Most of you have probably noticed an increase in your take-home pay because your Social Security with-holdings are much less than they have been in previous years. In fact, they are 2% less than they were last year.

This 2011 tax reduction is part of the American Jobs Act (AJA) that President Obama proposed to stimulate the economy and create jobs.

Before this year, employees and employers each paid 6.2% of taxable payroll. However, the payroll tax cut passed in December 2010 provides that the employees pay only 4.2% in 2011. The employer’s tax rate remains at 6.2%. Payroll contributions under FICA (the Federal Income Contributions Act) fund the Social Security Trust Fund.

Now you may be wondering how we are making up for the loss in Social Security revenue. The legislation provided that the Trust Fund will receive all revenues it would otherwise receive through a transfer from the federal budget’s General Fund.

While the Social Security Trust Fund will not lose any revenue under the 2011 employee payroll tax cut or the proposals in the AJA, you can imagine that the long-term probability of reinstating the employee tax rate to, at a minimum, 6.2% is uncertain. Understandably, workers get used to the increase in take-home pay and some Members of Congress have pledged to never increase taxes.

So for right now, we can all enjoy the tax reduction, but understand that there is a possibility that the tax rate will be reinstated in the years to come.

What are your thoughts about this new payroll tax cut? Are you enjoying the increase in your take-home pay? Please leave your comment in my comments section, or on my Facebook wall.

There have been a few changes lately to your rights to appeal a disability claim. Below I clarify exactly what these changes are and how they will affect you.

Social Security Ruling 11-1p

Procedures for Handling Requests to File Subsequent Applications for Disability Benefits

Change and how it affects you:

This ruling deals with your appeal rights after being denied by the Administrative Law Judge. Up until now you could appeal to the Appeals Council and then file a new disability application as well. Now, you have to choose whether you want to appeal to the Appeals Council or want to file a new application. You can no longer do both.

If you appeal to the Appeals Council: if remanded you have a hearing before the same judge you had before (it comes back two times to the same judge and then it is reassigned to a new judge).

If you choose to file a new claim: your disability will not start until after the date of your Administrative Law Judge decision. That can make a difference if you have not worked for a while because you may not be able to file Title II benefits.

As a Utah disability attorney, my personal opinion is that this new ruling takes rights away from the claimant. My hope is that Social Security will rethink their position, but it is likely that this is the new choice all of us need to make when it comes to making an appeal.

What are your thoughts about this new social security ruling? How can Giles Disability Law help?

-Why this Affects You-

In April 2011, Congress passed a budget for the federal government, giving the Social Security Administration (SSA) $1.25 million less than the previous year, making it necessary for the SSA to close 160 remote hearing sites across the Unites States.

This will affect residents across the nation, requiring those living in remote towns and smaller cities to travel to larger cities for their social security disability hearings. For example, the Utah and Idaho sites that are being closed include St. George, Cedar City, Pocatello and Idaho Falls. This means that all Utah and Southern Idaho social security claimants must travel to Salt Lake City for their hearings.

Here at Giles Disability Law, we are concerned about the temporary hearing sites closing because we understand that many of our clients have serious physical difficulties that limit their ability to ride in a car for long periods of time, not to mention the financial hardships that traveling extending distances would incur on them. We are also concerned because there is already a shortage of hearing sites and the ones that are open have a significant backlog of disability cases waiting to be heard.

However, SSA is offering a solution to site closures; video hearings will be offered at field offices where they can afford to do so, and attorneys, such as me have the option of conducting hearings from our own offices.

We are happy about this addition, although it is important for you to know that SSA is required to offer claimants the opportunity to have their hearing in person. We want you to also know that as of right now, the SSA will reimburse claimants who are required to travel more than 75 miles to a video hearing site or the hearing office that is selected.

Where do we go from here? The outlook for 2012 doesn’t look much brighter for the SSA budget, although there could be potential for temporary sites to be reopened in the following years, but for now we will just have to endure the inconvenience of these site closings.

How do you feel? We want to hear about how temporary hearing site closings will affect you. How can Giles Disability Law help?