The following tables show Social Security data for the NY 23rd Congressional District as of December, 2013. At that time there were 178,385 NY 23rd-ers receiving Social Security benefits. The first table indicates how many residents were receiving each benefit by number and per cent. Using the 2010 census population as a base,  22.7% of NY 23rd residents received Social Security benefits.

Tables 2, 3, and 4 breaks down the Old-Age (Retirement) Benefits, Survivor Benefits, and Disability Benefits by counties.

Table 5 Summarizes the total benefit recipients by counties.

Table 1. NY 23rd Residents Receiving  

Social Security Benefits

Table 2. OLD-AGE (Retirement ) Benefits by County

Table 3. SURVIVOR BENEFITS  by County

Table 4. DISABILITY BENEFITS  by County 

 Rep. Reed has pointed out that if no congressional action happens before August, 2016, disability benefits would be decreased by 20%. That would affect almost 37,000 NY 23rd residents.

The amendment Rep. Reed proposed to the House Rules (and the House approved) to solve this problem would permit only increasing the Social Security “tax” rates, or, decreasing the disability benefits. Since employers (and Corporations) pay into Social Security Congress would be reluctant to raise the tax rate. They would rather cut disability benefits. Hence, the idea of the only way to “Save” Social Security is to reduce its benefits. In reality there are other ways to “Save” Social Security.

Table 5.  SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS SUMMARY

This data is from Social Security Recipients by State and Counties, Table 4