Providing Periodic Personal Earnings and Benefit Statements to Workers Covered by Social Security

GAO discussed requiring the Social Security Administration (SSA) to provide periodic personal earnings and benefit statements to workers covered by social security. GAO found that: (1) 70 percent of the 25 million workers in defined benefit pension plans lacked knowledge of their eligibility for early or normal retirement; (2) from 1978 through 1984, SSA recorded $58.8 billion less in earnings than the Internal Revenue Service (IRS); (3) about 9.7 million persons could have uncredited earnings and could lose an average of $17 a month in social security benefits; (4) SSA and IRS were slow in reconciling earnings differences; and (5) periodic social security statements with earnings and benefits information would heighten worker awareness of retirement planning needs. GAO also found that: (1) Congress would need to pass legislation to allow SSA access to mailing-address information in taxpayer files; (2) SSA would need to determine how and for whom it would estimate future earnings when estimating future retirement benefits; and (3) SSA was planning a multiphased project that would provide retirement information, first to workers who request it, and then to all workers over a 3-year cycle. GAO believes that SSA should phase in an initiative to provide people with better information about their earnings and benefits over a period of years, since that would allow flexibility to identify and address operational problems and consider benefits and costs.