Social Security's Office of the Inspector General takes and follows-up on complaints of fraud and abuse. For more information, please visit the Inspector General's "Report Fraud to the Hotline" page on the Social Security web site, http://www.socialsecurity.gov/oig/guidelin.htm

Thanks for your Idea. Taxation of Social Security benefits (Federal and State) is provided for in the law. Only Congress can make changes in these provisions.

The Social Security program does not guarantee each worker a specific return on his or her Social Security taxes. Social Security is a national system of social insurance under which employers, employees, and self-employed people pay Social Security taxes. These taxes are used to pay benefits to workers and their families because of the loss of earnings due to retirement, disability, or death. They also pay hospital insurance benefits for retired and disabled workers.

Many people tend to judge the value of Social Security by the retirement benefits they expect to receive in relation to the taxes paid, without regard to disability insurance and survivors insurance. Because it is a social insurance program, Social Security spreads the cost of this protection over virtually all workers and provides the same type of protection to everyone. Thus, the Social Security program cannot be viewed merely as a personal savings plan or an investment plan, nor its value assessed solely by comparing an individual's Social Security taxes and benefits. As with other types of insurance, some workers will receive more in benefits than they paid in taxes, some less.

Under the President's Open Goverment directive (which you can view at http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/assets/memoranda_2010/m10-06.pdf) Agencies were required to solicit input from the public before creating Open Government Plans. That is the purpose of this discussion. We are required to publish our plan by April 7, at which time we will be asking for additional public comments.

Thanks for your Idea. The information you refer to is included in the annual Trustees' Report, available on the Social Security web site at http://www.socialsecurity.gov/OACT/TR/2009/ (although a chart like you suggest isn't included).

This idea has been merged with a similar one posted by user jojoma04, who wrote::

"It would be very helpful to have the actual rules governing what you are/are not allowed to do in tapping Social Security plainly spelled out on the Web site, rather than being buried in FAQs that have no citation that laypeople can use."

This idea has also been merged with a similar one from user mylee5, who wrote:

"Ask our Government to pay back the money taken from social sucurity benefits so SS doesn't go broke. There is more than enough to pay the current retirees if the WH wouldn't borrow the excess."

This idea has also been merged with one posted by user zg1aspen, who wrote:

", as a citizen of the USA, would like to see a posting of how the government has used the money it borrowed from the Social Security Fund.
2.5 trillion dollars has been announced in the press. I would also like to see how the US Budget is spent each year. Now that we have The Internet and easily can post information on the world wide web, and since this is supposedly public information, I as a citizen would love to see how this money is spent.

I personally think the American Public would be appalled if they ever saw the flimsy programs that are funded by our taxpayer dollars. There is so much waste and subjective appropriations in the government, now that we as a country are almost bankrupt, it is time to let the people step in and put a stop to it, and they would, if they ever had a look at the expenditures."

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All Social Security taxes received are credited to the Social Security trust funds, which are used to pay benefits and the administrative expenses of the program. The law requires that any trust fund assets not currently needed for these costs must be invested in special Treasury securities, which can be used to reduce the publicly held national debt or to fund other government spending. These securities are backed by the full faith and credit of the United States and are considered the safest form of investment available. The Federal Government has the same obligation with respect to bonds issued to the trust funds as it does with respect to savings bonds or other securities purchased by the public.

The Federal Government must pay a market rate of interest on these investments and, at redemption or maturity, must also repay the principal. In 2008, for example, the trust fund investments earned $116 billion, at an effective interest rate of 5.1 percent.

Citizens may find detailed information about Trust Fund investments in the annual Trustees' Report, available on the Social Security web site at http://www.socialsecurity.gov/OACT/TR/2009/

Social Security cannot provide an address of someone without his or her permission. However, we offer a letter forwarding service that can be used to attempt to contact a missing person. We can attempt to forward a letter to a missing person under circumstances involving a matter of great importance, such as a death or serious illness in the missing person's immediate family, or a sizeable amount of money that is due the missing person. Also, the circumstances must concern a matter the missing person is unaware of and would undoubtedly want to be informed. Because this service is not related in any way to a Social Security program, its use must be limited so that it does not interfere with our regular program activities.

There is no charge to forward letters that have a humanitarian purpose. However, we must charge a $25 fee to cover our costs when the letter is to inform the missing person of money or property due him or her. The fee should be paid by check made payable to the Social Security Administration. This fee is non refundable.

Any letter that is sent to us to forward should be in a plain, unstamped, unsealed envelope showing only the missing person's name, Social Security number, or identifying information. The identifying information needed is the person's date and place of birth, the father's name, and the mother's full birth name. Since we must read each letter we forward to ensure that it contains nothing that could prove embarrassing to the missing person if read by a third party, nothing of value should be enclosed.

If you would like us to attempt to forward a letter, you must send us a written request. Be sure to include the following:

* the missing person's name and the identifying information;
* the reason for wanting to contact the missing person;
* the last time the person was seen;
* the information about other attempts you have made to contact the person.
* the letter to be forwarded in a plain, unstamped, unsealed envelope.

Mail your request to:

Social Security Administration Letter Forwarding
P.O. Box 33022
Baltimore, MD 21290-3022

We cannot assure you that a letter will be delivered or that a reply will be received, nor can we advise you of the results of our search. Also, we cannot make a second attempt to locate the missing person.

If you have any questions about our letter forwarding service, you may call our toll-free number, 1-800-772-1213. People who are deaf or hard of hearing may call our "TTY" number, 1-800-325-0778, between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. on business days.

Thanks for your Idea. The document you refer to is available on the Social Security web site, at http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/10147.html While this is not directly on the Home Page, it's one click away, located on the introductory page for the Social Security Retirement Estimator, http://www.ssa.gov/estimator/

Thanks for your comment. A good place to start for this sort of information is the USA.gov Citizen Portal, which can be accessed at http://www.usa.gov/ Here you'll find a wide variety of Federal, State, and local Government resources, including access to all Federal Department and agency web sites.

Information about Congress can be found at the House of Representatives Web site, http://house.gov For the Senate, see http://senate.gov Finally, for overall congressional information, see http://thomas.loc.gov/

This idea has been merged with a similar one, posted by user msimi:

"Here's a novel idea! How about seeking out important input from people earlier that 4 days prior to the closing to the input period??? A "REAL" plan requires much more time and careful planning than 4 days of input and then about 2 weeks of development. This whole idea of "transparency" is a bunch of nonsense when so little time is left for actual input. In fact, the short notification and input period show that no transparency is being sought at all. This just looks like another one of "the anointed one's" lip service to the public sheep! We are just a bunch of fools and nothing we say has any value or credence.
So, you beaurocrats can now go ahead and write whatever plan you want to write and claim that you asked for input from the public. Such BS!"

Thanks for your input. SSA's initial public announcement of our forthcoming Open Government Plan--and our request for public input--was widely published in newspapers and web sites. You can read our February 10, 2010, press release at http://mwww.ba.ssa.gov/pressoffice/pr/opengov-pr.html

User's name was deleted to preserve his/her privacy

Everyone who gets regular Social Security or Medicare benefits has paid Social Security taxes, or is the dependent or survivor of someone who has. The poster may be referring to Supplemental Security Income benefits, which are paid on the basis of income and resources, but which are financed from Federal General Revenues, not the Social Security Trust Funds.

The two-year waiting period for Medicare eligibility for Social Security disability benefits is provided for in the Social Security law. Changing this would require the Congress to change the law.

Thanks for your Idea. Social Security provides online resources such as our highly rated Retirement Estimator which allows workers to see what their retirement benefit could be, and try out different retirement scenarios, based on their personal earnings record. The Retirement Estimator is available on the Social Security web site at http://www.socialsecurity.gov/estimator/

We are also committed to developing new resources to help Americans prepare for retirement. We recently launched the Financial Literacy Research Consortium (http://www.socialsecurity.gov/retirementpolicy/financial-literacy.html) a research program that will develop and test programs to improve saving and retirement planning.

We recommend Citizens read SSA's "When To Start Receiving Retirement Benefits" document on our web site, http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/10147.html