June 2015 marks the 80th birthday of Social Security and the 50th birthday of Medicare. Instead of “Happy Birthday,” the song verse that comes to mind is by the well-known labor troubadour Joe Glazer (who is, believe it or not, even more famous than our own George Altomare):

Too old to work, too young to die
Ida May. Ida May
Old folks ain’t all the same.

The Ida May in the song is Ida May Fuller, the first person to collect Social Security. She received her first monthly check on Jan. 1, 1940. It totaled $22.50.

Social Security had been born five years earlier in 1935 when the law establishing it was finally passed over the opposition of those who stubbornly resisted it.

Since then, Social Security has become more than a retirement plan. An estimated 165 million workers are covered under the program, and more than 59 million Americans — including retirees, their dependents and survivors of deceased workers — each year collect nearly $863 billion in benefits. Among the beneficiaries are 3.5 million children.

Even with Social Security in place, the elderly and disabled needed health insurance. Finally in 1965, President Johnson convinced Congress of this need and Medicare was born. Today, Medicare is available to retirees age 65 and older and to recipients of Social Security disability benefits. A health plan for the poor was also enacted in 1965 — Medicaid.

Hopefully, in the not-too-distant future we will be able to celebrate the birth of universal health care. The nation moved closer to this in 2010 with passage of the Affordable Care Act. Not surprisingly, the same objections that arose against Social Security and Medicare are now being made by opponents of the Affordable Care Act.

Americans see retirement plans as key

An annual survey of Americans’ confidence in their ability to afford retirement shows that people are feeling more optimistic this year. With the rebounding economy, those who have some kind of a retirement plan through work or investments, such as an Individual Retirement Account, are growing more confident in their ability to have a secure retirement, according to the survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute. At the same time, “those without a retirement plan seem to understand they are likely to have difficulties accumulating adequate financial resources for retirement,” the institute said. Among the survey findings:

• About two-thirds of workers are somewhat or very confident about their financial preparations for retirement.
• 44 percent of workers without a retirement plan are not confident about having a comfortable retirement compared to 14 percent of those with a plan.
• 64 percent of workers without a retirement plan say they have saved less than $1,000.
• Cost-of-living and day-to-day expenses head the list of reasons why workers fail to save more for retirement.
• The number of people very confident in their ability to pay for medical expenses and long-term care expenses is slowly inching upward.

Compare these findings to the retirement situation for UFT members who have spent their careers educating the children of New York City.

We are all covered by a defined benefit pension as well as Social Security and also have retiree health insurance. In addition, more than 132,000 in-service members and retirees have additional savings through their Tax-Deferred Annuity accounts.

Together, these programs that the UFT won through long years of contract negotiations and political action form the basis for a secure retirement, which should be available to all Americans.

Prepare for retirement

Retirement should not make you nervous. If you have taken advantage of all of the UFT’s retirement and pension-related services, you will be among the UFT’s happiest members — its retirees!

But be aware that you must make certain decisions and take action. These include:

• filing your retirement application with the Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS) at 55 Water Street in Manhattan;
• filing for your retiree health insurance through the Department of Education at 65 Court Street in Brooklyn; and
• joining the union’s Retired Teachers Chapter.

You can get help with all of this at your final pension consultation. Just call 1-212-598-6866 to set up an appointment.

For those retiring this year, we have made arrangements with the Board of Education Insurance Unit to provide staff at Teachers’ Retirement System headquarters to accept members’ health insurance applications, saving you the separate trip to Brooklyn. This service will be available from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on June 4 and from June 8 to June 30, Monday through Friday. If you do not hand in the health insurance application at the TRS when you retire, you must take it to 65 Court St., in Brooklyn.

The UFT pension clinics [see box at right] are designed for members thinking of retiring in a year or two. Many members participate in the clinics during the summer. If you are thinking of retiring soon or even if you plan to retire later but like to plan long-term, check this page for dates and times of upcoming clinics. Topics covered include:

• terminal leave and termination pay;
• how to calculate an estimate of your retirement allowance;
• the Tax-Deferred Annuity;
• TRS investment programs;
• how you can use different retirement-allowance options to provide for heirs or beneficiaries, if you choose to do so;
• partial lump-sum withdrawals; and
• retiree health insurance and UFT Welfare Fund benefits.