For the past few years, I’ve been receiving half of my ex-husband’s benefit, and waiting until I turn 70 to switch to my own benefit. I’ll turn 70 next month, and my benefit will be maximized the following month. Because I’m already receiving benefits, I am not able to file online. I called a couple of weeks ago to make an appointment, and was offered a telephone appointment a month away. I received a letter confirming this appointment, and telling me to have checks for the account I wish to use available.
Today I received a letter saying that an informal decision has been made that I don’t qualify for SSI. I’m applying for regular benefits. SSI never came up in the conversation. Has this happened to anyone else?
Yes, I’d planned to do that, but I wanted to make an appointment rather than waiting around for hours. I am working full-time, long hours. I was disappointed to be offered only a telephone appointment.
Yes, if you want to receive the check next month, you’ll have to schlep into the office and hang around. Otherwise, just wait for your phone interview and they’ll catch up the cash owed in Jan.
fwiw: SS is a strange bureaucracy. The system spits out unrelated letters, perhaps for CYA?.
Last week, I received a computer generated letter for my spousal filing and it had several statements which I was supposed to confirm. Yet, some of them were in the wrong boxes, and actually had my name where my wife’s should be and vice versa. I spoke with the Senior Claims Specialists, and she said “yeah, you are right, but that’s teh way the computer prints them. I don’t know why you even received this since it is really just a lot of SS shorthand notes in your file. Just wait for your official letter in the next two weeks and call me back if the amount is wrong.” Uh, ok.
In general, its good to start the process for benefits 90 days in advance…
^^^This^^^
Keep the appointment, They will retro your date to when it was available. Bring that SSI denial letter with you.
They were able to correct the premature/erroneous declaration of my death (which was going to cancel my late husband’s pension payments). They told me to sit and wait for a supervisor to call me, but I declined and offered to wait right at the counter for the next available person.
Thank you for the advice. I did actually start 2 months before my birthday, the day I called, and the letters say that this will be my filing date. I am applying for benefits starting the month after my birthday, so that’s almost 3 months.
I can’t bring the letter with me because the appointment is over the phone. Spending a day in the SS office is a problem, but if the telephone appointment doesn’t work I guess I’ll have to.
I’ll put in a little plug for SSA. When my father died last year, I went and helped her switch to his benefit amount. I had a file of things to take and took the wrong file so arrived without his death certificate. They already had it from the undertaker. They were also very kind to my mother who of course was babbling about this and that and that she didn’t have a marriage certificate (never did, she’s sure) and she mixed up all their SSN. She was lucky because she’d collected under his account when she turned 65, but at some point she made more than half of his so switched to hers, then this was to switch back. No more forms needed.
I think it is a very difficult job. They are dealing with records that are 50 years old, they are dealing with forms and certificates from other countries, they are dealing with people in distress.
I think we waited about 30 minutes (no appointment) and then it took them at least 30 minutes to print out the forms she needed. They paid her one more of his payments (this was Oct, so paid his Sept check), paid her the $255 survivor’s benefit (do you know it has been $255 since the 1950’s?), arranged for her to get the difference in their checks for Oct, and then had her new payment start in Nov, so she got 4 different checks for that time period.
And it all worked. I was pretty impressed with the office (it was in the suburbs)
When I was signing up for Medicare I had to go to the Social Security office, I don’t remember why. I did not have an appointment. I was seen almost immediately and they completely solved whatever the problem was. The agent gave me a direct number I can call if I ever need to talk to SS. I was very impressed. This is a big city SS office. So you may not have to blow a whole day. It was easier and faster than going to DMV.
I also received a letter telling me I don’t qualify for SSI, and the reason was: Because I didn’t apply for it. I think it’s a standard part of their messaging, and I wouldn’t worry about it.
I also had to have an in-person appointment with my local SSA office (for a different issue). I was impressed with their efficiency – they called me pretty much on-time. They had many, many, many people working there. The only glitch was that I had a pepper spray on my key chain and they wouldn’t let me enter with that – I had to run back to my car and leave it there.
Good luck with that. I’m furious at the SSA. I’ve found them to be very incompetent. Just the latest incident started when they sent my son an abrupt letter stating that he owed them almost $3,000. I knew it should have been about $750 (because they shouldn’t have paid him the month he was hospitalized). I appealed IN PERSON with all of the documentation they needed. They assured me they would enter the information in the system. A month later, they sent my son a nasty letter stating that he owed them over $5,700. I had to get my Congressional Representative’s office to intervene. The SSA told me it was a “computer glitch” but good news, because we were all set! “But what about all of the other disabled people who don’t have Mommy to get Congressional help?!?”
Sorry, end of rant. You can tell I’m still livid. The stress of that second letter could have sent my son back to the hospital.
(Our very first experience with them was negative. We were supposed to take my son for a psychological evaluation in February one year. We literally trudged over snowbanks just after a big storm to get there. The psychologist was not at the office. When I called him, he said SSA had canceled the appointment. A couple of days later, I received the cancellation notice. SSA had mailed it the day of the appointment.)
I think a lot has to do with your local office. Ours is great, because of my job I have helped several people get things set up or changed, and they are very helpful. I’ve only done it over the phone, although it has to be through a prearranged phone appointment. We just call plenty early to set an appointment. I don’t know if you have the option to use a different office or not. But my guess is that whoever is working there will determine what kind of experience you have.
No question. If you live in a locale that is slowly losing population, then the ratio of offices/residents is improving. OTOH, if you live in an area with a booming economy and growing population (think South and West), the offices are relatively fewer and the wait is much longer.
I will say that the people at our local office are quite nice. It’s the system that’s broken. The local guy told me that SSA recently converted from COBOL to a web-based system and it’s glitchy. When you get caught in computer purgatory, it’s tough. If you try to leave phone messages, they don’t get returned. That’s been our experience, at least. I think things will go better now that I have a contact - the man gave me his direct phone line. I don’t think they want to hear from our Congressman’s office again about my son!
Our Honolulu office varies. We mailed in a form to have H started on Medicare B and have the amount deducted from his pension. Months passed and no card was received. In the meantime, insurer and Medicare were fighting over processing his medical claims.
We went to SS office to try to get this resolved. We waited several hours until we are finally called to the window. The clerk there said he wasn’t enrolled in Medicare B and his paperwork was not processed and in fact rejected for unspecified reasons the clerk couldn’t tell us. He had the paperwork he handed back to us which we had mailed in.
The next day was a state holiday (but NOT a federal holiday). H returned alone (I was working). He had a much nicer and more helpful worker who processed the same paperwork we had been handed back on the spot and started him on Medicare B effective the 1st of the following month, deducting it from his pension as requested.
We never did figure out why the paperwork we had mailed in wasn’t processed but learned if you don’t receive the card you have to go in and get things cleared up. They claimed they sent us a letter (never received one) about problems with our Medicare B.
I read an article that showed how Medicare spends only a small fraction of its budget on “adminstrative” costs compared to private health insurers. Customer service is an administrative cost.
You have to check SSA office hours carefully, too. My son’s local office closes at noon on Wednesdays. Of course, it always seems like I need to go in on Wednesday afternoon!
@MaineLonghorn it is disgusting you have to deal with the SS folks on behalf of your kid. Absolutely horrible the things that have needed to be done. No one should have to get a Congress person involved!
But I have to ask…have you had any difficulty for an over 65 person who is just getting regular Medicare benefits? We have had no difficulty with this particular part of SS…at all.
I will say I am still waiting (not) for them to resolve an issue with my SS benefit from 2015. I’m guessing four years later, this is never going to get resolved. I owe THEM money! But they said I didn’t!
True - my husband has had no issues yet although he hasn’t been 65 for long. But it sounds like you HAVE had issues with the system (I have a similar problem with the IRS - they keep sending small refund checks to our business that we shouldn’t be getting!).
