Statement by Commissioner O’Malley on the President’s Fiscal Year 2025 Budget
Reading Time: 3 MinutesLast Updated: March 11, 2024
The Biden-Harris Administration today released the President’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2025. Following historic progress made since the President took office—with nearly 15 million jobs created and inflation down two-thirds—the Budget protects and builds on this progress by lowering costs for working families, protecting and strengthening Social Security and Medicare, investing in America and the American people, and reducing the deficit by cracking down on fraud, cutting wasteful spending, and making the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share.
Key investments focus on improving the customer experience, reducing wait times at all stages of the disability process and on our National 800 Number, modernizing our information technology, improving overpayment and underpayment processes, and advancing equity by increasing access to our programs.
The Budget makes critical, targeted investments in the American people that will promote greater prosperity for decades to come. At the Social Security Administration (SSA), the Budget will:
- Protect the Social Security Benefits that Americans Have Earned. The Administration is committed to protecting and strengthening Social Security and opposes any attempt to cut Social Security benefits as well as proposals to privatize Social Security. The Administration believes that protecting Social Security should start with asking the highest-income Americans to pay their fair share. In addition, the Administration supports efforts to improve Social Security benefits, as well as SSI benefits, for seniors and people with disabilities, especially for those who face the greatest challenges making ends meet.
- Improve Service Delivery. The Administration is committed to improving service delivery for the more than six million retirement, survivor, and Medicare claimants, as well as the more than two million individuals applying for disability and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) every year. The Budget requests $15.4 billion in discretionary budget authority—a $1.3 billion or 9 percent increase over the 2023 enacted level—to improve customer service at SSA’s field offices, State disability determination services, and teleservice centers for retirees, individuals with disabilities, and their families. The Budget also improves access to SSA’s services by reducing wait times.
- Advance Equity and Accessibility. This Budget ensures we will deliver accessible Social Security services to all eligible individuals, while maintaining rigorous stewardship and oversight of our programs. Our programs must reach underserved communities and people facing barriers to accessing our services, including individuals with low income, limited English proficiency, mental and intellectual disabilities, and those facing homelessness. The Budget also supports our efforts to simplify and update the SSI application processes and expand access to agency programs and services through our outreach efforts, particularly for underserved communities. We will improve our IT systems to provide a more consistent, equitable, and accessible experience for our customers; reduce burdensome manual processes for our employees; increase self-service options on our National 800 Number; and expand our cybersecurity program. Further, the Budget prioritizes preventing and resolving improper payments.
- Provide National, Comprehensive Paid Family and Medical Leave. The vast majority of America’s workers do not have access to employer-provided paid family leave, including 73 percent of private sector workers. Among the lowest-paid workers, who are disproportionately women and workers of color, 94 percent lack access to paid family leave through their employers. In addition, as many as one in five retirees leave the workforce earlier than planned to care for an ill family member, which negatively impacts families, as well as the Nation’s labor supply and productivity. The Budget proposes to establish a national, comprehensive paid family and medical leave program administered by SSA. The program would: provide workers with progressive, partial wage replacement to take time off for family and medical reasons; include robust administrative funding; and use an inclusive family definition. The Budget would provide up to 12 weeks of leave to allow eligible workers to take time off to: care for and bond with a new child; care for a seriously ill loved one; heal from their own serious illness; address circumstances arising from a loved one’s military deployment; or find safety from domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking —otherwise known as “safe leave”. The Budget would also provide up to three days to grieve the death of a loved one. The Administration looks forward to continuing to work with the Congress to make this critical investment and strengthen America’s economy.
The Budget builds on the President’s record while achieving meaningful deficit reduction through measures that cut wasteful spending and ask the wealthy to pay their fair share.
For more information on the President’s FY 2025 Budget, please visit: https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/.
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Tags: Benefits, Presidential Budget, Service Improvements
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Suzanne T.
I don’t about my email.
Sue
I’m working on it again.
Randy A.
I agree with Jim L. Regardless of the political ad campaign here, which I agree it is, the single biggest thing they can do for Social Security is to eliminate the income ceiling. Whether you make 30,000 or 30,000,000 you should pay that same percentage on ALL income.
Suzanne T.
Okay. Why my email?
Suzanne T.
I don’t know if I will get hurt or better.
Dale
This is total liberal propaganda!!
BStirl
Absolutely.
Jon L.
Blah Blah Blah!!!!
Allan
I don’t trust what the government says, most of the statements are not truthful.
Kevin C.
I don’t make but $938 a month and my bills are about $850, & my car that I’m making $250 monthly payments on the motor caught on fire to day leaving me with no vehicle and no food stamps, I am having to pay $10 a month took from my SSI check because I had a small business, & I made $1,400 in 6 months which helped me to get some food and gas, but the IRS Took every penny of it, how can I be taxed for selling my own property, and then they took all $1,400 and I have to pay this back monthly, how can it be legal for me to be taxed 100% of what I made. I just don’t know why that is even possible. Very upset, and I quit my small business after that conversation. We now have a $500 light bill, how can I find out how to get some help from someone who can actually help me out with the light bill, internet bill, etc. Thanks for your help and Time for this issue.
Crystal B.
Hi, Kevin. Thanks for using our blog, and for your question. We’re sorry to hear of your situation. You may be eligible to receive social services from the state in which you live. These services include free meals, housekeeping help, transportation, or help with other problems. To get information about services in your area and find out if you qualify, you will need to contact your state or local social services or welfare office. We hope this information helps!
Mike
This is pure BS. Most of the 15 million jobs were people coming back after covid!
Diana M.
Agreed! I would like to know how many actual full-time jobs and how many part-time jobs were created.
Rosemary W.
This blog is nothing but a political ad and partisan opinion supporting the current administration, paid for at taxpayer expense. I thought the SS administration was supposed to be non-partisan? As a taxpayer, I object to the SSA endorsing ANY political party or candidate.
Jim L.
Why do we have a limit on gross wages for SS contributions? Senseless. Everyone should be paying the same percentage of their incomes regardless of the amount of their income
Ed D.
Well, I have always felt that it is probably a good thing that SS wages maxes out at a certain amount. Giving more money to Social Security is not the answer as both parties would figure out a way to get their hands on it. If we can be assured that neither party can use SS money as a piggy bank, then I would be for raising the income exemption for FICA taxes!
Roy K.
Jim,
Without running the numbers I don’t think that we would gain anything if all gross income was subject to payroll taxes. For example, if someone making $250,000 per year their payroll tax would be approximately $15,500 per year not counting the employer share. Over a 40 year employment career they would have paid in over $600,000 and their employer would pay the same so their payout at Retirement would probably be somewhere around $10,000 or more per month. The retirement payout is a guessimate but I don’t think that we would gain anything. We would just be paying more into SS and the Congress would find a way to spend it.
Susan
What a joke!
Warren
This is totally a joke, where are they lowering costs to American family’s everything has gone up ,food,gas,medications,
Kevin C.
I totally understand and agree with this statement. Everything else is going up gas,food, and light bills, my light bill went up from $340 a month to now OVER $500, WHERE IS THE HELP OUR SO CALLED GOVERNMENT. NO WHERE IN SITE MY FRIENDS, I’M AHMED TO SAY THAT I LIVE IN THE BROKE USA.
Rich O.
Our government is giving all the money to illegal aliens. What a joke this administration is.
Ja
Liar Liar !!
Pants on fire !!!