by making it impossible to apply for benefits.

80 mile country road round trip to our closest SSA office. Not everyone has independent transportation.

Social Security is funded by everyone paying in to Social Security during their working years. Social Security is not money funded by Congress.

They're coming with torches and pitchforks! LOOK OUT!

They have been far right for decades, which is why i never joined.

To claim outrage now is just posing.

IIRC (which pissed off a lot of people).

I get regular mail from AARP asking for support for their "efforts to save Social Security," but I won't give them a dime. They've shilled for conservative republican policies for too long. I'll reconsider supporting them AFTER they walk the walk for a while.

Which is why I never joined as well.

May not have started out that way, but have been for as long as I've been paying attention, at least a couple of decades.

going to impact many people in an age when the vast majority of SS needs are handled on-line.

Now, when/if trump starts lobbying Congress to cut SS, that’s a different issue.

They have a new directive that first-time applicants for benefits appear IN PERSON - and they had already revoked and reinstated Maine's ability to register new-born INFANTS too at the hospital (as normal) versus IN PERSON, as a retribution they did -

Feds reinstate Mainers' ability to register newborns for Social Security numbers at hospital

(don't be surprised if they try it again nationally)

It will now also apply to those non-citizens with work authorizations who originally were assigned SS #s and had their cards mailed to them. NOW they have to go to an office -

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143421936

Like it or not, we are now in the digital age and new ways of doing things are always met with resistance when change arrives, just like the ongoing transition from cash/checks to online banking.

there are real world issues here for seniors! I screamed bloody murder when they came out with Medicare Advantage. I had to decide on my Mom's insurance for the year, in addition to what would cover me and my family, and let me tell you... I will NEVER get those precious hours back, and we'll not even talk about the emotional headaches involved.

Most seniors do not want to admit that their marbles aren't rolling the way they always rolled. After doing this for decades for themselves, they either do not give it up easily because it would mean letting someone else decide something for them about their lives or they have the opposite reaction... throw it across the room and say "I've been with Blue Cross all my life. Why the hell do I need to this now?" (Guess which group my mother was in.) But that just MA.

Now imagine a 91 year old, still able to live on her own (with some outside help) who has to track down the nearest SSA office that hasn't been closed, gather all associated paperwork, and find her way there. It's unfair to make her do that, and it's also unfair to expect her to understand and accomplish all that can be done online. Are there help offices opening up that cater to seniors' needs with this stuff?

I taught my mom how to use a computer when she was in her 30's. I even got her into coding her own websites. But by the time she retired at 65, she couldn't even run the utility check program I'd installed for her. And by the time she died at 89 last month, she could no more than remembered where to turn on the computer than how to reprogram a phone. And phones! Oh, gods, don't get me started. I'm only 69 and I use my smart phone all the time, but most of that time I still want to throw it against the wall and get back on a computer to accomplish something.

I'm not saying elders aren't reticent... many of them are. My father, who repaired TV's all his life, would touch the inside of a computer when I was rebuilding one. He was afraid of what he'd do to it, and afraid of what it could do to him. My FIL got a souped-up VHS player one year for Xmas. He refused to even plug it in... he was convinced it would burn his house down or something. But we can laugh at these situations while we're younger. Our brains latch on to concepts and process them quickly and (usually) correctly. Seniors' brains don't work like that any longer. The synapses take longer to make connections. Some of the grey matter isn't active anymore.

But most of all I say it is totally unfair. I, after working since I was 13 years old and paying into SS the whole time, feel like my retirement time should be a time I should enjoy -- not be terrorized by every young tom, dick, and harry that idolizes Musk. I couldn't even tell you which of the two - musk or trump- has set himself up as king over us. Who is actually running the country?

Plan of ACTION please.

My application for Social Security benefits was in limbo for a few months until I presented the actual documents in person at the federal building in downtown Pittsburgh. They wouldn't accept emailed scans of my documents, nor would they accept mailed copies of them either. I wasn't about to mail my original documents, just in case they got "lost " in the mail or whatever.

So I went to the SSA office in person, went through the security checks etc. and everything was fine. The entire process took maybe a half-hour, including waiting to see the SSA agent. I showed her my documents, answered a few polite questions, and it was a done deal. My benefits started immediately including retroactive payments for the months I had missed.

This isn't something new, recently started by Chump. It has been the regular way of doing things for the last several years. None of us are making fraudulent claims for benefits, we're all entitled to our monthly check from Social Security. We should understand that this is one way the government prevents fraudulent claims being made, and it's to our benefit that they are being careful.

(that I have gone to at least 3 times) it took HOURS waiting to get to a customer service rep. My last trip there was last year to hand-deliver a W-4V form for federal tax withholdings. I even watched as some CSRs were trying to help some of the 70-somethings go through the "online process" on their phones while they were at the window, and they were trying to troubleshoot why errors were happening. The older folks don't do "online".

I just remembered something that got me a faster in-person meeting. I was told that I needed to do a video conference that would be a longer wait, and I told them I couldn't do that because I have a hearing problem. It's true, I'm not deaf but I am hard of hearing. This is something many seniors have a problem with. So I was put in a different (shorter) line to speak with a woman who knows ASL (American Sign Language) for people who are profoundly deaf. I didn't need the sign-language, so my meeting with her went very quickly.

Maybe try that tactic if you ever go back to the SSA office. Also go in the middle of the week and the office won't be as busy.

That also involved a couple "in person" trips.

In the case of completing something like a W-4V, there were only 2 options - complete the fillable-PDF form from the IRS website and print it or print the form and manually complete it, then either mail it in or bring it to the SSA office.

There was no "online" submission option for something like that (and possibly for other forms as well).

And with DeJoy screwing with the mail, I wanted to make sure I handed it directly to a human and she was able to enter the info right away. The change was made and was applied to the following month's check. In that case, it was worth it.

And I *was* there in the middle of the week. This is the only office in all of NW Philly and this area is filled with lots of "old folks homes" (the "active senior" facilities are out in the 'burbs).

The woman who helped us was kind, patient, and very helpful. In fact, that's what I remember from that office... how efficient, effective, and kind they were in helping me to explain to my Mom everything that she was signing and what it meant going forward. I don't know for sure, but my bet would be that office will be one slated to close. It was too good.

When I needed a replacement SS card, I went to an office closer to my home in KcK. That wasn't nearly as nice, nor as efficient, but I still got in and out of there with my needs met in under 2 hours. A hell of a difference from the DMV where I -still- can't get paperwork they'll approve for a RealID. Next time I try it, if I don't get approved, you'll be able to find me in the nearest jail. I will go absolutely buttf88k bonkers.

... my mother had to go the the Social Security office to sign something. (I don't remember what, but I remember thinking that this should have been something that could be done automatically.) I took her, and we sat in the waiting room for four hours before I finally raised a stink, saying that it was inhumane to inflict this on an 89-year-old woman who had just lost her spouse of 70 years. They were somewhat apologetic, and said that they could arrange for a phone interview with a snail-mail follow up.

Now Social Security phone service is going away, our local office is scheduled to be closed, and the administration plans to cut up to 50% of the SS work force. My mom is gone now too, but she had never touched a computer in her life, and would have been unable to negotiate anything online. And in any case, Howard Lutnick is saying that the government could stop all payments, and those that complain will be identified as the cheaters.

These fuckers should rot in hell.

If we can do that we might be able to reverse most of this and even push through true reform such as medical care for everyone and not just for the rich.

Surely they can prove their identity with three forms of identification?

Take a phone photo of your Real ID drivers' license or passport, get a text link, upload from your camera, confirm on the desktop, and then jump through another hoop or two.

I'm tech savvy and can handle it, but for someone like mother, 96, practically immobile and nearly incontinent, and easily overwhelmed by red tape, going to the SS offices will be a nightmare.

(the "Depression" generation - those who were kids during the 1930s) are NOT computer literate. There may be a handful but for the most part, they had already come through an era when there was no television and gradually adapted to that as teens and young adults. Using something portable like a transistor radio, calculator and *maybe* working a flip cell phone was about as far as they would go. They even went through a time when (as my mom would say) - "phones were mainly used for emergencies" and many were in households that had party lines. And this was all the urbanites. The rural elderly had little or no phone service at all.

My mom passed away 10 years ago this year and would have been 95 this year. She was reticent to try my iPad back then and quickly lost interest (and years before, was flummoxed by my laptop).

Could not get her interest in my used MAC. Tried the flip phone (failed). Tried the iPad (failed). I'm doing everything I can for her myself.

One thing she does get: Trump is a felonious sociopath and narcissistic asshole.

and would remember to plug it in and charge it at least once a month. She never used it but would ask me to check to see if anything popped up on the screen that needed attention.

She actually followed 45 over the years (she passed before he was elected for the first term) - mainly because she would listen to NYC talk radio that we could pick up here in Philly, and he was often a topic of discussion... plus she had a sub to the print edition of the NYT. His crap against the Central Park Five (with that full page ad in the NYT) was something that she was disgusted and railed about.

Add to that his involvement in NJ Casinos and I know most here in Philly and Jersey were well aware of him for decades. I always try to imagine what her reaction would have been now (and even back when he was first elected) - although I would probably guess correctly since she was the "original" CSPAN junky of our family.

Delivered gleefully by Sylvia Sidney.

this tells me he no longer needs them so maybe he's not planning on allowing future electins

The Social Security Administration’s plan to mandate in-person identity checks while shutting down offices feels like a one-two punch to people who are already stretched thin. Forcing millions—especially the elderly, disabled, or those in rural areas—to trek to a field office, when there’ll be fewer of them, is a logistical nightmare. It’s not hard to see why lawmakers and advocates are pissed: this hits a vulnerable group hardest, piling on barriers to benefits they’ve earned. The timing’s brutal too—cutting staff and locations while adding this hoop to jump through smells like a deliberate squeeze, not a fix for fraud. What’s your take on how this’ll play out?