It’s insult to injury because they’re planning on closing regional offices all over the place, including in my region. So this could mean that seniors, including frail and high-risk elderly, will have to find a way to travel to an in-person office, some perhaps 100 miles away or more. People have not been required to do this before.
Demonstrators outside McCormick’s Scranton office say no one answers constituents’ calls WVIA | By Kat Bolus | WVIA News Published March 17, 2025 at 9:49 PM EDT Jill Carlson from Bloomsburg held a microphone and asked the chicken — as if it were McCormick — why the Social Security office in the town is closed. “No work is going on down there. The flag is still flying at half mast. It’s in tatters. There’s no sign it’s ever going to reopen. What’s happening?” she said. Carlson said a sign on the door says there’s no date for it to reopen and to call for help. “It was just announced that they’re cutting the staff that answers the phones. So how are people supposed to talk to anyone?” she said. More than 10% of the agency’s workforce was laid off, the Associated Press reported. Dozens of offices throughout the U.S. were closed as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the size of the federal workforce through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The Social Security Administration’s website says there is no in-person service at the Bloomsburg office. (emphasis added)
My letter to reps:
I’m outraged about Elon Musk and the Trump administration deciding to require seniors and others to visit Social Security offices in-person. Especially when you have regional offices in my area slated for closure which will have wide ramifications, and require people to travel hours to visit an office – this may not even be possible. And replacing government workers with chatbots for customer service is completely unacceptable. Chatbots in customer service should be outlawed entirely. All of this is harmful to elderly and disabled people here in our area – your neighbors, and I almost can’t believe my representatives in government are going to let this happen.
Please feel free to copy or repurpose for your own letters to reps.
And chatbots should not and cannot replace government workers. Let’s face it, most of us have encountered this, and it stinks. And now they’re talking about replacing fired Social Security workers with privatized contract AI chatbot boondoggles. Unacceptable.
Lying AI should not be doing the people’s business or science. Lives are at stake and the U.S. government and scientific scholars are buying into tech hype boondoggles. Is it corruption, incompetence, or sabotage? Chloe Humbert Mar 22, 2024 The people making the decision to use this faulty technology don’t even know about the “hallucinations” and are not even considering that chatbots are NOT reliable. It’s like they’ve all been conned by the chatbot ability to generate false content that seems persuasive.