https://www.axios.com/2025/04/08/social-security-seniors-drive
Phone application for Social Security benefits will be discontinued. It is currently used by “more than 4 in 10” applicants.
Note that survivors who can get Social Security benefits do not have a way to apply by the web.
A question would be, how connected to the web are people age 62-70 these days, particularly in sparsely populated states where much of the population lives a long distance from the nearest Social Security office?
Wait. There was a loud outcry, and the cuts were postponed. So phone option is back on the chopping block?
My question is the same as @BunsenBurner . My understanding was that this was reconsidered and not being done.
Unless something changed…today…this is what I read.
Yes, the walk-back has been walked back. And now they are saying they aren’t cutting services after all. It’s constantly changing. But they are cutting staff, so … someone here reported a 24 hour wait when their parent called SS! I know a number of surviving spouses who would not have been able to appear in person … don’t live close to a field office, don’t drive, are bedridden, don’t have family to help them get places, don’t use computers …
Yes, but you can request a call back. You don’t have to hang on the phone for 24 hours!
We have used the local SS office a couple of times when our parents died and when signing up. They are closing it- rural area. Closest one to our fairly large city is 1.5 hours away in good weather.
I’m hoping they have local senior service centers and/or quarterly senior services at libraries that will come in and help seniors with applications, taxes, etc. This is very, very sad. And, if it is actually true that they will move the platform to Musk’s X, then this is possibly illegal as well.
That’s not happening either…not totally.
You used to have to go into an office for everything. I’m ancient, but I had to go when I was 16 to get a SSN/card and I remember it was in a little office in our town, probably wasn’t open every day and I’m not sure I needed any ID or birth certificate (which I wouldn’t have had). Then I had to go in person to get a name spelling change at a different office in a different city. I couldn’t change anything by phone. Then when my daughter came from China, I had to go in about 3-4 times because they kept losing documents but it worked to my benefit as they issued the card in her US name even though legally it hadn’t been changed yet. I think they felt sorry for me because they were giving me the runaround.
When my father died I took my mother to the office to get her benefit amount changed (to his) and they were very helpful as they wanted a marriage certificate and she panicked and said she’d never had one but in the end she’d collected SS under his account when she first started collecting, then claimed under her own SSN/wages, now wanted to go back to his. They fixed it for her.
The SS offices aren’t that convenient but you can get to 2 of the 3 offices I’ve been to by public transportation (the 3rd one is lovely but in the 'burbs).
I can understand their requiring some things in person. There is a lot of fraud with SSNs and benefits. I’m a psycho about putting my SSN on forms like at the dentist or a doctor (all they can use them for is collection) because that seems to be where a lot of fraud starts. There were tax refund mills in Florida just filing out 1040s with stolen SSNs found on forms in trash bins.
During Covid SSA put more on-line, but perhaps they’ve discovered more fraud.
Not much public transportation outside the close-in Atlanta area. Our closest SS office in north Atlanta suburb was over 45 minutes away with no traffic and not via freeway - way out of the way. And, they are closing it. No idea where I’d have to go now but fortuntaely don’t forsee needing to. As far as SS number I just draw a line through anything blank asking for it - no medical office needs it if you have insurance. Where is it you are finding that there is so much fraud in Social Security?
Many many cases of people working under false SSN. If they can just ask for a replacement card, they show that for the i9 form, get a duplicate driver’s license for the person, etc. They were also using them to get medicaid cards in that name/number.
Last week I got one notice from SSA (ssa.gov) but two other email spam with a name.com email. That isn’t easy to see if I’m reading emails on my phone (much easier on the computer) as the email address on the phone is just the name.
Being able to do so much on line is new, maybe with covid. Before that you had to go to SSA to change name (marriage, divorce), for death benefits (my father died in 2018 so not that long ago), to get SSN if not being processed from a hospital.
I used to grant name changes for a county years ago. They’d take that order and go to SSA to get the name changed, to the DMV to get a new license, use those documents to change bank accounts and employer documentation. All that had to be done in person, with the physical order. The courts did not send them to SSA.
You can’t easily go to an SS office when they are being closed. Perhaps there will be private companies handing SS in the future, but not now.
However, having to wait up to 24 hours for a call back increases the risk of missing the call.
You need to plan ahead…just like you do when you have an in person appointment. My wait wasn’t as long, but the return call came within minutes of when they said it would,
That was me reporting on what my mother just told me. I told her she could have requested a call back (I assume).
They recently moved and the county they live in no longer has an open office, and they just closed one in a neighboring county.
I called the toll free 800 SSA number and was hung up on multiple times after the recoding said the was it was >120 minutes. There was no option for a call back nor leave a message.
The only way I was able to speak to anyone was to search online and find a toll-free number that connected me to our local office. That had only a 20 minute wait and made an appointment for me in 2 business days. Oahu has the only two SSA offices in our state, meaning others in our state (on neighbor islands) would have to fly to get to in person appointments.
when my DiL tried to do her name change, the office told her to do it online. Which told her to make an appointment, which she got after 11 months of trying. When she arrived,they told her to do it online or at the state capitol. You can’t make this stuff up.
This was in the news today. It’s about communication, not dealing with benefits, I believe.
DOGE & SENIORS : The Social Security Administration shifted its official messaging to Elon Musk’s social media platform X after cutting the agency’s communications staff (Federal News Network and The Hill). Objections? Social Security serves many senior clients who do not have X accounts, don’t routinely use social media, do not own or access devices to look at social media and would not intuitively turn to X to get key official updates and information about Social Security.
Heck, I’m not all that old, and I won’t “turn to X” for anything, let alone official federal communications. It’s not an appropriate platform for federal communications.