Social Security on the choping block — again
Bush Plan Would Cut Survivor Benefits - Yahoo! News
“Children who have lost a parent need every assistance and encouragement we can provide, and everything the federal government can do to encourage them to stay in school and get an education makes it that much more likely that they can succeed,” said Scott Milburn, a spokesman at the Office of Management and Budget.
“Linking benefits to school attendance provides that encouragement and is, in fact, currently the rule for 19-year-olds. We think more children can be helped by lowering that age to 16,” he said.
in other words, a 16 or 17 year old who might drop out of high school to subsidize the family income that was lost when his father or mother died will loose the death benefit that his parent earned for him while he was alive.
Mark Lassiter, a spokesman at the
Social Security Administration, said the benefit “bears no relation to what a person’s funeral expenses are or to any of workers’ earnings levels. We believe that eliminating it is not going to cause an appreciable financial hardship to a survivor.”
In other words, “After paying $5000-$10000 for a funeral what’s a another $255?”
