Dear Editor:
Social Security protects more than 150 million workers in the United States today and pays benefits to more than 45 million people. It supplies financial security by providing retirement, survivors and disability benefits.
The agency pays monthly retirement benefits to 31 million retired workers and their family members. More than nine in 10 Americans who are age 65 or older get Social Security benefits.
The value of survivors benefits, which are paid to a deceased worker’s family, is generally equivalent to a $374,000 life insurance policy. Social Security pays monthly survivors benefits to about seven million Americans, almost two million of whom are children.
More than five million disabled workers under 65 and 1.6 million dependents (including more than a million children) receive Social Security. The Social Security disability protection is generally equivalent to a $220,000 disability policy for an average income earner with a spouse and two children.
Social Security provides a base of economy security in today’s society. It allows older Americans to live independently and with dignity and relieves their families of the financial burden for their retirement years. And Social Security provides a valuable package of disability and survivors insurance to workers over their working lifetimes.
Dave Ryder
Social Security Office