**GAO-11-787T**                      Published: Jul 08, 2011. Publicly Released: Jul 08, 2011.                  

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## Highlights

The Social Security Statement (the statement) is the federal government's main document for communicating with more than 150 million workers about their Social Security benefits. Provided annually, it serves as a key financial literacy tool that can educate the public about Social Security Administration (SSA) program benefits, aid in financial planning, and ensure that workers' earnings records are complete and accurate. The statement is also a key tool for communicating with the public about the long-term financial challenges the Social Security system faces. However, due to budget constraints, SSA chose to suspend mailings of the statement in March 2011. GAO examined (1) the current status of the statement and (2) ways SSA plans to improve the usefulness of the statement. To address these issues, GAO interviewed SSA officials and reviewed agency documents and our prior work on the statement's understandability. GAO also provided a draft of this testimony to SSA for review and comment.

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## Topics

Retirement Security

AccessibilityEmployeesFederal social security programsGovernment information disseminationInternetPublic relationsRetirement benefitsSocial security benefitsTrust fundsWeb accessibilityInformation sharing