Quote:
Originally Posted by Jensor17
I dont understand why government does anything anymore. For years there's no COLA then comes a whopper. .
Some folks eek by on $300 a month SS and rely on the largesse of relatives or neighborhood groups like Elks or moose lodge. The ones who get $4500 a month SS PAYMENTS MAKE ME QUESTION THE WHOLE SHEBANG. I know a gal whose husband passed and she had infant twins, and collects $1500 a month + 1500 +1500 survivor benefits. All i got when my husband passed was $225 one -time SS check SINCE I WAS COLLECTING MY OWN SS benefit.
Where is the logic in no benefits and. Overpaying on others ?
|
It's because you don't understand how it works. There's plenty of logic in it.
Your "gal" whose husband passed and she had infant twins? The husband would've needed to be 62 or older to even be eligible for any social security at all. Assuming she's still of child-bearing age, she's probably younger than 45. That'd put hubby at 18 years older than wifey-poo. No judgement there, just saying - it seems unlikely that all of these things would be true. If it is true, then yes - wifey and twins each get survivor benefits, until she is 62 and eligible for her own, and until those kids are 16 or 18 (I had it up on another web tab and forgot which rule was 16 and which was 18).
The survivor benefit is to help people who typically earn less than their spouses. It was originally for wives who outlived their husbands, during a time in America when most women didn't work at all and those who did, made pennies on the dollar compared to men. It was to keep widows and their children out of poverty.
Meanwhile, the maximum individual benefit to any worker is under $4000. So your anger against people getting $4500 checks is misplaced. No one living, and collecting their own social security check from their own years of working, is getting a check bigger than $3800-something. If they're getting more, then it's a survivor benefit, or it's actually more than one person in the household, each receiving a benefit.
You can read all about how social security works on their website. But, just because you don't understand it, doesn't mean it is illogical. It just means you're limited in your understanding. You can always expand that limitation if you wish, all the information is available to you.