Office of the Chief Actuary

The Office of the Chief Actuary is an organizational entity within both of the governments of the United States and Canada. The Office has responsibility for actuarial estimates regarding social welfare programs like Social Security (United States) and the Canadian Old Age Security System. A comparable organization exits in the United Kingdom called the Government Actuary's Department (GAD)

Mission
The Office of the Chief Actuary (OCACT) plans and directs a program of actuarial estimates and analyses relating to SSA-administered retirement, survivors and disability insurance programs and to proposed changes in those programs. It evaluates operations of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund and the Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund, conducts studies of program financing, performs actuarial and demographic research on social insurance and related program issues, and projects future workloads.

In addition, the Office is charged with conducting cost analyses relating to the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, a general-revenue financed, means-tested program for low-income aged, blind and disabled people. The Office provides technical and consultative services to the Commissioner, to the Board of Trustees of the Social Security Trust Funds, and its staff appears before Congressional Committees to provide expert testimony on the actuarial aspects of Social Security issues.