Heads up - Social Security - WHILE FIRING THOUSANDS AND SHUTTERING OFFICES ALL OVER THE COUNTRY ...

[CousinIT]

… “DOGE” and the vulture capitalists RUINING (not running — RUINING) Social Security are REQUIRING 80,000 more people per YEAR to GO TO SOCIAL SECURITY OFFICES to change direct deposits or claim new benefits - yes - the offices they are shuttering and firing people from. Their announcement:

https://blog.ssa.gov/social-security-strengthens-identity-proofing-requirements-and-expedites-direct-deposit-changes-to-one-day/

MORE on this from USNews (archived link - no paywall): https://archive.ph/DhENU

WASHINGTON (AP) — In an effort to limit fraudulent claims, the Social Security Administration will impose tighter identity-proofing measures — which will require millions of recipients and applicants to visit agency field offices rather than interact with the agency over the phone.

Beginning March 31st, people will no longer be able to verify their identity to the SSA over the phone and those who cannot properly verify their identity over the agency's “my Social Security” online service, will be required to visit an agency field office in person to complete the verification process, agency leadership told reporters Tuesday.

The change will apply to new Social Security applicants and existing recipients who want to change their direct deposit information.

Retiree advocates warn that the change will negatively impact older Americans in rural areas, including those with disabilities, mobility limitations, those who live far from SSA offices and have limited internet access.

The plan also comes as the agency plans to shutter dozens of Social Security offices throughout the country and has already laid out plans to lay off thousands of workers.

[SunSeeker]

1. This is basically pushing grandma off the cliff.

Disabled/ill elderly will not be able to do this, their benefits will be cut off, causing homelessness and death.

[drray23]

2. only if they need to change their status

if we are to believe what is being reported. Apparently, changing your status like applying for benefits for the first time, changing your direct deposit information or such will require an in-person visit.

Hopefully, elderly people are already on autopilot and will not be affected. If this starts impacting people, there will be blood in the street and January 6 will look like a picnic in the park.

[FoxNewsSucks]

3. This is just Step One.

Step Two will be cutting off those on "autopilot".

There's a reason President Musk had his hackers get access and control of the computers that pay us.

[SheltieLover]

5. Absofuckingloutely!

[DENVERPOPS]

14. Or making all

70+ Million SS recipients and disable to Re-New their SS every single year in the same manner...........

The most amazing thing, is the RepubliCONs treat it as a Government entitlement, and not OUR MONEY entrusted to the FEDS.....

[allegorical oracle]

27. Question: My SS deposit goes to credit union "A" with which I verified my identity in person. If I want

to change my SS deposit to credit union "B" with which I've also verified my identity in person, won't "B" be able to handle the change with Social Security for me? That's how it's been done before.

In my opinion, two banking institutions who've personally verified my identity ought to be more trustworthy than the hackable SS portal.

[Trexmaster]

23. Blood in the streets?

[...]there will be blood in the street[...]

I honestly doubt that will happen.

Your friendly neighborhood police officer, or sheriff, or FBI special agent, or any other SWAT-level law enforcing arm, will smile at you while shopping with their kids, while later will break your bones.
Sure, the blue-collar and white-collar drones – themselves desperate with their own daily problems – will fear of doing something because bills need paid, the mortgage needs paid, the debt needs paid, the car, everything.

Why is that?
Same dilemma: loyalty to the paycheck, benefits/pension plan, dopamine with approval of enforcing arbitrary rule-sets, and (optionally) their kids need shoes too...

These ain't the '60s, '70s... whatever folks. Not anymore.

[bamagal62]

4. So what if you just

Have to do something simple like change your address? I am a family member’s representative. I am moving in April. Will this be a problem?

[SunSeeker]

6. I tried to change my address with the Social Security Administration and I couldn't do it online.

The website made me make an appointment.

[CousinIT]

8. SunSeeker - was this recently or a while ago? Supposedly this change doesn't take effect until March 31. Nt

[SunSeeker]

13. I tried to do it online on 11/27/24. I called that same day and they gave me an appointment for 1/16/25.

That was the first available appointment. I bet the wait is even longer now. But fortunately I was allowed to have a telephonic appointment on 1/16/25---Biden was still in office!

[bamagal62]

24. I always do it over the phone.

[CousinIT]

7. It appears to say just for new signups or direct deposit changes....

….but who knows?

They’re making this asinine disruptive change to eliminate less than 1% of ‘fraud” or “improper payments”. I think I read somewhere it was like 0.0004% - MINUSCULE!

Musk, “DOGE” and Trump want to convince us that fraud is rampant in Social Security. IT IS NOT. And disruptive, punitive changes like this to “fix” what minuscule amount there is is just cruel.

This is being done (IMO) deliberately to make it more difficult for those who lack transportation, are not readily mobile, not familiar with internet, who don’t have internet or use internet services to get their benefits. It’s cruel, and stupid - just what we’d expect from this “Dudek” idiot and ‘DOGE” and the vulture capitalists. Their objective: make it more difficult for people to access their earned benefits.

[Figarosmom]

9. My daughter in law is planning on retiring

In September. I told her to go to the office now before they close it and just not have it start until September.

[CousinIT]

11. It says it can be done online if one has a login.gov or id.me account. Those who do not

or cannot complete it online will have to make an appointment. That could end up being most everyone though, who knows! She could try that first.

I do most of this stuff online but millions can’t. I have to sign up for retirement in about 2 years or so and I’m very worried if I’ll even be able to — or if Social Security will even exist then. (Or Medicare, besides that Advantage crap).

EDIT: I think you can only sign up for Social Security up to four months in advance.

[Figarosmom]

20. Thanks

[yellow dahlia]

10. There are only two reasons for this.

1) They have no clue how anything of this nature works.

2) They are trying to sabotage.

Okay, there is a third choice - 3) Both of the above.

[CousinIT]

12. I think both but more 2 than 1. Nt

[calimary]

22. Yep. Both of the above.

[KS Toronado]

15. I'd hate to see them reduce benefits for everybody

but if they did can you imagine the uproar elected Rs would get from their constituents? Everybody
telling them enough is enough, get off your lazy ass and reel in the 2 presidents.

[allegorical oracle]

28. IMO, believe we ought to make their Repug lives miserable -- call them over every petty

inconvenience we encounter. Even rocks get worn down by enough drops of water. Make them rue the day Elon Musk and djt walked into the WH.

[KS Toronado]

31. Amen, they deserve to be miserable

for being yes men with no backbone.

[LisaM]

16. This is also going to require people to have personal transportation.

It's bad enough that people need phone and internet to do almost everything, now this is going to require people to have cars or someone to drive them (many elderly people no longer drive).

[mucholderthandirt]

25. It's going to kill people around here. Our local SS office closed many years ago.

Now, in-person visits mean going to Greensboro, and waiting, even with an appointment, for hours. It's about an hour drive to get there, parking is horrible, and the wait is awful. Tiny seats, and a lot of them.

My mother never learned to drive, so I have to take her everywhere. We don't have a lot of bus service here, and we're out in the country anyway. There's really no way she'd be able to get to an interview for anything without me (possibly one of my sisters, but two are drug addicts and one is certified crazy on top of that, and the other lives almost two hours away and has her own health issues).

My brother was thinking about putting in for his SS, but he'd been planning to wait until he was full retirement age. He's going to love this (he keeps up with this crazy kind of shit, and we talk about it all the time). He's an OTR driver, barely ever home. Having to sit for hours for an appointment? Oh, the staff will need some ear protection! LOL

[Puppyjive]

17. They don't have the staff

This will never fly. Social Security has lost a lot of employees. They don't have the staff to process the in office work. They have not fixed their customer service problems. This will make everything much worse.

[bhikkhu]

18. They closed our local offices twenty years ago

In my city we already have to drive 80 miles to get to a social security office. They said then not to worry, as they were switching to doing it all by mail...

[mucholderthandirt]

26. Yes, we were told there was a secure computer system, it would save everybody.

No, worries, just do it online! How's that going to work now? My mother doesn't have the Internet, I'm already having to deal with ATT about her new phone service through my email. Oy. I swear, I don't know how I'm going to keep doing this.

[Ruby the Liberal]

19. Step 2 is already tee'd up

The systems are primarily COBOL - an archaic programming language not taught in schools since the 1980s.

The massive IT staff keeping it all running is retirement age - and eligible for the take-the-money-or-take-your-chances Muskian "retirement" offer.

This risk is already known - as there isn't a robust younger generation lined up/trained to take this on.

Once these people leave (en masse), there are going to be outages as these systems can't just be rebooted.

I truly believe that this is how they are going to send the SSA Trust to the venture capitalists to feed their gambling addictions. Once it crashes, Joe and Jane 6-pack are going to freak - and they aren't going to care where it comes from, as long as the checks start going out again. Which they will - until the losses mount and the whole system collapses.

I truly fear that we may not be able to come back from it.

Sorry about the doom post. This is going to be a disaster.

[BarbD]

21. We cannot allow this to happen.

It has to be stopped NOW.

[CousinIT]

29. GOOD LUCK getting a single member of Congress to even mention it. nt

[CousinIT]

30. RELATED: Smears, Sadism and Social Security-Why Elon Musk wants to make seniors suffer (Krugman)

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/smears-sadism-and-social-security

. . .

Musk’s big blooper was his claim that millions of dead people are receiving Social Security checks. This claim probably reflected the failure of young Musk staffers — what Dudek called the “DOGE kids” — to understand how the SSA’s databases work, combined with a complete lack of common sense. I mean, if there really were huge numbers of dead people receiving Social Security payments, don’t you think someone else would have noticed?

In a normal political environment, getting something that big that wrong would have destroyed Musk’s credibility and led to his permanent exile from any role in setting policy. But this is America in 2025, so Trump amplified the already-refuted claim when addressing Congress, and Musk seems more powerful than ever.

Furthermore, Musk refuses to give up his Social Security smears, making the completely implausible claim that fraudulent use of Social Security numbers accounts for 10 percent of federal spending. And I’d argue that that the plan to effectively cut off many disabled Americans is best seen as part of a desperate effort to find or pretend to find Social Security fraud, retroactively justifying Musk’s big mistake.

Still, does the plan have to be this cruel to the most vulnerable Americans? As I see it, the cruelty is a feature, not a bug.

After all, gratuitous, seemingly gleeful cruelty has been a hallmark of DOGE’s operations. Even if you think DOGE’s mass layoffs — some quickly reversed when it turned out that critical workers were fired — make sense, think of the way they are being carried out. In general, workers are being fired with no warning, no chance to make plans for the future, and often face insulting (and false) claims that they were poor performers.

It's hard to escape the sense that DOGE staffers are actually enjoying this. And why not? We’re mostly talking about poorly socialized young men suddenly given the power to ruin other people’s lives, taking their cues from a leader who has declared that “the fundamental weakness of Western society is empathy.” So why should we be surprised that the DOGE kids’ rampage through the government looks more and more like a remake of Lord of the Flies?

[niyad]

32. KNR