It has been over 2 weeks since the iconic singer has died. Being a big fan of Prince since I was 8 years old (yes, a little too young, I know), I wanted to honor him in some way.

I recently left my job in order to take care of my mother who suffers from dementia and to also work on building my own business which will initially focus on educating people about social security.

It took a bit of brain searching, but I figured out a way to merge two of my passions. I present to you… 5 fun facts about the amazing social security program headlined by actual titles of Prince songs (note: the song title is listed first followed by the artist and album in parenthesis).

Forever In My Life (Prince: Sign O’ The Times)

• Unlike other kinds of retirement income, such as 401(k)s or savings, you will not ‘run out’ of social security benefits.
• You will receive Social Security retirement benefits, month after month, until your death.
• Even after death, your spouse and young children can receive benefits based on your earnings.
• Social security benefits are truly unique in that they are a source of income that will be forever in your life.

Automatic (Prince: 1999)

• Each year, social security benefits are automatically adjusted to increase with rises in prices (inflation).
• The Social Security Administration first applied automatic annual Cost of Living Allowances (COLAs) to social security benefits in 1975. Prior to this, COLAs were applied on an ad-hoc basis.
• Unfortunately, although prices increase each year, because of the way COLAs are calculated, benefits may not actually receive an increase each year.
• In order for social security benefits to receive an increase, inflation in (the third quarter of) one year has to increase by a larger amount than the prior year.
• This did not happen in 2010, 2011, and 2016, in part, due to low gas prices preventing an increase in overall prices from the third quarter of one year to the next.

Sign O’ The Times (Prince: Sign O’ The Times)

• Currently, the Social Security program is gender neutral (YAY! Gender equality!) – meaning that it treats men and women equally. However, that was not always the case. As a sign of the times, back in 1939 when social security was expanded to allow the spouses of living retirees and the survivors of deceased retirees to receive benefits, legislation allowed only wives and widows to receive benefits. If you were a husband or a male survivor of a female retiree, you were out of luck.
• It was not until 1950 that legislation finally extended benefits to husbands and widowers.
• Similarly, legislation was passed in 1965 that allowed divorced wives and widows to receive social security benefits. Again, if you were an ex-husband… no benefits for you! Merely because you were a man (reverse sexism isn’t good either).
• It wasn’t until 1976 that divorced husbands and widowers were allowed to receive benefits after The Social Security Administration was taken to court (and lost).

Nothing Compares 2 U (The Family: The Family. Many people associate this song with Sinead O’Connor, but the song was originally recorded by “The Family”, a group originated by Prince)

• Nothing compares 2 Social Security’s ability to fight poverty for people of all ages!
• Social Security is a financial lifeline for many older (age 65+) Americans keeping 34 percent of older women (over 8.5 million) and 29 percent of older men (nearly 6 million) out of poverty.
• Social Security doesn’t just help ‘older people’ either. In March 2016, over 4 million children received a social security benefit based on the earnings of a parent or grandparent.
• Using a newer measure of poverty, called the Supplemental Poverty Measure[ref]The Supplemental Poverty Measure is considered a better measure than the traditional poverty measure because it assumes that people have to buy a broader range of goods such as health insurance, out-of-pocket medical care, and even child support[/ref], The Census Bureau shows that Social Security has a larger effect on poverty, for people age 18 to 64, than any other major government program including refundable tax credits, SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), and unemployment insurance.
• The only programs that beat Social Security in reducing poverty, for children under the age of 18, are tax credits and SNAP.

So, when it comes to fighting poverty, nothing compares 2 Social Security!

I Wish U Heaven (Prince: Lovesexy)

• After working on Social Security for so long, when someone dies, one of the thoughts that (perhaps, sadly) comes to my mind is “I wonder if his [her] family can get Social Security? And, do they know it?” Hearing about Prince’s death was no different. According to news reports, he was not married and did not have any living children, so there would be no family to receive benefits based on his earnings. However, I had no clue if musicians even qualified for social security. Do they pay social security taxes? Does the record company contribute half of the payroll tax?
• I asked a friend who manages artists in the business and was told that musicians are self-employed and are considered ‘independent contractors’. So, musicians are on the hook for providing their own healthcare and funding their own retirement.
• That means Prince could have qualified for social security benefits (if he had lived) as long as he paid the self-employment tax (called SECA, which equals 15.3%: 12.4% of which is the employee and employer shares of the social security payroll tax and 2.9% of which is the Medicare, hospital insurance, payroll tax)[ref]Technically, paying into the social security system does not ensure that a person receives benefits. Rather, you have to earn enough ‘quarters of coverage’ also called ‘credits’. In 2016, you need to earn $1,260/year in order to get a quarter of coverage and you can earn up to 4 per year. In order to get a retirement benefit, you need to earn at least 40 quarters. However, you can only earn quarters using earnings that are used to pay the social security payroll tax.[/ref].
• As an aside, neither of Prince’s parents was living. However, if he had qualified for social security survivor benefits and if his parents were still living, they could have received social security benefits based on his earnings, if they could have proved that they depended on him for at least half of their income[ref]but only those earnings that he would have used to pay social security taxes [/ref].

It is with a heavy heart that I have to even contemplate whether Prince’s family members could receive social security survivor benefits. He was such an amazing artist and composed much of the music that I Love and Adore.

Thank You Prince for your music, for your unbelievable guitar playing, for the courage to be yourself, and for sticking up for yourself and fellow artists to the record industry!

I wish you joy. I wish you peace. I wish you love. I wish u heaven.

[Photo above courtesy of Steve Parke[ref]I would like to give a huge Thanks to Steve Parke for letting me use his photograph. Many people may not know this, but Steve was Prince’s personal photographer at Paisley Park for a while. So, if you are a Prince fan, do yourself a favor and go to Steve’s site and check out his amazing work![/ref]]