Actuaries Offer Social Security Election Guide

March 2, 2004 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - To better inform voters on where the candidates stand on Social Security reform, the American Academy of Actuaries has released a guide on the questions candidates should be answering.

Election Guide 2004: The Questions Candidates Should Answer about Social Security Reform includes background information on six Social Security reforms being discussed recently and a series of questions to be posed to candidates who make reform proposals.   Those reforms include:

  • changes to the benefit formula
  • changes in the taxation of benefits
  • financing
  • means testing
  • raising the retirement age
  • individual account proposals.

“It is important that voters know as much about their candidates’ positions on Social Security as they can before they go to the polls. This guide was written to be a tool that journalists, policy-makers and citizens can use to evaluate candidates’ positions on Social Security reform,” Eric Klieber, chairperson of the Academy’s Social Insurance Committee and a consulting actuary and associate principal with Mellon Consultants in Cleveland, Ohio said in a news release.

The guide is available at  http://www.actuary.org/election04.htm .

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