New Social Security Bill Boosts Survivors Benefit

However, “on average, an elderly person needs 79% of the income received while both were alive to maintain their standard of living,” Sanchez explained.

The Alliance for Retired Americans and Elder Justice Coalition also back the bill, which Sanchez first introduced in 2016.

Caregiver’s Credit Boost

Another bill introduced in late May, the Social Security Caregiver Credit Act of 2023, would boost the caregiver’s credit.

The credit in the bill, introduced by Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill., “is very modest extra boost of credit for up to 5 years of earnings,” Mary Johnson, Social Security and Medicare policy analyst at The Senior Citizens League, told ThinkAdvisor in an email.

“The Social Security benefit formula uses the highest 35 years of earnings to calculate one’s benefit,” Johnson said. “It would help fill in an earnings record of a caregiver who did not have 35 years of earnings or their earnings were very low.”

Also, “to deter anyone from gaming the system, It has stringent qualification rules spelling out who the patient can be, and how long the caregiver must work every month (at least 80 hours per month) to qualify,” Johnson explained.

The bill “also requires explicit documentation, some of which may be difficult if not impossible to produce. I question how those of us who provided caregiving 20 years ago for someone who has passed away would be able to provide the required certification from doctors, in order to qualify for the credit,” Johnson added.

The earnings credited to one’s record would be determined on one half the Average Wage Index, Johnson said.

“In figuring benefits, the first thing that SSA does is to convert one’s earnings to current dollars. They use 100% of the Average Wage Index of each year of your earnings,” Johnson added. “Thus this 50% of the AWI amount is extremely modest.”

 
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