Congress tries to squeeze more out of Social Security, wrecking its customer service

[n2doc]

By Michael Hiltzik

Since they’ve been unsuccessful (thus far) at cutting Social Security benefits, congressional Republicans are continuing to resort to the backdoor assault on the program by starving its administrative budget. In the latest versions of the agency’s budget under consideration in Washington, the House is planning to keep the budget at the same inadequate funding level as the current year. The ever more ambitious Senate is trying to cut it by $400 million, or nearly 4%.

To retirees, near-retirees and disability applicants the effects aren’t invisible. They show up in deteriorating customer service at every level.

“Years of SSA cuts have already taken their toll,” Kathleen Romig of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reported earlier this month, “leading to long waits on the phone and in field offices for taxpayers and beneficiaries, as well as record-high disability backlogs.”

The Social Security Administration used to mail annual statements of earnings records and prospective benefits to all covered workers, in compliance with a law enacted in 1989. These have now been eliminated for almost all workers, as the agency pleads poverty. It says that anyone can gain access to their records online, but that’s a lousy substitute as long as millions of workers and retirees have only spotty access to the internet or lack the ability to navigate the web.

You can expect all these problems to keep getting worse.

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http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-social-security-service-20171019-story.html#nt=oft09a-5gp1

[Faux pas]

1. Kickin' with disgust

there is nothing 'human' about those 'people'.

[RKP5637]

3. They are sadists and sociopaths united to harm all they can for their perverse enjoyment.

Seriously, one has to eventually ask just WTF is wrong with these people. Just about everything they do is intendeded to harm someone or something.

[Faux pas]

9. I'll never be able to

understand or relate to people like this. They need to be stopped.

[RKP5637]

11. The republicans have managed, over the years, to gather them all into one party, the GOP. I have

difficulty thinking of anything the GOP has ever done to help anyone other than enriching themselves at the future of the countries expense.

[ms liberty]

2. K&R. n/t

[Canoe52]

4. KnR, these people are scum

[Hortensis]

5. Deteriorating services also undermine faith in government.

This is an OLD, OLD Republican tactic in their eternal crusade to destroy the New Deal and all that came after.

[LeftInTX]

6. This has been going on for years. It is horrible.

My son was on SSDI and they kept sending him checks for over a year after he got his letter stating that he was no longer disabled. Fortunately, he put those checks aside and was able to pay them back.

There are many recipients that are being overpaid this way. Often repayment is waived because SSA acknowledges that they adept and the recipients simply can't afford to repay the overpayments. This mean less money in the treasury. If the repayment is not waived, then it will hurt the recipient's credit.

Either way, it is lose-lose. Recipients are overpaid because they are understaffed.....only in America

[rainin]

7. They're doing it to the post office, too.

I get so frustrated standing in the line at the post office listening to people complain about how slowly the 2 workers are. The workers are working at breakneck speed, and they go all day without slowing down, but there is always a long line.

I want to scream 'Republicans did this!! If you want your government institutions to work, vote for Democrats!!"

[DK504]

8. With raiding of the Social Security Funds

since Reagan and maniacal pursuit to recreate Hooverville's it will never end until the Great Grey Wave comes back and slaps these psychos apart. They are really the ones that can describe it to their kids, grandkids and younger people that don't really understand what is happening to their insurance policies.

$700 billion to the DoD, only a small percentage of that goes to paying the troops. The rest is corporate payoff / DARPA / mercenaries and $500 toilets. The DoD isn't about defending us, it's about the 1% gaining all the power and money. This is about stripping all other agencies of basic budgets to impoverish the rest of the government.

It is all crumbling before us and we don't even know what is happening. By the time it all comes tumbling down it will be to late.

[dalton99a]

10. So where is the AARP?