Law Commons^™

“Help Is Here”: How A Daca Pathway To Citizenship Will Help Save The Social Security Fund, Jissel Esparza

Arkansas Law Review

Two federal programs hold their beneficiaries in limbo: DACA and Social Security. This Comment demonstrates that creating a citizenship pathway for the DACA population will not only give these deserving individuals the ability and security to remain in the United States but will also provide relief to Social Security’s impending insolvency through the influx of taxes that these then citizens will contribute as a result of increased opportunities. At the same time, this Comment does not attempt to portray its argument as a “silver bullet.” Rather, this approach is one tool that can be utilized by legislative efforts to remedy …

The Poverty Law Education Of Charles Reich, Felicia Kornbluh, Karen M. Tani

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Disability, Universalism, Social Rights, And Citizenship, Samuel R. Bagenstos

Articles

The 2016 election has had significant consequences for American social welfare policy. Some of these consequences are direct. By giving unified control of the federal government to the Republican Party for the first time in a decade, the election has potentially empowered conservatives to ram through a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act—the landmark “Obamacare” law that marked the most significant expansion of the social welfare state since the 1960s. Other consequences are more indirect. Both the election result itself, and Republicans’ actions since, have spurred a renewed debate within the left-liberal coalition regarding the politics of social welfare …

The Public Pension Crisis Through The Lens Of State Constitutions And Statutory Law, Kristen Barnes

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

Social Security Is Fair To All Generations: Demystifying The Trust Fund, Solvency, And The Promise To Younger Americans, Neil H. Buchanan

Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy

The Social Security system has come under attack for having illegitimately transferred wealth from younger generations to the Baby Boom generation. This attack is unfounded, because it fails to understand how the system was altered in order to force the Baby Boomers to finance their own benefits in retirement. Any challenges that Social Security now faces are not caused by the pay-as-you-go structure of the system but by Baby Boomers' other policy errors, especially the emergence of extreme economic inequality since 1980. Attempting to fix the wrong problem all but guarantees a solution that will make matters worse. Generational justice …

Through The Doughnut Hole: Reimagining The Social Security Contribution And Benefit Base Limit, Patricia E. Dilley

Patricia E Dilley

The Obama campaign proposal to address Social Security's future financing shortfalls by increasing the Social Security tax base limit only for those making more than $250,000 per year raises the broader question of the function of the base limit from a Social Security program perspective. The public supports increasing the wage base above all other possible avenues for solving long term financing issues, but the problems with the Obama "doughnut hole" proposal are substantial from several perspectives. In this article, the author suggests that the function of the base limit be reconsidered, and the benefit accrual function of the earnings …

The Real Social Security Disability Fraud(S), Steve Berenson

DePaul Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

A Female Disease: The Unintentional Gendering Of Fibromyalgia Social Security Claims, Dara Purvis

Dara Purvis

Social Security disability claims are not supposed to be decided based on the gender of the applicant. Reliance on the apparently neutral mechanism of clinical medical evidence, however, has a disproportionate impact on women bringing disability claims based on fibromyalgia. Recognizing and identifying disability has been delegated by Congress and the Social Security Administration almost entirely to physicians, based upon a misguided and mistaken belief that clinical medical evidence evaluated by a trained physician will answer with certainty whether an individual claimant is capable of working. Fibromyalgia, a diffuse syndrome characterized by excess pain that is overwhelmingly diagnosed in women …

A Government Success Story: How Data Analysis By The Social Security Appeals Council (With A Push From The Administrative Conference Of The United States) Is Transforming Social Security Disability Adjudication, Jeffrey Lubbers, Gerald K. Ray

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This Article for the special issue on the Administrative Conference of the United States ("ACUS") focuses on how a collaboration between ACUS and the Social Security Administration ("SSA") has helped SSA use data analysis to bring about significant improvements in the quality and consistency of disability case review. SSA's efforts to closely analyze numerous data points in the disability adjudication process (encouraged by ACUS recommendations) have produced information that has led to breakthroughs in how training is provided and feedback is given to Administrative Law Judges and other key staff, which has in turn led to improved productivity and accuracy …

Identity And Narrative: Turning Oppression Into Client Empowerment In Social Security Disability Cases, Jonel Newman

Articles

No abstract provided.

Disability Pensions, Property Rights And Legitimate Expectations: Béláné Nagy V. Hungary, Mel Cousins

Mel Cousins

La Pensión Familiar En Colombia: ¿Una Solución Al Déficit Pensional Colombiano?, Fernando Castillo Cadena, Ana María Muñoz Segura

Fernando Castillo Cadena

Colombia enacted the “family old-age pension” through Law 1580/12. This pension is not one of exceptional type, which is granted to certain beneficiaries: it is one that tries to expand the coverage of the pension system in a novel way. Thus, the right to a pension no longer will be a product of regular contributions or savings made on an individual basis, but one that will correspond to the sum of efforts made by the couple that makes up a family group. So, in the event that an affiliate not eligible to obtain an old-age pension on an individual basis, …

Retirement Trends, Employer Pensions And Public Policy, Joseph F. Quinn

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.

Richard S. Schweiker V William Mcclure, David J. Agatstein

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.

There But For The Grace Of God Go I: The Right Of Cross-Examination In Social Security Disability Hearings , Bradley S. Dixon

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.

Should Congress Create A Special Category Of Ssa Aljs, Jeffrey Lubbers

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Posthumously Conceived Children And Social Security Survivors' Benefits, Kelsey Brown

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

No abstract provided.

The Case For Reforming The Program's Spouse Benefits While "Saving Social Security", Peter W. Martin

Cornell Law Faculty Working Papers

The Social Security Act currently provides secondary benefits to the wives or widows of covered workers who retire, become disabled, or die. To qualify, a woman must have been married to the worker for a short period and must be old (sixty-two, dropping to sixty in the case of a widow, fifty in the case of a disabled widow) or caring for children under sixteen. If a wife’s or widow’s primary retired-worker or disability benefits equal or exceed her secondary benefit entitlement, she receives only the primary benefits. However, if her secondary benefit amount is greater she receives both her …

Pre-Occupazione E In-Occupazione Giovanile. Risposte Del Diritto “Riflessivo” Al Mercato Del Lavoro, Michele Faioli

Michele Faioli

The core idea of this essay is that strengthening social security system is key to making the duality of labor law, as it reflects the tension between law and markets, a positive force for reconciling demands for modernization with demands for decent work. This essay sets the stage for a larger-scale comparative project on the duality of labor law which arises from the functioning of labor law in relation to the application of the principle of decency at work.

Changing Social Security To Achieve Long-Term Solvency And Make Other Improvements: Background Factors, Issues, Options, Peter W. Martin

Cornell Law Faculty Working Papers

For years those responsible for Social Security and policy analysts have acknowledged that the present statutory framework for determining and financing program benefits is unsustainable. Nonetheless, despite the work of Presidential commissions, countless Congressional hearings, proposals for reform advanced by individuals and groups across the political spectrum, changes to Social Security that would restore its fiscal balance into the foreseeable future have repeatedly been deferred or deflected by the nation's law-makers.

This paper aims to assist analysis of and reflection on the range of options for ensuring Social Security's future while not adding yet another solvency proposal to the already …

The Place Of Law In Ivan Illich's Vision Of Social Transformation, Bruce K. Miller

Faculty Scholarship

This Article discusses Ivan Illich’s direction for social reform that led to his book, "Tools for Conviviality", where Illich targeted development, technology, and the exploitation of nature. Illich identified three key cultural institutions that needed to be reclaimed in order to bring about an inversion of industrial society: science, language, and law. This Article focuses on the rule of law and its central institutional invention—formal adjudication.

The Author suggests that Illich’s idealism can still be found in the law reform litigation effort and identifies the diminished stature of the ideal of disinterested adjudication as a significant threat to Illich’s hopes …

A Female Disease: The Unintentional Gendering Of Fibromyalgia Social Security Claims, Dara Purvis

Journal Articles

Social Security disability claims are not supposed to be decided based on the gender of the applicant. Reliance on the apparently neutral mechanism of clinical medical evidence, however, has a disproportionate impact on women bringing disability claims based on fibromyalgia. Recognizing and identifying disability has been delegated by Congress and the Social Security Administration almost entirely to physicians, based upon a misguided and mistaken belief that clinical medical evidence evaluated by a trained physician will answer with certainty whether an individual claimant is capable of working. Fibromyalgia, a diffuse syndrome characterized by excess pain that is overwhelmingly diagnosed in women …

Through The Doughnut Hole: Reimagining The Social Security Contribution And Benefit Base Limit, Patricia E. Dilley

UF Law Faculty Publications

The Obama campaign proposal to address Social Security's future financing shortfalls by increasing the Social Security tax base limit only for those making more than $250,000 per year raises the broader question of the function of the base limit from a Social Security program perspective. The public supports increasing the wage base above all other possible avenues for solving long term financing issues, but the problems with the Obama "doughnut hole" proposal are substantial from several perspectives. In this article, the author suggests that the function of the base limit be reconsidered, and the benefit accrual function of the earnings …

Social Security Benefits Formula 101: A Practical Primer, Francine J. Lipman

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Core Values In Conflict: The United States Approach To Economic Assistance To The Elderly, Lawrence A. Frolik

Articles

In devising programs to assist the elderly, the United States has, for the most part, rejected the social welfare model, which is premised on a belief that the government has an obligation to care for the elderly. Many Americans believe that beyond a minimum safety net, the government should not, and likely cannot, save everyone from every bad outcome. Individuals must accept personal responsibility and care for themselves. As a result of this conflict in values, the United States does not usually operate programs modeled on social insurance, but rather provides care to those identified as 'needy'. The degree of …

The Future Of Social Security: Principles To Guide Reform, Kathryn L. Moore

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

On February 12, 2008, the nation's first Baby Boomer, Kathleen Casey-Kirschling, was the first of her generation to receive a Social Security retirement benefit. Born one second after midnight on January 1, 1946, Ms. Casey-Kirschling was born just eleven years after the Social Security system was originally enacted, nine years after the first Social Security payroll taxes were collected, and six years after the system first began to pay monthly retirement benefits.

"As the nation's first Baby Boomer, Ms. Casey-Kirschling is leading what is often referred to as America's silver tsunami. Over the next two decades, nearly eighty million Americans …

The Social Security Administration's New Disability Adjudication Rules: A Significant And Promising Reform, Jeffrey Lubbers

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Social Security Reform: An Analysis Of The Ball/Altman Three-Point Plan, Kathryn L. Moore

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In light of Social Security's long-term funding deficit, Robert Ball, a long-serving former Commissioner of the Social Security Administration, has proposed a three part plan that would bring the Social Security system into close actuarial balance. The first part of the plan consists of gradually increasing the maximum earnings base until it reaches 90 percent of earnings. The second part of the plan calls for dedicating the estate tax to funding Social Security beginning in 2010, and the third part of the plan consists of investing a portion of the Social Security trust fund in equities. Nancy Altman, Chairman of …

Social Security Reform In 2005 And Beyond, Kathryn L. Moore

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Social Security reform started with a bang in 2005. President Bush placed it at the top of his domestic agenda and featured it prominently in his 2005 State of the Union Address. The President spent the early months of the year on a "60-day, 60 city tour" of the country touting his pet project, amending Social Security to create "personal retirement accounts." Indeed, there was so much activity in the arena that the BNA Pension and Benefits Reporter frequently devoted a separate section to Social Security news in 2005.

Despite its early prominence, Social Security reform ended with a whimper …

President Bush's Personal Retirement Accounts: Saving Or Dismantling Social Security, Kathryn L. Moore

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

President Bush has long been a proponent of investing a portion of payroll taxes in the private sector. For example, in 1999, then-Governor George Bush said to free-market crusader Stephen Moore, "I just want you to know ... that I'm really committed to these private investment accounts." In 2001, President Bush directed a 16-member bipartisan commission, the President's Commission to Strengthen Social Security, to formulate a plan for Social Security reform that included voluntary personal retirement accounts. But it was not until the beginning of his second term in office that President Bush began in earnest his crusade to fundamentally …