Dear Colleague:

July 19–25, 2015 is National my Social Security Week. Now in its second year, this campaign aims to educate workers about the importance of planning thoughtfully for life events—starting with creating a secure my Social Security account at www.socialsecurity.gov/myaccount.

Throughout this week, we ask that you share our retirement planning and other messages with your members, employees, and the public by taking advantage of our 2015 my Social Security toolkit atwww.socialsecurity.gov/thirdparty.  Here you will discover a wealth of materials that you can begin using now to support the campaign. The toolkit includes eye-catching web banners and publication-ready content for internal and external web pages, blogs, newsletter articles, social media, and email blasts.

Creating a my Social Security account helps workers plan for their future and the future of their families by giving them convenient access to their own personalized Social Security Statement. TheStatement provides estimates of future retirement benefits at age 62, full retirement age, and age 70. It also lets workers verify the earnings information we have for them. This is important because future benefits depend on earnings.

On average, Social Security replaces just 40 percent of pre-retirement income. Yet only about half of American workers say they are contributing to a workplace retirement plan. We need your support to help workers understand that they will require other sources of retirement income in addition to Social Security, and that it’s never too early (or too late) to start thinking ahead.

Besides retirement, with a my Social Security account, you can also get estimates of future disability and survivor benefits you or your family may be eligible to receive. For those already receiving benefits, a my Social Security can be used to get benefit verification letters, change an  address and phone number, and start or update direct deposit information.

In addition, we welcome invitations to assist workers with creating a my Social Security account at your location, whether as part of another activity, such as a conference or annual meeting, or as a standalone event. To explore this possibility, please contact us at oea.net.post@ssa.gov.

To hear more about my Social Security from Social Security’s Acting Commissioner Carolyn W. Colvin, visit us at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loBsUPMFYfs.

Thank you for sharing our materials and helping us to make this vital campaign a success!

Sincerely,

1. Jioni Palmer
   Associate Commissioner for External Affairs
   (T) 410-965-1804
   (E) Jioni.Palmer@ssa.gov

National my Social Security Week is July 19–25, 2015. Visit  http://www.socialsecurity.gov/myaccount/materials.html to learn how you can support us and make our campaign a success!

Plan for your “Someday”. Create your own my Social Security account today at www.socialsecurity.gov/myaccount.

Follow @SSAOutreach on Twitter and stay connected with Social Security:

Need health coverage or know someone that does, visit www.healthcare.gov.