Description: A letter to the editor regarding how the Social Security trustees project Social Security costs: Is it actuarial science or politics? From Pension Section News, January 2006, No. 60.

Description: A Paper to Note The Vital Connection, an ERIC Publication by Joseph Applebaum from Pension Section News, February 1999, Issue No. 39.

Description: This paper discusses the underlying nature of the Social Security program, certain erroneous views of the program, various Advisory Council proposed solutions to the long-range financing problems, and the probability that no solution stands any chance of being enacted. From The Old-Age Crisis - Actuarial Opportunities - The 1996 Bowles Symposium, M-RS99-1.

Description: This session from the 1995 SOA Vancouver Meeting shows a comprehensive look inside government debt problems in the U.S. and Canada, Generational Accounts and the implications on government debt of the generational accounts. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 21, No. 3b.

Description: Surveys show that young people do not have confidence that Social Security will exist when they retire - a view that is supported by some official projections. Author points out some ways the funding shortfalls can be corrected to secure Social Security's future.

Description: This paper explores and develops some initial ideas of roll-forward reserve funding of Social Security. It reports on the work of actuarial students and teachers for an 8-week study period coordinated with the National Science Foundation program of Research Experience for Undergraduate grants. From Actuarial Research Clearing House 1994, VOL. 1.

Description: This paper is a report on research for undergraduate experience grants held for 8 weeks under the direction of Cecil Nesbitt. The topic of the research was Social Security Financing and Related Matters. From Actuarial Research Clearing House 1993, VOL. 1.

Description: Presented at Annual Meeting October 1986. Discusses: Reasonableness of cost projections in the 1986 OASDI Trustees Report, Possible policy alternatives in response to the higher cost projected for years after 2020, How to reduce the variability in cost trends due to economic and demographic changes, Financing implications of differences and similarities in cost trends between Social Security pensions and private pensions, paper, 'Components of Trends in Social Security Costs' by Francisco R. Bayo, Milton P. Glanz and Charles L. Trowbridge.

Description: The author analyzes the arguments for and against a Social Security earnings test and concludes with a recommendation the author believes is consistent with the proper purpose and nature of the old-age, survivors, and disability insurance [OASDI] system. Includes discussion and author’s review of discussion. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1982 Volume 34.

Description: This paper presents a critical analysis of the economic assumptions employed in making projections of the social security program. Also, it discusses the importance of the relationship between increases in the Consumer Price Index and increases in wages in covered employment. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1981, Vol. 33.

Description: The paper reviews in detail the measures of actuarial status used for the social security program since the program was developed in the middle 1930s. The paper concludes with suggestions by the author concerning appropriate measures of actuarial status for social security in the future. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1981, Vol. 33.

Description: This is a panel discussion session on social insurance topics focusing on the short and long term financing issues of Social Security, the issue of general revenue financing, and proposals to revise benefit structures. Both U.S. and Canadian systems are discussed.

Description: This 1979 panel discussion focuses on Social Security and the possibility for future changes in such areas as financing, retirement age, benefit design, treatment of women, and retirement test.

Description: A comparison of Social Security benefits, for a hypothetical new entrant to the program, between the 1972 Social Security Act and the 1977 Social Security Act.

Description: This paper discusses decoupling of social security - meaning that the coupling of actual benefits for those already beneficiaries and potential benefits for future beneficiaries be broken. The purposes are to describe the environment, the problem which decoupling addresses and the importance of a rational solution. The paper discusses the wage-indexing approach and the price-indexing approach. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1977, Vol. 29.

Description: This article is a review and discussion of the 1976 “Report of the Consultant Panel on Social Security to the United States Congressional Research Service.” The report contains the results of another government-initiated study of the OASDI system which puts forth a second solution to a problem first publicly identified by the 1975 Advisory Council on Social Security, a problem which has come to be known as the “decoupling issue.” Because the solution proposed by the actuaries and economists making up this consultant panel is significantly different from that of the Advisory Council, this report has inspired some degree of friendly debate among actuaries and others interested in the technicalities of the OASDI benefit formula. Panel members are Peter A. Diamond, James C. Hickman, Ernest J. Moorhead, and William C. Hsiao, Chairman.

Description: This session is about the U. S. Social Security System undergoing a period of critical reappraisal with the costs and future of the system in question, and about how the actuarial profession should be involved in the process.

Description: This article is a review of “1972 Lifetime Earnings by Age, Sex, Race, and Education Level, Research and Statistics Note No. 14-1975,” published by the Social Security Administration, which presents detailed data by quinquennial age groups, sex, race, and years of school completed as to the present value of future earnings based on static earnings levels 1972. It is stated that such data can be used for general analytical purposes to form policy, for court determinations of awards in damage suits, and for cost-benefit analysts in such areas as disease prevention and education programs. The author of this article notes in his analysis the inconsistency of the static salary assumptions with a range of interest rates from 2% to 8%.

Description: This paper offers a mathematical discussion of integrating private pension plans with social security and looks at IRS rules, earnings replacement by social security, integrating defined benefit and defined contribution plans, early retirement, target plans, discrimination test and other issues. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1976, Vol. 28.

Description: Response to Robert Myers review of an actuarialaudit of the Social Security system performed by Professors Kaplan and Weil.

Description: This article covers a session at the 1975 Spring Cincinnati Joint Meeting of the Conference of Actuaries in Public Practice and Society of Actuaries. It addresses the following issues: how the Social Security system reached its present situation with respect to benefit levels and actuarial status, the problems in Social Security funding and with the Social Security system, the prospects for the Railroad Retirement system and the future of Social Security. 1975 Record Vol.1, No.3

Description: This paper summarizes the legislative activity from 1969-72 with regards to social security. Topics include expansions in Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance [OASDI], establishment of social security trust funds, and changes in Medicare including extensions of benefits to disabled persons. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1973, Vol. 25, Pt. 1, No. 73.

Description: This article discusses the changes to the Social Security System that were enacted at mid-year 1972 in Public Law 92-336. Among the changes are the so-called 'automatic' provisions,' under which Social Security benefits are periodically increased in step with the Consumer Price Index, and the earnings base is concurrently increased in step with average earnings levels.

Description: The author's purpose is to attain a greater insight into the nature and significance of the social security financing method and to examine the image in the public mind of the social security financing method and its significance. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1959, Vol. 11, No. 31.