The Seattle Times – Here’s a ‘dead’ person on Social Security in Seattle, with plenty to say – March 15, 2025 Johnson is 82 and still kicking. Yet sometime last month, someone or something led Social Security to both tag him as dead and start clawing back his benefits. (…) “There’s nothing you need to do — we’ve deducted the funds from LEONARD A. JOHNSON’s account.” Uh oh. It itemized how $5,201 had been stricken from their bank account, on the grounds that Ned wasn’t justified to get those benefits — because he was dead. That was for payments he’d received in December and January. (…) What followed was a nearly three-week battle to resurrect himself. He called Social Security two or three times a day for two weeks, with each call put on hold and then eventually disconnected. Finally someone answered and gave him an appointment for March 13. Then he got a call delaying that to March 24. In a huff, he went to the office on the ninth floor of the Henry Jackson Federal Building downtown. It’s one of the buildings proposed to be closed under what the AP called “a frenetic and error-riddled push by Elon Musk’s budget-cutting advisers.” It was like a Depression-era scene, he said, with a queue 50-deep jockeying for the attentions of two tellers. The employees were kind but beleaguered.
If I were receiving Social Security by direct deposit, I would a have a talk with my bank about what they would do to verify my death before stealing my money out of my accounts. Surely the bank could have required a death certificate? I would think about transferring the deposited funds to another bank shortly after receipt.
I expect more stories like this hitting the news, and attempts to normalize or justify it. Fox News is already starting a propaganda machine to create narratives to convince your Republican voter neighbors to believe that having their Social Security slashed is good and “cutting the fat” and something they need to just accept. And that the auditors and investigators that already existed who actually use forensic accountants should be replaced with Elon Musk’s dog crew of hackers.
MAGA slowly changing to “cutting Social Security is GOOD!” David Pakman Show – Mar 15, 2025
They’re also starting the “jobless loser protesters” tropes to claim that people who oppose cuts to social security are “lazy and unemployed”. And I think they’re grossly misreading the room.
These days there’s pretty much no shame in being unemployed anymore after we’ve been through 2 huge financial disasters in just over a decade, and on top of that gig work with variable schedules are more normalized than ever. And that’s besides the fact that nurses, doctors, and all sorts of people work night shifts and whatever else. We all know this nowadays this isn’t 1995. But besides that, a lot of people worried about Social Security that protest may actually be legitimate and rightful recipients of it as well. Being jobless for whatever reason isn’t shameful. Calling people “losers” because they’re “jobless” seniors, disabled people, or children, is what’s shameful. But this is apparently what they mean by “war on woke” – they mean Social Security. They mean seniors. They mean disabled. Some who are already feeling it. The problems are already happening.
The New Republic – Hafiz Rashid / March 17, 2025 Trump Memo Reveals Plan to Throw Social Security Into Chaos An internal document from the Social Security Administration warned staff there would be a “strain” on resources. The changes include requiring that people seeking benefits provide proof of identity over the internet for benefit claims made over the phone. If someone is “unable to utilize the internet ID proofing, customers will be required to visit a field office to provide in-person identity documentation.” Right now, Social Security claims and identity verification can be done over the phone thanks to staffers answering calls on its toll-free number. Actual fraud is rare, because people have to provide multiple pieces of personal information, checked against medical records, bank statements, pay stubs, and tax returns, depending on the type of claim. Beyond that, if there are any discrepancies, an applicant might have to mail their birth certificate to the agency. This entire process allows people who are elderly or disabled, and thus have difficulty accessing the internet or visiting a physical office, to apply for and collect Social Security benefits