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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][b]Man Found Dead In Wife's Freezer After A Decade Left Note Saying She Didn't Kill Him[/b]
CBS News - December 18, 2019

snippet...

""Jeanne was, by all appearances, a very nice person. Very friendly. We've talked to her quite a bit and took her to doctor appointments," said Evan Kline, a resident of the retirement community. "The story that — at least she was putting out — was her husband walked out on her."

"I think he died and she kept him so she didn't have to turn in his Social Security," said James Kite, another resident in the retirement community.

"Based on what I know now, I'd have to say it was probably the plan, yeah, for her to keep the money because it was her only source of income," Kline said

Police investigators believe Souron-Mathers received at least $177,000 of government payouts after her husband's death."

https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/man-found-dead-wifes-freezer-decade-left-notarized-note-saying-she-didnt-kill-him/

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What’s the point of this post? To provide that one example of some crazy person murdering their husband and receiving fraudulent payments means we need to throw out the whole thing?  [/quote]

The point is Elon is NOT coming for social security.   Audits WILL take place and proper payments will  be restored.  Fraud WILL be stopped.   So stop with the hyperbole.[/quote]

SSA employee. We now have 57,000 employees. We were closed to 60,000– in 1975.  When we were not serving Boomers.  We are at our lowest number of staffers in 50 years— by far. It takes an average of 8 months to get a disability claim. And not just 40 year olds with bad backs. Stage 4 cancer.   At this point, we are so understaffed that we are bleeding staff because we can’t begin to keep up with the workloads and people are overworked and demoralized.

Yes, cutting us 15-50% (goal staffing numbers we are getting from Elmo who is puppetmastering the no-supervisory GS-15 who was on Admin leave and was about to be fired for leaking info to DOGE when Elmo made his Commissioner are all over the place) are a cut on social security. For several reasons.

One, the slashing of staff is indiscriminate. FORK eligibility was targeted and mission critical positions were not eligible. But VSIP and VERA have been offered to everyone. But, not everyone can do payment center work, which is complicated and takes 2 years to learn a the level of basic proficiency. And almost no one understands COBOL (which powers our main payment systems) and how our hundreds of antiquated computer systems (held together by plastic straws and bubble gum and powered my hamster wheels) work together.

Everyone who understands SSA operations believes the payment systems will break down, sooner rather than later.  This includes former Commissioners from Trump and Biden *and our Limpdick GS-15 Commissioner* who gave the WaPo an interview and said “I’m not making decisions, Elmo is. And Elmo doesn’t know what he is doing and isn’t listening to people who do. Not my fault when the system breaks down”.   The question is how many months it will take.  Most knowledgable people believe within 90 days.  And once it breaks down, can it be fixed?  Again, more than a hundred old systems working together and everyone with a big picture view is leaving. They can actually make it worse when trying to fix the system by unintentionally doing something with a negative impact somewhere else.  If you break the payment systems, and we miss payments for the first time in Agency history and can’t fix it quickly, Elmo has cut social security. And you can say it’s not intentional, but it is a foreseeable consequence of cutting SSa staff with a chainsaw and not a scalpel.

Two, justice delayed is justice denied. Disability wait times are now 8 months. That could easily double with staff cuts. And if someone has a terminal illness and dies with a pending SSI claim that is eventually allowed, their family doesn’t get back benefits. They get nothing.  So the longer the wait, the more you get de facto disability denials because people die waiting.

Also Medicare/ Medicaid are tied getting SSI/SSDI in many cases. So during the 8 or 12 or 16 months people wait for their claim to be reviewed, they are often in insured and not able to afford to treat chronic conditions. They may also become homeless and not be able to afford to eat well. All of which can lead to earlier deaths.

Also, at a 50% cut— or even a 12% cut, the backlog of standard retirement claims starts. So, seniors lose the ability to file and start benefits that month. They are now waiting for payments to start on a standard claim.

Cutting the teleservice staff and moving to AI is another area that can become de facto denials. The less tech savvy seniors and people with certain disabilities (blindness, intellectual disability, schizophrenia, other mental illnesses), as well as people with more complicated illnesses or earning records can’t manage AI.  We walk these people though claims everyday, which is labor intensive. If you cut the labor, they have a long delay while waiting for a human to talk to. Or get so frustrated they abandon their claim.

So yes, IRL, a “deep cut” of SSA staff — whatever percentage that turns out to be— results in people being unable to access benefits.  You don’t have to outright deny to avoid paying retirement or disability. You just have to have so few SSA employees  that backlogs are more than a year (already almost a year for some workloads). You can just create situations where people can’t get Medicaid to treat their illnesses or pay for food and housing and die waiting in the backlogs. You just have to make the agency so toxic people who understand complex programs and systems quit. The end result is the same.

[/quote]

Dear SSA employee:
Thank you for taking such good care of my mom when my dad (primary breadwinner) died. The scheduled call occurred as promised and the employee who helped mom was courteous and helpful and understanding during a difficult time for her. It made a difference. And frankly out of all the bureaucracy we had to deal with, SSA was the nicest and clearest.  All the private sector reps parroted “so sorry for your loss” and acted like douchebags. [/quote]

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