Social Security

You’re invited!

Please register here to participate in Social Security’s National Disability Forum, on Compassionate Allowances and Rare Diseases. The forum will be held on Tuesday, November 7, 2017 from 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. EST at 1100 New York Avenue, NW, Suite 200 East, Washington, DC 20005. You may also participate in the forum via teleconference in listening mode only.

Compassionate Allowances

The Compassionate Allowances program is a way to quickly identify diseases and other medical conditions that, by definition, meet Social Security's standards for disability benefits. This forum will focus on gathering research and recommendations for inclusion in our List of Compassionate Allowances Conditions.

Experts and patient organizations in the field of rare and debilitating diseases will share their research and suggestions for new Compassionate Allowances conditions.

Speakers:

Marshall Summar, M.D., Director, Rare Disease Institute, Division Chief, Genetics and Metabolism, Children’s National Health System and Chairman, Board of Directors, National Organization on Rare Diseases (NORD), will moderate the discussion.

Panelists include:

• Anne Pariser, M.D. – Deputy Director, Office of Rare Disease Research, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health
• Eddy Yang, M.D., Ph.D – Professor and Vice-Chair of Radiation Oncology, UAB. Chair of the CCHS Network Research Advisory Board, (Congenital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome)
• Teryn Suhr – Executive Director and Co-Founder, MLD Foundation (Juvenile Metachromatic Leukodystrophy)
• Glenna Steele – Executive Director, Glut1 Deficiency Foundation (Glut1 Deficiency)

Join the Online Discussion

We invite your ideas about Compassionate Allowances on our IdeaScale engagement site until Tuesday, November 21.

You can send questions before and during the forum to NationalDisabilityForum@ssa.gov.

We also invite you to follow us on Twitter and ask questions during the event. The Twitter handle is @SSAOutreach. Please use #SSANDForum. We hope you can join us and look forward to your participation.

Social Security is pleased to announce that we are expanding our my Social Security online services to allow people who receive Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits and their representative payees to report wages securely online. Visit our website to learn more about my Social Security features and how to sign up.

Note: This service is not yet available for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients or for those who receive both SSDI and SSI benefits. We plan to add this capability in the future. SSI recipients should continue to report wages through SSI Mobile Wage Reporting, SSI Telephone Wage Reporting or visiting a local field office.

Social Security touches the life of nearly every American, often during times of personal hardship, transition, and uncertainty. By offering more options for interacting with us, we are leveraging technology to better serve the public.

Please share this information through your networks. As always, thank you for your interest in our programs and the people we serve!

The Social Security Board of Trustees has released its annual report quantifying the long-term financial status of the Social Security trust funds. Please see the press release for details.

On Monday July 17, starting at 7:00 p.m. ET, Stephen Goss, Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration, will discuss the Trustees Report and take questions during a live chat on our Facebook page.

We hope you can join us!

We are very pleased to announce that Social Security has a new Acting Associate Commissioner for External Affairs.

Robert (Bob) Patterson comes to Social Security with a wealth of experience in communications and public engagement.

He has served as Speechwriter and Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Children and Families with the Department of Health and Human Services, and Senior Speechwriter with the U.S. Small Business Administration. Most recently, Bob served as Vice President for Government Relations at the U.S. Business and Industry Council. His background also includes a wide range of experience in the private sector and academia as a policy expert, professor and op-ed contributor.

In the coming weeks and months, he will be contacting you about new opportunities to help us educate the public about their Social Security protections and the critical need for financial planning.

Please join us in wishing Bob success in his new position!

Social Security is adding a new requirement to protect the privacy of my Social Security customers. We will be alerting current my Social Security account holders of the change via direct email over the next few weeks.

Effective June 10, 2017, my Social Security customers will be required to use their cell phone or email account as a second means of identification for each registration and sign in. To learn more please visit the latest edition of Social Security Update online.

Along with this new improvement, we are enhancing the my Social Security portal to allow for “responsive design,” a technology that resizes the my Social Security content based on device screen size – such as tablets, smart phones, etc. All users, regardless of what type of device they use, will experience the same ease of use and full access to our portal.

Please help us spread the word about this important change through your networks.

Social Security has made requesting or replacing your annual Benefit Statement even easier. The Benefit Statement is also known as the SSA-1099 or the SSA-1042S. Now you have the ability to download it anytime and anywhere you want using our online services. There’s no need to visit a field office.

An SSA-1099 is a tax form Social Security mails each year in January to people who receive Social Security benefits. It shows the total amount of benefits you received from Social Security in the previous year so you know how much Social Security income to report to IRS on your tax return.

If you currently live in the United States and you need a replacement form SSA-1099 or SSA-1042S, simply go online and request an instant, printable replacement form with a my Social Security account at www.socialsecurity.gov/myaccount .

A replacement SSA-1099 or SSA-1042S is typically available for the previous tax year after February 1.

If you already have a my Social Security account, you should access your online account and go to “Replacements Documents” to view and print your SSA-1099 or SSA-1042S. If you don’t have access to a printer, you can save the document on your computer or laptop and email it. If you don’t have a my Social Security account, creating a secure account is very easy to do and usually takes less than 15 minutes.

If you’re a noncitizen who lives outside of the United States and you received or repaid Social Security benefits last year, we will send you form SSA-1042S instead. The forms SSA-1099 and SSA-1042S are not available for people who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI).

For those who help others with preparing their taxes, be sure to check out our new Information for Tax Preparers web page. Here you’ll find helpful reminders, links to IRS forms, and informative fact sheets for you and for your clients to help them satisfy their Social Security–related tax obligations. Please visit this page frequently for the latest Social Security tax preparation news and updates. While you're there, be sure to download, print, and display our replacement SSA-1099 poster in your offices.

You may have heard that some of our rules about claiming retirement benefits are changing. Last November, Congress passed legislation to close loopholes that had allowed some married couples to receive higher benefits than intended. We estimate less than 0.2 percent of total Social Security retirement and survivor’s beneficiaries used these claiming strategies in 2014.

Closing these loopholes helps restore fairness and strengthens Social Security’s long-term financing. For details about the closed loopholes, visit our Social Security Matters blog post.

Please tell your members and constituents why Congress made these changes in the law. While you have their attention, you may also want to remind them about the advantages of waiting to claim retirement benefits. That hasn’t changed.

Thank you for helping us to keep the public informed!