Social Security

By Kemp Baratier

March 28, 2008 04:00 am

—

The following message from our Central Office explains why Social Security is important to younger people too:

If you're a younger worker, retirement probably seems like a lifetime away. In fact, you may wonder if your contributions to Social Security, deducted from your paycheck, actually cover you for anything right now.

By working in a job covered by Social Security, you automatically get disability and survivor insurance protection.

A worker younger than 24 who pays Social Security taxes for just 11/2 years is covered. A worker younger than 31 who pays Social Security taxes for half the time elapsed since age 21 is also covered.

If you're like most workers, you probably don't have private long-term disability insurance. But you do have disability protection through Social Security, which will provide benefits to you and your family if you become disabled.

About three in 10 of today's 20-year-olds will become disabled before reaching 67, so it could happen to you. The average disability benefit paid to a worker with a spouse and two children in 2008 is about $1,690 a month.

Social Security also provides survivors' benefits. It is a sad truth that about one of seven young Americans can expect to die before reaching age 67.

Social Security's survivors insurance pays an average monthly benefit in 2008 of $2,243 for a spouse and two children of a young worker with average wages who dies.

It's good to think ahead to retirement, but Social Security is more than that. It provides you and your family with protection now.

For more information on how Social Security protects younger and older Americans alike, visit our website at

www.socialsecurity.gov or call us at (800) 772-1213, or TTY (800) 325-0778.

Kemp Baratier is district manager for the Social Security Administration in Oneonta.