Recently, my wife and I received letters from the Social Security Administration informing us that our “benefit” would increase by a collective $15 per month. To what do we owe this windfall? The increase is based on a recalculation to include self-employment taxes for the year we retired, in the amount of $4,907. It is likely, that apart from this action by the SSA, we would never have known our complete tax payment amounts were not included in the initial calculations.
Even though our ignorance was due to the fact that when we retired, my questions about calculation formulas, specific amounts, and other information needed to determine the exact amount of our “benefit,” went unanswered, it would be unfair to hold this against them, since the adjustment is effective some 15 months after we retired. How could this forthright and unsolicited action not inspire confidence in the system, and offset the “stonewalling” met by my initial questions?
Only unvarnished ingrates would fault a system that extracts $4,907 from earned income, to repay it without interest, in equal monthly installments of $15, spread over twenty-seven years and three months. What could possibly be lacking in this system? Should my wife and I live until we are 92, our initial “investment” will then be fully repaid and we will continue to receive $15 per month interest on our money, until we die. On the other hand, if we should die before our “investment” is recouped, the balance is forfeited and our heirs are not burdened with settling an addition to the estate. Little wonder, the SSA refers to this payment as a “benefit.” It is sad that politicians receiving “entitlements” from a different system do not know the joy of receiving “benefits” from Social Security.
Jim
Indeed a windfall, you should be proud!
ReplyDelete