Social Security Amendments of 1987

Social Security Amendments of 1987 - Title I: Coverage - Amends title II (Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance) (OASDI) of the Social Security Act to include inactive duty military training as covered employment.

Amends the OASDI program and the Internal Revenue Code to treat the gross income and deductions derived from a trade or business in community property States as the income and deductions of the spouse who is carrying on the trade or business (removes the preference for the husband).

Treats all cash pay of agricultural employees whose employers spend $2,500 or more a year for agricultural labor as covered wages. Considers employer payments into a life insurance plan established for his or her employees as covered wages if such payments are included in the employees' gross income under the Internal Revenue Code.

Includes as covered employment: (1) services performed by students; and (2) services performed by one spouse in the employ of the other spouse, except for domestic services performed in the employer spouse's home. Reduces to 18 the age after which services performed in the parent's employ may be treated as employment, but requires a child to be 21 before service outside the employing parent's trade or business or domestic service in the parent's home will be considered employment.

Makes permanent agreements which provide for OASDI coverage of U.S. citizens and residents employed abroad by a foreign affiliate of an American employer.

Amends the Internal Revenue Code to include employee tips within the wages on which social security employer taxes are based.

Title II: Benefits - Amends the OASDI program to provide that the reduction period for old-age insurance benefits shall not exclude months for which an individual was entitled to disability insurance benefits if such individual received an old-age insurance benefit for that month.

Provides for the reduction of widow's or widower's insurance benefits where such widow or widower is also entitled to reduced old-age insurance benefits due to early retirement. Eliminates any carryover reduction in old-age or disability insurance benefits due to an individual's receipt of widow's or widower's insurance benefits before retirement age.

Entitles individuals who have not attained retirement age and were eligible for wife's or husband's insurance benefits and old-age or disability insurance benefits for the month preceding the month their spouse died to file a certificate with the Secretary of Health and Human Services for reduced widow's or widower's insurance benefits.

Provides that reductions in the OASDI benefits available to an individual who is under retirement age and entitled to wife's or husband's insurance benefits, but who no longer has care of the spouse's child, shall be made regardless of whether such individual and his or her spouse are divorced.

Provides that when an individual dies before the close of a taxable year in which he or she would have attained retirement age the earnings test shall apply to the full 12-month taxable year.

Excludes income received after an individual becomes entitled to OASDI benefits (other than by reason of a disability) which is not attributable to services performed after such entitlement from an individual's gross income for OASDI earnings test purposes.

Adds deductions from dependents' benefits which result from an old-age beneficiary's noncovered work outside the United States to those deductions which might protect one's eligibility for delayed retirement increments in old-age insurance benefits.

Limits entitlement to the special benefits provided to uninsured individuals who are age 72 or older to those who attained such age after 1967 and before 1972.

Provides that in calculating the OASDI primary insurance amount of individuals who are entitled to pensions for noncovered services, pension amounts payable in the first month of concurrent entitlement, rather than the first month of concurrent eligibility, for such pension and OASDI benefits shall be applied in such calculations. Excludes certain foreign pensions from such calculations.

Limits the rehabilitation exception to the suspension of OASDI benefits for prisoners to prisoners entitled to such benefits by reason of a disability.

Extends, until June 1989, the continuation of disability benefits pending an individual's appeal of the termination of such benefits.

Prohibits the use of an individual's statement as to pain or other symptoms as conclusive evidence of disability in determinations made prior to 1990. (Currently, such prohibition applies to determinations made prior to 1987.)

Amends the OASDI and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program (title XVI of the Social Security Act) to prohibit the payment of benefits to individuals before the Secretary or a court makes a final decision as to the individual's entitlement to benefits.

Prohibits the payment of auxiliary OASDI benefits to any person on the basis of the wages and self-employment income of an individual who is entitled to disability insurance benefits but is engaging in substantial gainful activity.

Makes clear which intestate succession law the Secretary must apply in determining the family status of individuals applying for auxiliary OASDI benefits.

Sets forth the age and disability status required before an individual who remarries may retain eligibility for widow's or widower's insurance benefits on the basis of his or her prior marriage.

Title III: Disability Benefit Offset - Extends the applicability of the prohibition on reducing the OASDI benefits available by reason of an individual's wages and self-employment income to offset such individual's receipt of periodic disability benefits under another Federal or State program if such other program provides for the reduction of the periodic benefits available to OASDI beneficiaries.

Amends the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981 to make such Act's extension of the applicability of the disability offset provision to individuals over age 62 and under age 65 effective with respect to individuals who attain age 62 within 6 months of this Act's enactment, provided they were under a disability before March 1981 or were entitled to OASDI disability benefits before September 1981.

Amends the OASDI program to make the disability offset provision applicable to certain State and local government employees.

Eliminates the consideration of an individual's average monthly wage in determining average current earnings for purposes of the disability offset calculation.

Includes benefits under part B of the Black Lung Benefits Act, and that portion of compensation, damages or other sums resulting from a cause of action under the Federal Employers' Liability Act and the Jones Act, which are analogous to disability benefits among the periodic disability benefits against which OASDI benefits are offset.

Title IV: Administration - Extends through FY 1987 the requirement that the Secretary review at least 65 percent of State disability determinations. Provides that after FY 1987 the Secretary review at least 50 percent of initial disability determinations and 25 percent of continuing disability determinations made by States, selecting those State determinations most likely to be incorrect.

Provides that reductions in an individual's old-age benefits by reason of his or her entitlement to auxiliary old-age benefits on the basis of the same income as another person shall be made before deductions in such individual's benefits on account of work if such other person does not reside with such individual and has had his or her benefits reduced on account of work. Imposes an income reporting requirement on certain individuals who have had their benefits reduced on account of work.

Requires OASDI beneficiaries to report any change in their status or the occurrence of an event affecting their entitlement to benefits or the amount of such benefits to the Secretary within 60 days after the occurrence of such change or event. Makes such reporting requirement inapplicable to reports concerning an individual's earnings, death, deportation from the United States or, in the case of an individual receiving disability benefits, improvement in medical condition or refusal to accept vocational rehabilitation. Establishes special reporting requirements for earnings. Subjects individuals who fail, without good cause, to comply with such requirements to specified penalties.

Amends the Debt Collection Act of 1982 to provide for the recovery of OASDI and SSI overpayments from present or former Federal Employees or members of the armed forces or armed forces' reserve by means of offset from salary or other Federal payments.

Amends part A (General Provisions) of title XI of the Act to adjust the retroactive payments available to an individual under the OASDI program or the program of annuities under the Railroad Retirement Act of 1974 when such individual's entitlement to such payments under one of the programs results in incorrect payments under the other program.

Amends Federal law to make debts for OASDI and SSI benefit overpayments nondischargeable in bankruptcy.

Amends the OASDI program to require, as a condition for receipt of OASDI benefits, that an individual furnish satisfactory proof of a social security number or apply for such a number.

Amends the Social Security Disability Benefits Reform Act of 1984 to extend permanently a provision of that Act which requires the Secretary to monitor State compliance with Federal disability determination requirements and administer State disability determinations when State noncompliance persists.

Amends the OASDI program to consolidate the Secretary's reports on continuing disability reviews into an annual report to the Congress.

Title V: Supplemental Security Income - Amends the SSI program to exclude death benefits used for a deceased person's last illness and burial from consideration as a benefit recipient's income.

Provides that an alien's three-year period of ineligibility for SSI benefits shall not apply when the organization sponsoring the alien is no longer in existence or is adjudged bankrupt.

Authorizes the Secretary to make an emergency cash advance to presumptively eligible individuals who are initially applying for SSI benefits up to the amount which would by payable for the first month to an eligible individual with no other income.

Extends Federal reimbursement of State interim SSI assistance to cover such assistance provided for the period during which an individual's benefits were erroneously terminated or suspended.

Provides that the Secretary's determination of an individual's eligibility under a State Medicaid (title XIX of the Act) plan may exclude any criterion that the Secretary decides would be more appropriately applied by the State.