Unauthorized Immigrants Paid $100 Billion Into Social Security Over Last Decade
*A couple of things; I’ve been seeing “unauthorized immigrant” used more and more in news stories. I have no problem with it, just an observation. As far as the Social Security numbers are concerned, they don’t surprise me at all – it’s good to have an official amount to fold into our conversations. VL
By Roy Germano, VICE News
Unauthorized workers are paying an estimated $13 billion a year in social security taxes and only getting around $1 billion back, according to a senior government statistician.
[pullquote]Unauthorized workers usually demonstrate their employment eligibility with fake IDs and fake social security numbers.[/pullquote]Stephen Goss, the chief actuary of the Social Security Administration (SSA), told VICE News that an estimated 7 million people are currently working in the US illegally. Of those, he estimates that about 3.1 million are using fake or expired social security numbers, yet also paying automatic payroll taxes. Goss believes that these workers pay an annual net contribution of $12 billion to the Social Security Trust Fund.
[tweet_dis]The SSA estimates that unauthorized workers have paid a whopping $100 billion into the fund over the past decade.[/tweet_dis] Yet as these people are in the US illegally, it is unlikely that they will be able to benefit from their contributions later in life.Unauthorized workers usually demonstrate their employment eligibility with fake IDs and fake social security numbers. Once hired, these “questionably documented” workers end up on the payroll and have taxes automatically taken out of their checks, like any other employee. That money then goes to the federal treasury to fund programs like Social Security and Medicare.
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[Photo by 401(K) 2012/Flickr]
