If applying on grounds of disability, check the eligibility section on the Transport Scotland website for more information on proofs required. a completed application form (not all local authorities require this, check with yours to confirm the process in your area)Ĭheck the National Entitlement Card website for more information on proofs required to confirm your identity and address.In order to make the application process as smooth as possible, you will need: It is not possible to download forms from the website or send these by email. We are unable to send out forms as these should be obtained from your local authority/council office. Your local authority (contact numbers below) will be able to tell you if you need to complete an application form and what you need to do when you apply. There may be a different process if applying on age grounds as opposed to grounds of disability. To apply for a National Entitlement Card, you should contact your local authority or Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) for details of the application process in your area. The National Entitlement Card scheme also allows for free travel for companions where required by eligible disabled people of any age (including children under 5). It’s still not fair.If you are over 60 or have a disability, you could be eligible for free bus travel to get around Scotland and your local area. You can access this via the National Entitlement Card, your pass to free bus travel in Scotland. In several reforms since 1935, the system has been broadened to include almost all employment. The omission was ostensibly justified by the difficulty of setting up withholding taxes in these sectors, but it’s hard to believe that Southern politicians’ animus against sharecroppers was not part of the picture. Blacks were overrepresented among domestic and agricultural workers when those were excluded in the Social Security Act FDR signed 86 years ago. The racial tilt in retirement has been around for a long while. The racial gap is starkest for highly educated men: Blacks in this category get a return of only 82 cents on each dollar they invest, while whites get 90 cents. It’s a complicated analysis, because life expectancies are a function of socioeconomic status as well as of race and gender. Blacks, because their lifespans are shorter, get a crummier deal than whites. But what happens when retirees convert their stock funds into monthly pensions? They might leap out of the frying pan and into the fire.īoston College’s Center for Retirement Research published a study this year on the value of immediate annuities bought from insurance companies. They would, if the stock market cooperates. Let workers put their payroll taxes instead into stock funds, she says. As a way to attack that problem, commentator Star Parker recommends an opt-out for Social Security. What is to be done? Black families have, outside the Social Security System, much less wealth than whites to cover a comfortable retirement. “Historically, currently, and in the near future,” these analysts declared, “Social Security redistributes from people of color to whites.” The payout formula credits a higher percentage of taxable earnings at the low end than at the high end.Īdd it up, and what do we have? In a 2013 paper, Eugene Steurle and others at the Urban Institute did the arithmetic, concluding that whites get an outsized return on investment in Social Security taxes. People pay in at a flat rate on the wage base ($142,800 this year) but draw out on a progressive scale. Blacks work disproportionately in dangerous jobs, such as in warehouses and on construction sites, and so they wind up getting a better return than whites on the disability insurance fund.Īlso mitigating life’s inequities is that Social Security redistributes wealth. One element of Social Security works in favor of the disadvantaged, although this turns out to be a mixed blessing.
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