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Jury is out on fairness of Social Security
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by YankeeJim | November 15, 2010 at 07:39 am
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I can tell you that dealing with Social Security has made me mad as hell. I have written about it. If I complain directly to the agency, I fear retaliation by the unknown. There is a woman administrator whose name shows up almost once a week on letters telling me “the check is in the mail.” It is the same letter sent over and over again because they made a mistake in not sending the first check of my retirement on time. Because they did not act properly on my online registration and intervened with people doing things wrong, we have a problem of their owing me money for months on end.
As for my disability claim – I AM DEAF – they asked if I want my correspondence in brail? For crying out loud are they deaf and blind?
They told me “officially” that applying for disability is a long process—six months, and that I should expect a rejection to which I should appeal and if that doesn’t work, I should get a lawyer. If you look at the amount we’re talking about, getting a lawyer could consume the benefit. I am trapped.
So, if and when I come before a Social Security magistrate, the first thing I would like to do is ring his neck as he is a representative of a failed institution. I am not making a threat, mind you, I am telling you how I think most people feel by the time they GET TO THE END OF THEIR ROPE!
“Social Security judges facing more violent threats
By SAM HANANEL
The Associated Press
Monday, November 15, 2010; 2:39 AMWASHINGTON -- Judges who hear Social Security disability cases are facing a growing number of violent threats from claimants angry over being denied benefits or frustrated at lengthy delays in processing claims.
There were at least 80 threats to kill or harm administrative law judges or staff over the past year - an 18 percent increase over the previous reporting period, according to data collected by the Social Security Administration.
The data was released to the Association of Administrative Law Judges and made available to The Associated Press.
One claimant in Albuquerque, N.M., called his congressman's office to say he was going to "take his guns and shoot employees" in the Social Security hearing office. In Eugene, Ore., a man who was denied benefits said he is "ready to join the Taliban and hurt some people." Another claimant denied benefits told a judge in Greenville, S.C., that he was a sniper in the military and "would go take care of the problem."
"I'm not sure the number is as significant as the kind of threats being made," said Randall Frye, a judge based in Charlotte, N.C., and the president of the judges' union. "There seem to be more threats of serious bodily harm, not only to the judge but to the judge's family."
Fifty of the incidents came between March and August, including that of a Pittsburgh claimant who threatened to kill herself outside the hearing office or fly a plane into the building like a disgruntled tax protester did earlier this year at the Internal Revenue Service building in Austin, Texas.
A Senate subcommittee is expected to hear testimony on Monday at a field hearing in Akron, Ohio, about the rising number of threats, as well as the status of the massive backlog in applications for disability benefits, which are available to people who can't work because of medical problems.
Nearly 2 million people are waiting to find out if they qualify for benefits, with many having to wait more than two years to see their first payment.”
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at 12:46 on November 15th, 2010
President Obama and US Congress, how is a disabled person supposed to survive for two years while the bureaucrats process the claims. Are you waiting for them to starve to death? In many cases the matter can be life threatening. If it becomes a life or death situation for them, don't you think that it is reasonable for them to want to attack the institution?
at 13:49 on November 15th, 2010
Perhaps now you better understand the promise of social programs versus the realities of their actual implementation, and why many do not want to have their health care operating under the same bureaucratic mismanagement. Perhaps they are not the kooks they have been labeled as, and have had an inkling of which they spoke? Anger and frustration is poor recourse for those jumping through circular bureaucratic hoops to get the service they were promised. That their taxes would provide.
at 16:24 on November 15th, 2010
Yes, I retreated from government run healthcare for that very reason.
It should not be that way, but we don't control our government. I wanted us out of Iraq and Afghanistan and we are still there wasting money.
at 19:54 on November 15th, 2010
I'm still an advocate of government sponsored services. What I want to see is direct accountability put in place where administrators of these programs loose their jobs for incompetency and not rewarded by defensive government bureaucratic doublespeak and union protectionism. I want to see oversight that isn't a mirror of this same defensive government bureaucratic doublespeak and union protectionism. I probably want too much from people who have taken the jobs and abuse the privilege. Which I believe government service should be considered.
at 03:40 on November 16th, 2010
The depth of stupidity that I am now traversing is unimaginable. I have spoken with a ranking member of supervision. Their ploy is being very patient and polite while explaining that mysterious others are working the process somewhere behind the mirror. I don't believe it.
What happens is that same person goes on the other side of the mirror and is met with a backlog of administrivia and a very poorly designed process. We are all trapped by a bad process that emanates from CONGRESS and is incompetently mis managed by the EXECUTIVE branch.