Hastert Could Fulfill Local Man’S Dream

U.S. Rep. Dennis Hastert’s ascension to Speaker of the House tomorrow could be a stroke of extremely good fortune for Spokane’s Dean Tjards and others like him.

Tjards, 66, a building materials center employee, wants to keep working while drawing Social Security, but is severely penalized for his efforts under existing law. Tjards has launched a letter-writing crusade to change the law and wants help from anyone he can get.

Speaker-apparent Hastert, it just so happens, is the No. 1 champion in Congress of older workers’ right to earn.

I have talked with the congressman from Illinois on more than one occasion about easing the earnings restriction on Social Security recipients, and I know he is all for eliminating the ceiling altogether if possible. As Speaker of the House, he could certainly go a long way toward realizing that goal.

For working Social Security recipients 65 to 70, the earnings limit that will not trigger a benefit reduction went up Jan. 1 by $1,000 to $15,500. Above that, for every three dollars earned, Social Security takes one of every three dollars earned off the top of a recipient’s check.

For recipients under 65 who work - including widows and children who receive survivor benefits - the ceiling is even lower, and the penalty even harsher. On Jan. 1, the ceiling rose $480 to $9,600. Above that, working “retirees,” widows, and surviving children lose one of every two dollars earned.

Look for a change.

A great many “retired” persons these days are starting new careers, often opening their own businesses at home. Less restrictive home-office deduction rules go into effect this year. You might want to check this out with the IRS.

Also in this regard, remember that the self-employed can now deduct 60 percent of their home health insurance premium.

Evan Iverson of Olympia, six-term president of the Senior Citizens’ Lobby of Washington, and wife Flo have moved to Bountiful, Utah, to be closer to family members.

Gov. Gary Locke presented the perennial leader of the lobby an award extolling his many years of unpaid service to Washington state’s senior population. “He was tireless in monitoring senior issues and staying in touch with coalition members,” said the governor.

“I just said goodbye to a prince of a guy and real champion of seniors in this state,” the lobby’s current president, Bruce Reeves, told me upon his successor’s departure last month.

Iverson, a former college professor and later a planner for the Washington State departments of Institutions and Transportation, had been active on committees of the senior lobby since the the mid-1980s. The lobby represents a coalition of 26 seniors’ organizations. He organized and directed the lobby’s legislative research and advocacy program in cooperation with hundreds of senior leaders throughout the state.

Life expectancy has climbed a full year in the 1990s, Business Week magazine reports. The Dec. 28 issue cites MetLife demographic figures that put the life expectancy of children born last year at 76.4 years.

Black life expectancy is rising faster than white. Male mortality rates are falling faster than female - especially among those over 65.