RE: FAQs #1: Admin Issues

[National Dialogue Moderator <moderator>]

> From: "Karen  Scott" <kzescott@email.msn.com>
> To: <info@network-democracy.org>
> Subject: FAQs  #1: Admin Issues
> Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 04:06:01 -0400 
>      
> These two answers seem to be at odds ($6.5  vs  $3.4).  Maybe the SSA does 
> more than SS?  But then other agencies are involved in SS, e.g., Treasury. 
> 
> 1.1 How many employees does the Social Security Administration have, and 
> what is its annual budget?  The Social Security Administration currently has 
> about 65,000 employees (including permanent full-time and part-time 
> employees and temporary employees). The annual administrative budget is 
> about $6.5 billion dollars.
>      
> 1.35 What are the administrative costs in dollars per year?
>      Social Security administrative costs are expected to be about $3.4 
>      billion in 1998, out of total expenditures of $383 billion, or 
>      slightly less than 1%.
     
     
	RESPONSE FROM THE SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION;

The Social Security Administration was unable to identify the source 
of the $6.5 billion number.  The best source of information about the 
Social Security Administration's income and expenses is the "1999 
Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of the Federal Old-Age and 
Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance (OASDI) Trust Funds," 
which can be found on its website, http://www.ssa.gov. It shows that 
administrative expenses paid from these trust funds totaled $3.5 
billion in calendar year 1998, or about 0.9 percent of benefits paid 
from these same trust funds ($375.0 billion ). 

In addition to the OASDI programs, SSA also administers the 
supplemental security income (SSI) program. SSA is reimbursed for the 
administrative costs of the SSI program, $2.3 billion in FY 1998, from 
general revenues of the United States Treasury.

SSA currently has about 65,000 employees working in about 1,300 
offices throughout the United States.  


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