The periodic snail-mailing of paper Social Security Statements will resume—at five-year intervals for most workers—alongside the agency’s campaign to urge Americans to access the same information online by creating a personal account at www.socialsecurity.gov/myaccount, the Social Security Administration announced this week.
The paper statements, evidently brought back by popular demand, provide workers age 18 and older with individualized information regarding their earnings, tax contributions, and estimates for future retirement, disability, and survivors benefits. The agency expects to send nearly 48 million statements each year.
Beginning this month, workers attaining ages 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, and 60 who are not receiving Social Security benefits and who are not registered for a “my Social Security” account will receive the statement in the mail about three months before their birthday. After age 60, people will receive a statement every year.
Besides providing future benefit estimates, the statement highlights a person’s complete earnings history, allowing workers to verify the accuracy of their earnings. An individual’s future benefit amount is determined by the amount of their earnings over their lifetime. To date, more than 14 million people have established a personalized mySocialSecurity account.
Individuals who currently receive benefits should sign up for a mySocialSecurity account to manage their benefit payments online and, when the need arises, get an instant benefit verification letter, change their address and phone number, or start or change direct deposit of their benefit payment.
© 2014 RIJ Publishing LLC. All rights reserved.
