Free Republic

2020 is here, and many people are excited about starting a new decade. Yet for those who watch Social Security's financial condition, New Year's Day just means we're a year closer to the challenges facing the key government program.This year is likely to be the last one that Social Security manages to keep its spending under a key psychological level. Starting in 2021, the amount of money that the Social Security Administration spends on benefits for retirees and survivors of retired workers will exceed $1 trillion for the first time -- and that's just the beginning of an upward surge...

A prominent Kentucky disability attorney at the center of a more than $500 million Social Security fraud case, who became the subject of a massive manhunt after he vanished months ago, has been captured in Honduras, officials announced Monday. Eric Conn was captured by a SWAT team as he came out of a restaurant in the coastal city of La Ceiba, the Honduras public magistrate’s office said in a news release . The office added that the arrest was “the product of arduous intelligence, surveillance and tailing by the agents.” U.S. federal agents spent months tracking Conn, who cut off...

The number of people receiving benefits from the Social Security Administration topped 60,000,000 for the first time at the beginning of 2016. ... The total number of beneficiaries includes retired workers and their dependents, survivors of deceased workers, and disabled workers and their dependents. ... In February, there were 151,074,000 people employed in either full or part-time jobs in the United States, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics ... There were 123,206,000 people employed full-time in February, according to BLS’s seasonally adjusted numbers. That equals approximately 2.05 full-time workers per each beneficiary of the Social Security Administration. ... The...

City to go after bodybuilding firefigher (Greg Wayland, NECN) - Boston's fire commissioner wants the city to deny the disability claim of one of its firefighters. It's the result of a video showing Albert Arroyo out on disability competing in a body building contest. The video of Albert Arroyo turned up on YouTube after the 46-year-old had been granted disability leave for a back injury. The May 3rd event came just six weeks after his injury claim. Arroyo had been collecting his full salary tax free, but has now been switched to regular sick leave. A lawyer for Arroyo says...