Social Security Administration (SSA) Definition

What Is the Social Safety Administration (SSA)?

The Social Safety Administration (SSA) is a U.S. authorities company that administers social packages masking incapacity, retirement, and survivors’ advantages, amongst different companies. Additionally it is accountable for issuing Social Safety numbers and managing this system’s funds and belief fund.

Understanding the Social Safety Administration

The SSA administers the Social Safety program. Social Safety is a crucial a part of the retirement revenue planning technique of many Individuals, notably as financial savings charges stay low—7.3% in October 2021, down from 8.2% in September 2021. The drop displays the winding down of pandemic-related help packages, in response to the Bureau of Financial Evaluation (BEA).

Nevertheless, the breadth of companies the SSA supplies spans many important areas of the U.S. social security internet. In October 2021, for instance, practically 70 million Individuals, together with retired staff, disabled staff, and survivors, obtained Social Safety advantages, in response to the SSA. Social Safety is likely one of the largest authorities packages on this planet.

The advantages are funded with payroll taxes of employers, staff, and the self-employed. The tax income goes into two Social Safety belief funds—the Outdated-Age and Survivors Insurance coverage (OASI) Belief Fund for retirees and the Incapacity Insurance coverage Belief Fund (DI) for incapacity beneficiaries—which pay advantages to folks eligible for them. 

Not like the vast majority of U.S. federal authorities businesses, the SSA isn’t headquartered in Washington, D.C. As a substitute, the company is predicated within the metropolis of Woodlawn, Md., which is a suburb of Baltimore. In all, the Social Safety Administration has 10 regional workplaces, six processing facilities, and roughly 1,230 discipline workplaces in cities throughout the nation. It employs over 60,000 staff.

Social Safety Administration Companies

The SSA has seen quite a few title modifications and operational revisions through the course of its existence as completely different administrations have formed the company. Along with overseeing retirement and incapacity advantages packages, the SSA supplies a variety of companies, together with figuring out citizen eligibility and premium funds for the Medicare program.

It additionally administers the granting of Social Safety numbers (SSNs), which have change into a de facto nationwide identification quantity that have to be supplied to entry quite a few companies, similar to credit score, insurance coverage protection, and even looking licenses.

Historical past of the Social Safety Administration

The Social Safety Administration was created in 1935 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Safety Act into regulation. Beforehand working beneath the Division of Well being and Human Companies, the SSA has operated as an entirely impartial company since 1994.

In July 2021, President Biden fired SSA commissioner Andrew Saul and appointed Kilolo Kijakazi, deputy commissioner for retirement and incapacity coverage on the SSA, as appearing commissioner. Saul was criticized for efforts to cut back entry to incapacity advantages, delays in offering data wanted to problem stimulus funds, and clashing with worker unions over security planning through the COVID-19 disaster.

The SSA is an impartial company and Saul was appointed till Jan. 2025, however two Supreme Court docket rulings have given presidents better authority to take away appointees. One, on June 29, 2020, decided that President Trump was free to fireside the pinnacle of the Shopper Monetary Safety Bureau (CFPB), and a second, on June 23, 2021, approved President Biden to take away the chief of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).

Social Safety Administration: Annual Report

Yearly the board of trustees of Social Safety points a report on the present and projected monetary standing of the SSA’s packages. Per the 2021 report, the Social Safety Board of Trustees forecasts that the reserves of the Outdated-Age and Survivors Insurance coverage Belief Fund (OASI) will change into depleted in 2033 (versus 2034 per the 2020 report), due partially to the COVID-19 pandemic that led to lowered employment and earnings. At the moment, the persevering with tax revenue shall be sufficient to pay 76% of scheduled advantages going ahead. The report additionally forecasts that the Incapacity Insurance coverage Belief Fund (DI) will dry up in 2057 (versus the 2065 estimate within the 2020 report).

The report recommends that: “Lawmakers ought to handle these monetary challenges as quickly as potential. Taking motion sooner fairly than later will allow consideration of a broader vary of options and supply extra time to part in modifications in order that the general public has sufficient time to organize.”