There has been an ongoing issue regarding our SSI benefits for our autistic son with the Social Security Administration, which I am about to write about, but please read this article; and this article before continuing reading this blog to get some background information about this issue!
I’ll assume that you have read the two linked articles above; this morning we called up social security to enquire about a number of things. First issue is that the Wage Reporting line (1-866-772-0953) refuses to accept my wife’s input of wages, it simply tells us that wages can not be reported right now and to try again later. The agent’s response was to suggest that she faxes the wage slips into them, which is how we found ourselves in this damn situation to start with.
The second issue is that we wanted to know what was happening with the appeal against the claimed overpayment of $3,891.33, they have received the appeal and now acknowledge that we were not over the limit for the whole 12 months they claim, but still claim we owe the above amount. I rather bluntly pointed out that the SSA’s maths skills are lacking, $301 per month multiplied by five comes to just over $1500, not the $3800 they claim; a point the agent couldn’t possibly dispute.
The final issue is that my wife’s wages for July and August still have not be received despite other documents in the same fax package being accepted, we have multiple fax confirmations showing that it has been sent to the case manager at the SSA. So we will send it again tomorrow and see if it will be accepted & inputted at the umpteenth time of asking, some accountability is needed at the SSA! But one cannot solely rely on the faulty services of SSA, and need to take matters into their own hands. At this point, it’d be worth mentioning that Gmail can be used to send fax messages, and
This issue has been ongoing for four months now and we are at our whits end dealing with this. Anyway, we have been promised a call back from our case manager in the next few days; something we are not hopefully about as we’ve left message after message for this woman and not a single call back, and one time she refused to take our call, which is a simple lack of respect on their part!
As things stand we are stuck with a bill for almost $4000; no SSI payments for three months and are in danger of losing our Medicaid which allows our autistic son Conner to get therapies, we simply can not afford therapies out of pocket! I feel my blood pressure climbing as I write this so I’ll stop there!
I don’t really know how inept people can be at their jobs. This case worker obviously has no clue, whatsoever, about what work she should be doing or how to do it, let alone get anything done. I know that if you had the means, you’d sue their collective asses off, but that would of course mean you have way to much income and couldn’t possibly be entitled to benefits in the first place. So it’s obvious you’re stuck between rock and a hard place. I certainly hope you get a satisfactory resolution, because this is enough to drive a totally crazy person sane.
Even if I had the means, it wouldn’t matter as under US law; government agencies are above legal action, hence my need for more accountability comment in the post. If I had the funds to retain a lawyer, I would have taken my family to a country where people have more power and rights… US citizens are stripped of their rights on a daily basis.