Reports & Studies

1994 - 1996 Advisory Council

Background

A provision of Social Security Act required an Advisory Council on Social Security every 4 years to review the status of the Social Security Trust Funds and their relationship to their long-term commitments. This provision was repealed under the Social Security Independence and Program Improvements Act of 1994. The Advisory Councils have been replaced by the Social Security Advisory Board.

The last Advisory Council was appointed in late 1994, continued working until 1996 and and released their final report in 1997.

The Advisory Council of 1994-96 has focussed on the following subjects:

• Social Security financing, including the long-range financial status of the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance programs;
• Adequacy and equity of Social Security benefits paid to persons at various income levels, in various family situations, and age groups; and
• The relative roles of the public and private sectors in providing retirement income and how policies in both sectors affect the retirement decisions and economic well-being of individuals.

Final Report of the 1994-96 Advisory Council

Seeking to reassure Americans that Social Security will continue to provide retirement income security for many generations to come, the Advisory Council on Social Security issued its findings and recommendations for the program on January 7, 1997. The Advisor Council Report was announced in a Joint Statement of Shirley S. Chater, Commissioner of Social Security and Donna E. Shalala, Secretary of Health and Human Services and by a Statement of The Advisory Council.

The Findings and Recommendations of the 1994-96 Advisory Council, Volume I is now available. Volume II includes the full reports of the two Technical Panels and presentations given to the Advisory Council. The complete text of Volume II is not available on this Web site, however, the The Technical Panel Reports (see below) were previously released and are available. Summaries of the Technical Panel reports are included in Volume I.

Technical Panel Reports

In January, 1996, the 1994-96 Advisory Council on Social Security, Technical Panel on Assumptions and Methods, released its final report on the assumptions and methodology used to project the future financial staus of the old age, survivors, and disability insurance (OASDI) programs, including if necessary, measures of the financial soundness of these programs.

In October 1995, the Advisory Council released the final report of the Technical Panel of Experts on Trends and Issues in Retirement Savings which is now available. The Executive Summary is available for viewing in HTML format. The full 162 page report is available in either WordPerfect or ASCII formats.

Neither version contains the charts or graphs included in the printed copy. If you wish a full printed version of Volume II, write to:
Social Security Administration
Office of Public Inquiries
6401 Security Blvd.
Baltimore, MD 21235

Also available are the reports of the SSA Advisory Council Meetings:

• The Advisory Council held their last meeting on April 13.
• Report of the Advisory Council Meeting December 14, 1995 - The members discussed the pros and cons of the so-called "big personal savings account". This plan would use 5 percent of the FICA tax to establish personal savings accounts.

• Report of the Advisory Council Meeting August 31 - September 1, 1995.
• Report of the Social Security Advisory Council Meeting July 27-28, 1995.
• Report of the Social Security Advisory Council Meetings on June 2 and 3.
• Report on Social Security Advisory Council Meeting on May 19 on proposals to change the financing of Social Security.
• The focus of the Advisory Council Meetings on April 21 and April 22 was the discussion of an illustrative plan to restore long range solvency developed by Robert Ball.
• Report of the Assumptions and Methods Technical Panel, March 10-11, 1995.
• Hearing, March 8-9 To obtain public opinion regarding possible options to be taken to offset the long-range deficit facing the Social Security program.
• Report of February 10 and 11, 1995 Meeting of the 1994-95 Advisory Council on Social Security.