More Aggravation From SSA...I'm So Ticked Off I Could Spit Nails

Thank you for letting me know I'm not the only one having a horrible day. I'll be posting about it in a few minutes. My best friends husband's social security number is one digit off from a man who has been in prison, then released and arrested in Arizona. My friend's husband is making a once or twice a month trip down to Social (in) Security to let them know he isn't in prison and isn't in Arizona. He has to take all kinds of documentation to prove he is who he is. In the mean time they tell him that his benefits are suspended due to the fact that he is in jail or prison. My friend goes nuts worrying about if they will have the money for rent, food, utilities and toilet paper.

hi pyewacket oh my its still going on and its the first of feb. well here I filled in one month, then took another month to see the guy and afte all sorts of various papers filled out and questions and more questions I was notified after coming here I was receiving the huge sum of 228 and I am sweating bullets as my social security check and ss I check were supposed to cover the monthly rent here. and 319 and 229 were not going to make 981 dollars so the administrator here, love her, she said I will get you much more money dont worry, so yes I filled out some more stacks of paperwork but she did it. between the two checks it pays my rent and board here and still leaves me with one hundred twenty five dollars for personal needs.not a fortune but bless Jenet she did it.seems that SSI has about 8 different levels of amounts they pay out for 8 different situations. So you need someone with some guts like my administrator here to go to war with SSI and get you what you need. phone your Congressman or woman and talk to her directly.

Sounds like you're still having fun... or someone is.

Fewer employees and more paperwork is my guess. Government is a mess. Check out my New York State discussion. Federal, State, and County, more paperwork and fewer people to process. You can't even contact them if you try and even if you do, they still don't help. They say they do, but they don't. NY State is shutting down businesses that supposedly didn't fill out paperwork in time and hurting people who need them. The group that hires the Assistants for people with Traumatic Brain Injury, their business was shut down. That was my rant on a previous post. They filled out and filed the paperwork. Were told NY State received it. Then told they had a certain date to get it in or they would be shut down. Called about it. The worker said to disregard the 2nd letter because of the first and then, the next thing they know, they were shut down. Left family members of people with TBI scrambling to find coverage and one person with TBI in the hospital because that person didn't have family that could cover or enough family or whatever. The County Health Department granted them an extention and is looking into the mess, but there was a time lag before they knew about it and could get the extention. 39 people put out of work, 25 hired by another agency, but they needed to go through 2 weeks of retraining. Not sure if they had started that or what. NYS wanted to have all new license plates by a certain date. Make or buy them with what money? How fast could they process the paperwork with fewer employees? We protested and they've backed down for now, but it's not completely off the table. I can see people not being able to go to work because the old license plates being past date or going to work illegally, or painting their license plates so they wouldn't be stopped. Most people don't need new license plates and $25 plus time to get them, our DMV has banker's hours and fewer people manning them. The lines are unbelievable and it you forget to dot an "I" or don't have everything you need, they send you to a different line and then they send you back to the first one, by then, the place is closing unless you take a day off from work and start out in the morning. So they want us to do what? They'd better put a metal detector in and hire/post cops. It could get really ugly. Where I live, we have to have our cars to get to work. The City people in Albany don't understand that. They think you just take a taxi or a bus. Wonder how many taxis and buses wouldn't have new license plates in time, further messing up everything.

I haven't had any hassles that I can recall, I just hope you get yours straightened out. I saw somebody over on Facebook had recommended going to a consumer advocate and stirring up a fuss...

Not that I am 'on their side' but just wanted to put forth afew things here that you may not have thought about. The SS offices respond to and help over 6 million people. It may be that they recieved your letter after theirs was sent to you. They send out group letters to bunchs of people sometimes too. I have dealt with SS in the past and I never have had any problems. Sometimes I have to wait quite a while but I always get my questions answered and am always treated with the upmost kindness, respect, and consideration. Have you gone to your local SS office with all your proof and documentation and tried to deal with them that way? I have dealt with them in the local office and on the phone. As far as the red tape bureaucratic side of it I have to say that sometimes it takes a while but if you have all your ducks in a row it all goes very smoothly. I have never had a problem. They do do things in a certain manner because they have to to deal with so many people. I hope you get this all straightened out. If I can be of any help please let me know.

I hope you get it straightened out. The biggest thing is waiting for 45 minutes on hold, just to be cut off and have to start all over.

Wow that is bad! Government programs and similar programs seem to have all sorts of flaws... yet they never do anything to improve. It must be job security :-D They make it so confusing and messy that they will never lose their jobs b/c they are the only ones that know what's going on. Well my "rant" is minor compared to yours. It's just when I got married and had to change my name. Every single "guide to name change" that I read said "Step 1 go to SS admin to change your name. Step 2 go to SOS to change name on your license". So I went to a local SS office, waited over an hour during my lunch break, to change my name. When it was finally my turn the lady said "oh no, you have to change your license FIRST". What? Why does every wedding site and guide in the world say to go to SS office first then? I just looked again and the checklists I found all said to go to SS first. So I had to go to SOS, wait there forever, and go back to the SS on another day to wait over an hour again. Geez! They don't make it easy. I'm never changing my name again though, hopefully :)

Morning, pye...cannot comment on SSI or SSA...but reading your post, I am thinking that your government is definitely following the marred footprints of our Provincial Gov't! There is NOT a Dept. from; Rentalsboard to B.C. Med, from Revenue B.C to Water Rights....that you can phone...and actually speak to a HUMAN BEING! EVERY..and I mean every department has a recorded message; "Leave your name and number, and your call will be returned within 48 hours." NOT!!! They just don't say 48 hours from when! I truly do hear your complete and total frustration! How the he$$ do you circumnavigate this problem....other than continue with your documentation to the Congressman's Office. I really do feel for you, pye...it's like struggling thru a field of quicksand....especially when they have the upper hand and control your income! I pray this is sorted out soon! Cheers!

OMG Pye, still? Is there any way you can change your caseworker to someone else? This is terrible for you, or anyone, to ever go through. I can't even imagine what else you could do as mail gets thrown to the side sometimes, and they don't care if it's certified or not. It all takes so long to complete, they're not concerned, even if it is your proof. And of course, they'll never find out who made the mistake, so no one cares. It just goes from one horror to another. I would think the representative from your Congressman's office is your only hope right now, at least she can verify you called her with the information, and maybe will get more done for you than anyone else can. Hopefully.

Hey Pye I am sorry to hear that this is still an issue. I remember when you first spoke about it. I know you spoke to your representative but I think you should go over your caseworker's head. Directly to her supervisor. When you do this, make sure you leave a message telling the supervisor that you have spoken to your state representative. Once the supervisor hears that you have been in touch with people over their head they will take immediate action. If not you take it to the media. trust me it works. I had a problem with the trash removal service. Once they heard I called the mayors office, they took action. No one wants to be portrayed negatively. I eventually go what I needed. It was a shame it took so long but oh well it's on them. Please try this? I honestly think you will get some action. Good luck my friend! dl

I feel every bit of your pain and frustration, pye! Believe me, I know what you're going through! I've already posted most of my frustrations over my seven-year-long-plus battle with Social Security. It wasn't until I got my congressman involved that I got any results at all. I hope your congressman can get this straightened out for you. I finally received the money I should have been receiving for the past 9 years but, of course, they didn't add any interest to it. It wasn't long after I received the money that I received the form to pay taxes on all this money. They sure didn't forget to send that! Of course, if I'm late in paying those taxes, they'll tack on interest and penalty that I owe them, starting the day my payment is late. It infuriates me the way our government treats it's citizens, the people whose taxes pay their friggin salaries!!! You won't see me proudly displaying an American flag anywhere. Generally speaking, I love the people in this country but I despise the government... the federal government, anyway. There's only one politician I've ever liked and that is the congressman who helped me straighten out my own insane disability case.

Hey pye~ I don't know what to tell you except to hang in there! You know that these azzholes try to push all the buttons that they can and try to take you to the limits! Just try to remain as calm as you can and you will get this straightened out because there is no reason why you can't! I have had my own issues with "THEM" and have lost! But, not for the lack of fighting until the END! You have done nothing or don't have the right to get what you deserve! My case is what it is and according to the phuching NYS Laws (and now I am going to use a term which I hate more than anything!) "It is what it is" and I can't fight it or change it so I am on this phucking Medicaid Spend Down for two phucking years when I will get Medicare which will be worse than what I have now! There doesn't be anyway to win in this State no matter what! So, just do what you need to do and you will get it right! Hugs, Opal

I get disability from SSI. I have never had a problem renewing. They send me a form every 7 years or so and I just send it to my doctor to fill out and return to them. I know when I first filed everyone was telling me it was such a nightmare! I didn't have any trouble at all. I had a friend that used to work there help me fill out the application and I guess I answered all the questions right. I hope I don't have any trouble in the future. I hate to make calls like that. You are on hold forever if you do manage to get thru. Most times you get a recording to try back later. There is no good way to get ahold of someone that will help you. I feel sorry for you, and I know how frustrating it can be, and scary also, that you might lose your benefits and then what? Good Luck!! You will probably need it dealing with a department like that.

Wow Pye, you do have a lot of Problems with them, I just do not get it how they can treat People like this to me it seems they are not doing their Job at all You know the Letter has arrived and you can prove it I really think someone needs to kick their Butts there

OMG, Pye, I'm so sorry you're going through this! How incompetent are the people working at the SSA? I had my own headaches with them back before I finally got approved for my Social Security Disability last year. I'd applied back in 2005 and, as is usually the case so I've been told, I was turned down. I was told I had a certain number of days to let them know in writing that I wanted to appeal, so I filled the form out and sent it back immediately. I waited a few weeks and called to check on the status and they said it was still being evaluated. I called several more times with the same results. Then, the one time I called they told me they'd never received my application to appeal and now the time had expired and I'd have to start over but I could write them a letter with an "explanation" and maybe they'd make an exception. I did, and I received a questionnaire about what my limitations were, etc., same as I'd filled out before, which I filled out and returned. As it turned out I ended up having to reapply and this time I was approved within 5 months but the bottom line is I got screwed out of nearly two years back pay since they now could only go back to two years before my latest application although my disability had started much earlier. I appealed that but was turned down since it's their "policy" to only go back so far and I could show no proof I'd returned the papers earlier. I'm glad you sent yours certified so you DO have proof because if I'd have had proof I'd have won. They're idiots! I think they get REJECTS from USPS management and TRUST ME, that's scraping the bottom of the barrel! Good luck to you, I sure hope you get it straightened out soon. Annie

you're probably going to have to get a per diem lawyer-seems to be the only thing SSA understands. anybody i'd ever known on SSI has had this game played on them,it's ridiculous.

I filed 2 years ago.... they denied me immediately. I immediately filed Request for Reconsideration and took it to the office in person and got a receipt for being there. THey responded to that and said they accept my Reguest.....after MONTHS of constantly trying to call them and either getting a busy signal 99% of the time or leave a message 3 times for the case worker... no return phone calls. I worked it like that afor a year... then finally got a lawyer. They collected all my documentation and stuff from me... and it took them 4 months to be able to get through to the office (of course not trying as often as I did, but at least they got there and told me that this office is the worlds worst at responding) and the SSD told them they had no record of me in their system other than that they denied me. I sent the lawyer a copy of the letter they sent me saying they did accept my Request for REcon and that I was in their system. THe lawyer pushed and 3 months later the SSD said they would go by the letter they sent me and put me back in thesystem to that date. Which meant sitting for 6 months waiting to get on the agenda for hearing. I am still waiting to get on the agenda for a hearing - 3 months more now. SSI/SSD can do whatever they want. DOesn't seem to be laws to govern them or that they have to follow. Their word against yours and "he who has the gold makes the rules" so they go by their rules. You have evidence that you tried to contact them...repeatedly. Maybe it is time for a lawyer. Hope things work out for you. Do don't by happen chance live in southern california do you?

That is horrible! Is there any way you can get to a Social Security Office in town? Maybe you can sit with a representative in that office and make sure that everything goes into their computer. I know SSA is slow, but the way they have treated you is inexcusable.

We have a similar office in Australia and yes they are just as annoying. I used to avoid dealing with them as much as possible but these days it is inevitable. If you have a query it pays to have a lot of time and talk to at least three people because you are bound to receive a different answer from each person you speak to. All these letters are computer generated and there doesn’t seem to be any living being taking care of what goes out and to whom which may explain your predicament I guess. You need to do a lot of meditation or something so you don’t have a breakdown trying to sort this out. My heart goes out my friend, been there…Done that...