Apr 24, 2009

Notices About $250 Payments Already Causing Confusion

The notices that Social Security has sent out about the $250 economic stimulus payments are already causing confusion. See the short piece in the Miami Herald. Telling people about the SSI consequences of holding onto the $250 payment for more than nine months may have been TMI (Too Much Information).

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The answer was really quite accurate, concise, and clear. The question was legitimate and many people will have similar questions. Too many SSI recipients don't understand what SSI is and confuse it with Social Security.

Anonymous said...

While SSA has attempted to make its notices more understandable this is often at odds with the need to be legally precise because attorneys in the past have filed suits alleging that SSA did not "fully inform" recipients/beneficaries of their rights. That's what makes the notices so long. Every notice, even if notice of an action favorable to the recipient, is required to contain appeal language in case the recipient feels it is not favorable enough.