Not so smooth with SSA

[UpAnchor]

Small town office sounds like a reasonable strategy. Although I’ll admit it threw me for a minute. That’s what happens when you’re originally from a place where your nearest county had a bit over 500 residents. And the county seat? ~150.

 

[lucky penny]

Go to the most rural SS office you can drive to. It will be so much easier than one in a more urban environment.

Not necessarily. On 2 recent visits to an SS office in NYC, I took a number & was called within 10 or 15 minutes. The no-frills waiting area was quiet, orderly & clean, and the agents were knowledgeable, pleasant & helpful.

 

[audreyh1]

+1

That is definitely the case here. Everyone in our community avoids the big-city SS office 20 miles away and drives an additional 40 miles to an office in a nearby small town (pop. 25,000).

Once time we went to our local SS office because DH was having trouble getting through the identity verification when opening his online SS account. The office was close. We just showed up mid morning. It was a very large brand new office, and virtually empty - maybe 5 people waiting. I’m hoping it continues to be a low wait situation.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Small town office sounds like a reasonable strategy. Although I’ll admit it threw me for a minute. That’s what happens when you’re originally from a place where your nearest county had a bit over 500 residents. And the county seat? ~150.

Hah! I had the opposite reaction...I've lived on the Eastern Seaboard all my life, and I would probably have to drive at least 2 hours to not be in the suburbs of a city! And I'm used to everything being less than an hour's drive.

 

[Rusa]

There have been lots of threads and posts noteing how easy and smooth starting Social Security payments have been for many. Not this time.




I was not sure exactly how to go about doing this with collecting on my wife's account so I called SSA a couple of weeks ago. The lady I talked to said I was not too early and I could apply by phone or in person. I said by phone. She told me someone from the local office would call to set a phone appointment in a few days. That was that so I waited for the phone call. It never came. Today I received a letter from the local SSA office informing me that my phone request for Supplemental Security Income had been denied.


It looks like I will be on the phone for a few hours tomorrow trying to straighten this out. Working with Government minions can be so much fun!


More on this saga as it develops.

Exactly the same thing happened to me. They asked me on the phone whether I wanted SSI and I said no, just regular SS. Luckily they included the telephone number of the local office on the letter. When I called the local office to make an appointment they couldn't have been nicer and also informed me that the Main SSA had screwed up everything I told them. So, do make an appointment and go in and visit your local office in person. I'm hoping that it all goes smoothly for me while there to sign up for both SS and Medicare A/B. (I'm going in because I didn't want to mail in my precious personal documents in order to apply online.)

 

[Teacher Terry]

I did it online and didn’t have to mail in any documents.

 

[PoorOldCountryBoy]

There have been lots of threads and posts noteing how easy and smooth starting Social Security payments have been for many. Not this time.



A little back ground... I retired at 63 and began collecting Social Security on my late wife's account. I turn 70 next February so it is time to move to collecting on my own account.


I was not sure exactly how to go about doing this with collecting on my wife's account so I called SSA a couple of weeks ago. The lady I talked to said I was not too early and I could apply by phone or in person. I said by phone. She told me someone from the local office would call to set a phone appointment in a few days. That was that so I waited for the phone call. It never came. Today I received a letter from the local SSA office informing me that my phone request for Supplemental Security Income had been denied.


It looks like I will be on the phone for a few hours tomorrow trying to straighten this out. Working with Government minions can be so much fun!


More on this saga as it develops.

The people at the offices deal with this every day -- they are truly some of the most helpful gov't employees I have ever seen. Take the time to go in and work this out. If this still doesn't work out you can hire a high priced helper but if you are in the 80% that can listen and follow procedures there should be no issues, although it may take some time to resolve.

 

[NW-Bound]

...Today I received a letter from the local SSA office informing me that my phone request for Supplemental Security Income had been denied.

... there was also a letter stating that my request for SSI benefits (which I never sought) had been denied. I assumed that the SSI letter was either routine or a glitch & ignored it...

The letter stating SSI denial is routine.

A preemptive SSI denial?

"You may or may not have requested SSI, but we are telling you now that you ain't going to get it. Don't think about. Don't even dream about it".

 

[lucky penny]

A preemptive SSI denial?

"You may or may not have requested SSI, but we are telling you now that you ain't going to get it. Don't think about. Don't even dream about it".

I think we're talking about SSDI (which I erroneously referred to as SSI in my earlier post). To get SSDI, you have to apply for SS & it appears that whenever anyone does, they can check for SSDI too & can rule you out based on your income/work history.

 

[Hermit]

I think we're talking about SSDI (which I erroneously referred to as SSI in my earlier post). To get SSDI, you have to apply for SS & it appears that whenever anyone does, they can check for SSDI too & can rule you out based on your income/work history.

The denial letter I received was for Supplemental Security Income which is SSI. Quite different than SSDI.

 

[lucky penny]

The denial letter I received was for Supplemental Security Income which is SSI. Quite different than SSDI.

Oops! Mine too.

I'm not really familiar with SSI but it looks like they can screen for this & advise you whether you might be eligible.

 

[Hermit]

Today I went to the SSA office in the big city. I got there at 8:35. 7 folks in line ahead of me. Doors opened at 8:55 and everyone filed in and registered in order after security scan. I waited about 15 or 20 minutes. I told the lady I wanted to switch from my late wife's account to my own account when I turned 70 next February. She told me I would need to make an appointment because there was no one that could do that today. I told her I had a phone appointment on Dec 16 but that the lady I made that appointment through was not sure there would be enough time to have the switch happen for March. The lady at the office assured me that there was plenty of time and I should keep the Dec appointment. I then asked if she could make copies of any necessary documentation I had. She asked for my birth certificate and driver's license and took some notes on them. I asked about DD214 because the lady on the phone told me I should have that. The lady in the office said she did not need that. The good news is I was out of there before 9:30. The bad news is I did not accomplish much.

 

[NW-Bound]

Bummer.

You said earlier that it was a 3-hour drive. Is that one-way or round trip?

 

[Hermit]

Bummer.

You said earlier that it was a 3-hour drive. Is that one-way or round trip?

Round trip. Fortunately.

I have over 6 hours into this effort including the trip, two phone calls and waiting time at the SSA office at this point.

 

[Bryan Barnfellow]

My own experience was with the office in Germany, which handles the SS applicants in Europe. His letters and emails were curt and unhelpful. He asked me at one point why I put "Did Not Answer" in some fields and copied in what appeared to be a report from a database. I had to explain in detail that he was looking at a report, that I had left the field empty (as I was allowed to do) and that "Did Not Answer" was something HIS system printed for him to see. Yikes...a month or two of back and forth until my simple case (age 62 start benefits) got settled.

-BB

 

[pacergal]

Well that sounds frustrating.

 

[Hermit]

The latest update:


This is the big day for my SSA phone appointment at 10:30. I was down in my motor home gathering all my data to have for the appointment. While down there I saw that I got a call with the local area code at 9:27. No message left, but I wondered if it could be from SSA. I called the number back and sure enough it was from Social Security. The answering machine said the number was not in service and I should call their local office 800 number. I called that number at about 10:00 and it said the office was closed. It had a voice menu, but the first part of the menu was over written with a long message about fraudulent SSA phone calls. There was no way to talk to anyone or leave a message. By this time I am pretty sure blood pressure was in the instant heart attack range. My assumption was I had missed my appointment and I would have to start this mulit-month process all over again. As a last resort I called the national SSA number to find out if I could possibly get back in the queue for my appointment. After about a 35 minute delay I got to talk to a representative. She told me they were on a delayed opening at my local office due to snow and that I should wait for another hour to see if I got my appointment call. Sure enough, the phone appointment came through at about 11:30. I think it was about 15 minutes long. The next step is a letter from SSA stating all the data we went over. If there are any errors I need to correct them and send it back. Otherwise I just wait for the larger check to hit my bank account in March. I think I am happy, but I need to wait for my blood pressure to come back down to know for sure.

 

[jazz4cash]

Was gonna signup in person at the local office but. I guess I’ll need to sign up online.
https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryla...0190828-bgibjh7xtjfche6rj2jwlosene-story.html

 

[H2ODude]

We did ours, file and suspend, on line. Easy peasy. Hopefully when we turn 70 it will be same when we switch to mine as primary and she takes half.

 

[levindb]

I believe the switch from SUSPEND to getting benefits will start automatically at age 70.

The switch from SPOUSAL to OWN benefit, however will take another online session....but should still be easy peasy (sp?) and you could submit it a few months early with a start date equal to age 70 birthdate.

 

[Hermit]

I am very happy to report that the larger SS check hit my account today! I got notice that it would be showing up this month and that the smaller check from the late DW's account would cease a couple of weeks ago. I can log in to my SS account and see the breakdown. I'll have to run the tax software for next year's numbers and adjust the Federal withholding as needed.

 

[Perryinva]

Congrats. That is one of those, “well, if I have to be 70, then at least this is one thing good about it”, kind of thing. It will be a bigger deal for us in 8 years, me going from no SS to max.