Dominic Daniel's Social Security check was stolen. It only took about a year and the help of a local television station for him to be reimbursed for the missing money.
Please, don't give any silly lectures about the need for direct deposit. It shouldn't take this long to resolve this sort of problem regardless of how the money is supposed to come in. In any case, there's probably at least as much risk of a direct deposit of Social Security funds being fraudulently redirected from a person's bank account as there is of a check being stolen. At least stolen checks are easily traced. This is just bad service.
Also, by the way, note the description of Dominic in the article. He's got poor hearing and cannot speak. We can't tell for sure from the article but he's probably receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) child's benefits. There are persistent reports that SSI child's benefits are paid to children who have nothing much wrong with them. That's not accurate. Dominic is the reality of SSI child benefits.
Would be interesting to know if the delay was due to previous double check negotiations by the claimant in which case SSA is supposed to wait till Treasury determines if the original check was cashed by the claimant before issuing a replacement. My cynical side thinks they probably did cash the original check but once they went to the TV station the FO sent them a manual payment to make the problem go away and then wrote off the overpayment.
ReplyDelete"Supplemental Security Income (SSI) child's benefits"
ReplyDeleteI don't know if social security officials read this blog. But it's my belief parents who desire their children covered by ssa programs should pay more or an additional Fica/SSA taxes.
Children are the parents's responsibility.
Maybe Charles should be commissioner of SSA. When he posts things on here, it's always such a simple solution. Most of the time, when you're actually working these issues, it's never that simple. I could explain why, but it really doesn't matter. Millions of people get their checks on time and no problems...but the small percentage that don't make the news....awesome!
ReplyDelete@10:12 - criminals aren't always the smartest, but it would be odd for her to call the local news channel and ask them to shine a light on her failed attempts to defraud the SSA.
ReplyDeleteThe check was for $ 1400.00--what makes you think it was an SSI check? And the article makes no mention of Dominic's age. Poorly written article, poor analysis by Charles.
ReplyDeleteArticles like this are infuriating to read because there are never enough facts to determine what happened and why.
ReplyDeleteSSA won't talk because that would violate the privacy of the beneficiary.
The media won't dig deeper because they are generally lazy and that would get in the way of their story.
Recommendation: Ignore this one, there's nothing there.
The check was for $ 1400.00--what makes you think it was an SSI check? And the article makes no mention of Dominic's age. Poorly written article, poor analysis by Charles.
ReplyDeleteWatch the video. It shows the kid and he is clearly too young to be getting any kind of disability benefit other than SSI.
you said "he is clearly too young to be getting any kind of disability benefit other than SSI"-a child can get disability at birth when they're premature, or any child with special needs.
DeleteI watched the video and read the article. The young boy is getting SSI, as noted in the letter you can see in the video. And the $1460 check was for 3 months of benefits. It should not have taken a year to replace the check.
ReplyDeleteTihs is ANON 7:52--cannot open the video, but $ 1460.00 is different from $ 1400.00, so, again, poorly written article. A missing retro SSI check would have to be replaced by automated one-time payment, which is a manual action requiring the input of two employees. Many such actions go months without being done because of lack of staff and higher priority workloads. This is nothing unusual, despite the spin being put on it.
ReplyDeleteIt has been just over a year now and my stolen ssi check has not been replaced. I get a different excuse each time I call the ssi office or the treasury dept. They owe me over $9000 and I'm stuck. No one will help.
ReplyDelete