My Social Security and yours

It's been mentioned here before that although I am retired, I am not eligible under my own or my husband's Social Security account for any pension from our "trust fund". But illegals who worked in the U.S. using false documents are. My case is because I have a Teacher's Pension (STRS Ohio), and since the mid-80s (I returned to work in 1986), this has been considered "double dipping." The teacher glitch is not a mistake or a loophole; it was intentional. It is OK for Congress to double dip, but not teachers. The case for the illegals is because of a loophole.

"After numerous refusals over three and a half years, the Social Security Administration (SSA) has released the first known public copy of the U.S.-Mexico Social Security Totalization Agreement. The government made the disclosure in response to lawsuits filed under the Freedom of Information Act by TREA Senior Citizens League, a 1.2 million member nonpartisan seniors advocacy group.

The Totalization Agreement could allow millions of illegal Mexican workers to draw billions of dollars from the U.S. Social Security Trust Fund.

A loophole in current Social Security law could allow millions of today's Mexican workers to eventually collect billions of dollars worth of Social Security benefits for earnings under fraudulent or "non-work authorized" Social Security numbers, putting huge new pressures on the Social Security Trust Fund.

If an illegal worker working in the United States today gets a "work authorized" Social Security number through guest worker immigration legislation, the Totalization Agreement, or perhaps just over time, that worker could eventually apply for Social Security benefits once he or she has met eligibility requirements.

In addition, that worker could be able to claim credits for work performed while in the U.S. illegally. The SSA maintains an "earnings suspense file," which tracks wages that cannot be posted to individual workers' records because there is no match for a name and Social Security number. Once an immigrant gains access to a work authorized Social Security number -- whether a legal citizen or not -- wages earned while in the U.S. unlawfully could be reinstated to the worker's new Social Security account."
Source: "U.S.-Mexico Social Security Agreement Released After 3 Year FOIA Battle; Mexican Illegals Could Get Billions of Social Security Dollars." The America's Intelligence Wire, 01/04/2007 via "Access my Library."

We have an agreement with a number of countries, and some of the benefits are more generous than for our own citizens. But the difference with Mexico can be found here, along with the information on stopping it.