Social Security Statements not Available as Promised

Brent Hunsberger, The Oregonian
UPDATED: 2:20 p.m.: Those Social Security statements you once got each year in the mail? They were supposed to be available online by now. They aren't, and it's not clear when they'll be there or whether they'll be mailed instead, as promised.

The Social Security Administration continues to work to get annual statements online, a spokesman said yesterday. UPDATE: Agency spokeswoman Dorothy Clark clarified today that the agency plans to resume sending statements to people age 60 and older who are not receiving benefits.

Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue announced last April it would no longer mail the statements annually to 150 million Americans. For the rest, he pledged instead to post them online by year's end or resume mailing them, according to an Associated Press report at the time.

The statements estimate future benefit payments at ages 62, 66 and 70, helping workers plan for retirement. They also allowed taxpayers to check for errors in annual income amounts, which the agency uses to calculate benefits.

"Working Americans need to carefully review their Social Security statements annually," said Shannon G. Benton, executive director of The Senior Citizens League, an advocacy group. "The longer between review, the greater the chance people will have problems correcting errors on their earnings records years later."

But the statements still aren't available on ssa.gov. The agency also has no plans to mail them because its budget is in even worse shape than in April, agency spokesman Mike Webb said.

Webb said concerns about security have delayed posting the statements online. But he had no firm timetable for their appearance.

"I do know the current goal is to have some form of an online statement available in the near future," Webb said Thursday. "The issue is always security. We're probably not going to post something just to see what happens."

In December, Congress asked Astrue to study options for providing information in the annual statement to the public and report his findings by March.

AARP Oregon spokesperson Shelley Buckingham said the organization understands Astrue's position and hopes the information gets online soon. "There's just not enough funds to mail it anymore," she said.

Other groups called for the statements to be mailed again.

"We think production of (paper) statements should be resumed as quickly as funding is available," said Pamela Tainter-Causey, spokesperson for the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.

Added Benton: "Since tens of millions of tax returns are safely filed online annually, the federal government certainly seems to have the technology available to provide secure Social Security statements."

Individuals can, however, still get benefit estimates from the ssa.gov's online estimator. They don't include an earnings histories. But the estimates are as solid as anything else available, and it's an easy tool to use.

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