driver, Commissioner

OFFICE OF POLICY

Lawrence H. Thompson, Associate Commissioner

OFFICE OF RESEARCH AND STATISTICS

John J. Carroll, Director

Social Security in Review

Interim Report of Pension Policy Commission

In an interim report, the President's Commission on Pension Policy has tentatively recommended that Congress give serious consideration to the creation of a national minimum pension system. Such a plan, to be funded at least in part by employers, would augment benefits payable under the social security program. Currently, only about half of nongovernment workers have this kind of dual protection.

In addition to proposing the pension plan, the panel recommended that:

• The age of eligibility for social security benefits be raised for future generations of workers.

• Social security coverage be mandated for Federal, State, and local government employees. The commission indicated, however, that such coverage would be more feasible if it were applied to new employees only.

• Social security benefits be taxed as income to the beneficiary. To offset the effect of such a change, the commission endorsed the exclusion from income taxes of social security contributions and the abolition of the earnings test.

• Husbands and wives of workers be given greater retirement-income protection. The commission recommended that pension benefits be taken into account in divorce settlements and that surviving spouses be entitled to inherit the pension benefits of the deceased worker.

The President's Commission on Pension Policy was established under an Executive Order to conduct a 2year study of the Nation's pension systems and the future course of national retirement-income policies. It is scheduled to make its final report by February 1981.

Program Operations

OASDI Benefits

At the end of March, the old-age, survivors, and disability insurance (OASDI) program was paying $9.1 billion in monthly cash benefits to 35.2 million beneficiaries. Both the amount of benefits and the number of beneficiaries decreased from the totals for the previous

month: the amount of benefits by $1.7 million and the
About 394,000
number of beneficiaries by 16,000.
monthly cash benefits were awarded under the OASDI
program in March. More than 339,000 of these awards
were immediately payable. These figures represent the
largest number of awards in force and in current-
payment status since May 1979.

In the OASI program, retired workers accounted for 63 percent of the number of beneficiaries and 70 percent of the total monthly benefits. In the DI program, 60 percent of the beneficiaries were disabled workers, and they received 83 percent of the total monthly benefits.

The average monthly benefit amount for each beneficiary group at the end of March did not differ significantly from the February figures. The March average was $295.33 for retired workers and $322.63 for disabled workers.

Lump-sum death payments in March amounted to $31.5 million, or $2.9 million less than the February figure. The number of deceased workers on whose earnings records the March payments were made was 124,000-a decrease of 11,000 from the total for the previous month.

SSI Payments

Federally administered payments. In March 1980, nearly 4,165,000 persons received federally administered supplemental security income (SSI) payments-2,500 fewer than in February. The number of disabled recipients rose by 1,900 to 2,219,700, and the aged caseload fell by 4,400 to 1,867,600. The number of blind persons on the rolls remained virtually unchanged at 77,600. Thirty-one of the 51 States reported declines in their overall SSI caseload. Caseload reductions were recorded for the aged in 45 States, for the blind in 19 States, and for the disabled in 18 States.

Payments in March totaled $610.8 million, down $833,000 from the February figure. Federal SSI payments of $463 million were down $364,000; State supplementation payments of $147.8 million represented a decline of $469,000.

State-administered supplementary payments. In January 1980, 257,700 persons received State-administered supplementary payments, a number slightly above the December figure. Eleven of the 25 reporting States