You nailed the nightmare of the triple security verifications....I have thrice triple the verifications - one for OPM (Office of Personnel Management), one for Defense Finance and a third for Social Security......Problematically it's not just the government offices, its medical insurance, banking etc., etc. etc.
I have no clue how to do more than "double security verification" so does this mean I can't apply for Social Security? I've held off, but I'm not getting any younger and there's no jobs to be had for someone in my state of health so maybe I should attempt it?
If you don't want to go through all of that triple-security BS, call the main Social Security number when you have plenty of time one day. If you take the option for them to call you back, they will(I had to wait about an hour), and then you can make a telephone appointment to apply for benefits.
That appointment will probably be 6-8 weeks out, but at least you don't have to do a triple-security check every time you log in.
My wife made a telephone appointment more than 3 months ahead. The call never came. Two trips to SSA to sort it out. I went to the office directly, and it took the second visit to complete. My conclusion: US federal government are full of idiotic and lazy employees. But some of them are very good, patient, and did pay due diligence. It is on this experience, I believe the country as a whole still has a glimmer of hope. Not very much, but the hope is nonzero.
You left out overworked and understaffed. My hunch is that the SSA employee review system is not measured by how good the outcome of any particular applicant gets, but how many "files" get "processed" in a given period.
The reason your "full retirement age" changed from 65 to 66, and mine to 67; the reason so many Americans don't have a SS office within easy driving distance; the reason a majority of Americans under age 30 don't believe they will be able to collect benefits AT ALL - comes down to one simple fact. Republicans HATE Social Security and Medicare. They are the Republicans' white whales. Social Security, for all its flaws and failings remains the single biggest success story in the entire pantheon of government programs. In less than a generation the poverty rate of Americans age 65+ went from over 30% in the 1930s to 25% in the late 1960s when Medicare and Medicaid became law. By the late 70s, the poverty rate for the elderly was 15%. Since the 1990s, the poverty rate for Americans age 65+ has held steady at around 10%.
The reason Social Security is at risk has nothing to do with the program itself. The primary stressors to Social Security are demographic. People are living longer, and collecting payments longer. And with the entire Baby Boomer generation reaching age 65 in a few years, the ratio of people in the workforce to those collecting benefits is dropping. But the "crisis" in the Social Security program, if there is one, is a crisis of political will to change with the times. Instead of expanding revenue (more on that later), the kleptocrats in Congress started a phased in increase in the age requirement for max benefits. Making people wait one year longer, or two, or more is that many fewer years people will be the collecting payments we earned.
Let me emphasize that: people collecting from Social Security earned those benefits by working a required minimum time period and paying 6.2% of their earnings to Social Security. Nearly everyone pays Social Security payroll tax. Their employers make a matching payment on top of that. More accurately, 6.2% of the first $176,000 earned in a calendar year. After that limit is reached, individuals stop paying into Social Security for the rest of the year. Roughly only six percent of wage earners reach that cap. (Employers continue to pay their 6.2% even after the employee's earning for the year reaches the $176k limit.) The earning threshold is adjusted periodically, but not automatically, for inflation. Benefits are similarly raised by an annual "Cost of Living Adjustment," or COLA. However, the COLA rate is set arbitrarily. In some years, the adjustment is zero: another way to screw retirees.
Also note that only earned income is subject to the Social Security payroll tax. So, wages and self employment income. And tips. Isn't that weird? Money that people work damn hard for is subject to SS tax, while income from things like investments, interest, capital gains, and rental income is not. Dunno about the rest of you, but that strikes me as unfair.
I'm luckier than most. I retired in the middle of the year I would turn 66, and that was 2019. I'm about 10 minutes from the SS office, and the most pain in the ass thing that I need to do online requires an update of my password.
I hate it when people refer to social security as an "entitlement". It's a trust that we PAY INTO! It has illegally been raided by the Congress, who should know better, but that's another story...
Long ago, before retirement, we decided to "downsize" when moving to PA, and I'm talking d o w n s i z i n g our dwellings. We bought the smallest, cheapest home with the largest yard on the block at the top of the hill so I could garden. Then, over 20 to 27 years, we updated the house's infrastructure, fixed exterior walls, insulated and by my own hand, landscaped to what is a sustainable place to live... at least I think so. I've never wanted big vacations, as my vacation is being able to day trip to neighboring states and maybe going to Canada, since it's about 4 hours away. There has never been a real estate bubble in Allegheny county because it's so damned in need of general updating its roads, bridges and mass transit (what mass transit?)
You nailed the nightmare of the triple security verifications....I have thrice triple the verifications - one for OPM (Office of Personnel Management), one for Defense Finance and a third for Social Security......Problematically it's not just the government offices, its medical insurance, banking etc., etc. etc.
Congratulations!
'I really did serve as a mercenary for Big Oil by obtaining a job in the United States Navy'
Reminds me of General Butler's description of his time in the Marine Corps - as I'm guessing it was supposed to.
It was. In fact, the Navy is where I first encountered Smedley Butler.
There was a well-read copy of his book in the ship's library, right next to Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy, as I recall.
I have no clue how to do more than "double security verification" so does this mean I can't apply for Social Security? I've held off, but I'm not getting any younger and there's no jobs to be had for someone in my state of health so maybe I should attempt it?
If you don't want to go through all of that triple-security BS, call the main Social Security number when you have plenty of time one day. If you take the option for them to call you back, they will(I had to wait about an hour), and then you can make a telephone appointment to apply for benefits.
That appointment will probably be 6-8 weeks out, but at least you don't have to do a triple-security check every time you log in.
Congratulations 🎊 👏 💐 🥳 🎊 👏 💐 🥳 🎊 👏 💐 🥳 🎊 👏 💐 🥳 🎊
My wife made a telephone appointment more than 3 months ahead. The call never came. Two trips to SSA to sort it out. I went to the office directly, and it took the second visit to complete. My conclusion: US federal government are full of idiotic and lazy employees. But some of them are very good, patient, and did pay due diligence. It is on this experience, I believe the country as a whole still has a glimmer of hope. Not very much, but the hope is nonzero.
You left out overworked and understaffed. My hunch is that the SSA employee review system is not measured by how good the outcome of any particular applicant gets, but how many "files" get "processed" in a given period.
The reason your "full retirement age" changed from 65 to 66, and mine to 67; the reason so many Americans don't have a SS office within easy driving distance; the reason a majority of Americans under age 30 don't believe they will be able to collect benefits AT ALL - comes down to one simple fact. Republicans HATE Social Security and Medicare. They are the Republicans' white whales. Social Security, for all its flaws and failings remains the single biggest success story in the entire pantheon of government programs. In less than a generation the poverty rate of Americans age 65+ went from over 30% in the 1930s to 25% in the late 1960s when Medicare and Medicaid became law. By the late 70s, the poverty rate for the elderly was 15%. Since the 1990s, the poverty rate for Americans age 65+ has held steady at around 10%.
The reason Social Security is at risk has nothing to do with the program itself. The primary stressors to Social Security are demographic. People are living longer, and collecting payments longer. And with the entire Baby Boomer generation reaching age 65 in a few years, the ratio of people in the workforce to those collecting benefits is dropping. But the "crisis" in the Social Security program, if there is one, is a crisis of political will to change with the times. Instead of expanding revenue (more on that later), the kleptocrats in Congress started a phased in increase in the age requirement for max benefits. Making people wait one year longer, or two, or more is that many fewer years people will be the collecting payments we earned.
Let me emphasize that: people collecting from Social Security earned those benefits by working a required minimum time period and paying 6.2% of their earnings to Social Security. Nearly everyone pays Social Security payroll tax. Their employers make a matching payment on top of that. More accurately, 6.2% of the first $176,000 earned in a calendar year. After that limit is reached, individuals stop paying into Social Security for the rest of the year. Roughly only six percent of wage earners reach that cap. (Employers continue to pay their 6.2% even after the employee's earning for the year reaches the $176k limit.) The earning threshold is adjusted periodically, but not automatically, for inflation. Benefits are similarly raised by an annual "Cost of Living Adjustment," or COLA. However, the COLA rate is set arbitrarily. In some years, the adjustment is zero: another way to screw retirees.
Also note that only earned income is subject to the Social Security payroll tax. So, wages and self employment income. And tips. Isn't that weird? Money that people work damn hard for is subject to SS tax, while income from things like investments, interest, capital gains, and rental income is not. Dunno about the rest of you, but that strikes me as unfair.
I'm luckier than most. I retired in the middle of the year I would turn 66, and that was 2019. I'm about 10 minutes from the SS office, and the most pain in the ass thing that I need to do online requires an update of my password.
I hate it when people refer to social security as an "entitlement". It's a trust that we PAY INTO! It has illegally been raided by the Congress, who should know better, but that's another story...
Long ago, before retirement, we decided to "downsize" when moving to PA, and I'm talking d o w n s i z i n g our dwellings. We bought the smallest, cheapest home with the largest yard on the block at the top of the hill so I could garden. Then, over 20 to 27 years, we updated the house's infrastructure, fixed exterior walls, insulated and by my own hand, landscaped to what is a sustainable place to live... at least I think so. I've never wanted big vacations, as my vacation is being able to day trip to neighboring states and maybe going to Canada, since it's about 4 hours away. There has never been a real estate bubble in Allegheny county because it's so damned in need of general updating its roads, bridges and mass transit (what mass transit?)