Blacks Would be Hit Hardest By Cuts, Alterations in Social Security
By Hazel Trice Edney
Trice Edney News Wire Editor-in-Chief
WASHINGTON (TriceEdneyWire.com) - African-Americans across the nation would be hit hardest if Congressional Republicans have their way in slashing Social Security as an affront to President Obama’s recommended 2012 budget.
Therefore, Black organizations and constituents must assert their voices in current and upcoming debates, according to a report released by the Joint Center on Political and Economic Studies.
“African Americans benefit significantly from the Social Security program—as retirees, as disabled workers or their dependents, and as survivors of deceased workers. Although black Americans are more likely than white Americans to receive disability and survivor benefits and less likely to receive
retirement benefits, their return from taxes paid into the Social Security system exceeds that of whites,” says the report titled “African Americans and Social Security: A Primer”.
The report, written by Dr. Wilhelmina A. Leigh of the Joint Center, continues: “In addition, older African Americans are more reliant on Social Security benefits than other groups. Thus, conversations about modifying the Social Security system must include voices of African Americans and other racial/ethnic subpopulations whose dependence on the system is great but whose patterns of usage may differ from the norm.”
President Obama has recommended funding of at least $12.5 billion for Social Security's administrative expenses in his fiscal year 2012 budget which starts in October. Republicans have threatened to cut $1.7 billion of that even as Social Security Commissioner Michael J. Astrue pleads for full funding in order to continue operating efficiently.
“The President's budget request of $12.522 billion for Social Security's administrative expenses will allow us to maintain staffing in our front-line components, fund ongoing activities, and cover our inflationary increases. It will allow us to reduce our hearings and initial disability claims backlogs, and to continue to reverse the decline in our program integrity work. Program integrity work not only pays for itself, but also produces considerable savings to the taxpayers,” Astrue said in a release.
He adds, “Full funding by Congress of the President's budget request is critical. This budget request is the minimum the agency needs to continue to reduce key backlogs and to increase deficit-reducing program integrity work. It will allow us to build on the considerable progress we have achieved, progress that is vital to the millions of people who depend on our services and to the American taxpayer.”
According to the Joint Center, Blacks are far more likely than Whites to be hurt the most by cuts or Social Security alterations because they receive far more benefits for several key reasons.
“Among Social Security beneficiaries, African Americans are more likely than whites to receive both survivor benefits and disability benefits,” the Center’s report states. “Because African Americans are more likely than whites to work in hazardous jobs, the relative frequency with which black workers receive disability benefits and with which their spouses and children receive disability and survivor benefits is greater than for white workers.
“More than one of every eight (13 percent) black Americans who receive Social Security benefits gets survivor benefits, in contrast to about one of every 10 white Americans (11 percent). The comparison for disabled beneficiaries is more striking, with African American Social Security beneficiaries (31 percent) more than twice as likely as white recipients (15 percent) to receive these benefits.”
The report also states that for two of every five Black retiree households age 65 or older, Social Security benefits are the only source of support.
For more than 75 years, Social Security Social Security - formally called the Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program - has provided hundreds of millions of people with funding for retirement, disability and survivor benefits for spouses and loved ones. Astrue said despite a huge increase in the demand for services during tough economic times, “we have reversed a trend of declining service and an increasing backlog in our disability workloads.”
But this trend could end and even go backwards if cuts are made.
Ralph Everett, president and CEO of the Joint Center, says Social Security is an “integral part of the nation’s social safety net.” He states in the report’s foreword that the Joint Center will remain engaged in debate and advocacy – alongside AARP – which partnered in the compilation of the report.
Everett concludes: “We at the Joint Center look forward to engaging in these deliberations to ensure that the Social Security system remains an unfrayed part of our social safety net and continues to help meet the needs of American workers and their dependents.”