From some television station in Indianapolis:
“It’s insanity.” Stephanie Curbeaux was fed up. She was cold from spending the better part of two hours on Wednesday morning standing in a line outside the Social Security office in northwest Indianapolis. The temperature was in the mid-30s. But Curbeaux stood there, needing to get her name changed with the agency.
“I got divorced. I’ve been needing to get it changed. They wanted me to mail my official documents which I wasn’t going to do.” And now that they’re open. This is the third I’ve been up here. God, it just makes me so mad.”
Two placed behind Curbeaux in the line was Susan Taylor, who is recently widowed.
“My husband passed away and I’m here to collect the benefits, as his widow. They won’t make appointments online. Even when I call to make an appointment, they won’t allow you to make an appointment. So, I have to just stand in line in the cold.”
Another two placed behind Taylor was a woman holding a place in line for a friend. Gabriel James says his spinal pain is so bad the longest he can stand at one time is five minutes. ...
We checked back in this morning when the office opened and an interesting thing happened. 36 people were allowed to walk through the door. The line which had been a persistent presence outside the building disappeared. The line did not reappear when checked throughout the day.
9 comments:
So the only line was before they opened? Not sure that is newsworthy.
7:19, I think it's noteworthy that there's no way to apply for survivors benefits online, no way to make an appointment online, and the often when people call for appointments they are told that the calendar is full for any dates that can be scheduled.
I am also surprised that SSA and state courts can't do more data sharing so that it's easier to get a new Social Security card when there is a marriage, divorce, or other legal name change.
anon@7:19am,
Uh, they checked back the NEXT DAY and the lines were gone.
I'm sure some management moron saw the reporter and news crew out front and flipped out. They probably assigned every available body to work the windows to make sure the lines went away to eliminate the embarrassment of yet another failure to hide how truly badly the agency is mismanaged.
"We can't quite explain it, but there was a line there when it was closed, but when the office opened, the line mysteriously vanished"
SSA wants to automate/self service SSN cards to the extent possible. Onboarding states to do so is the challenge. There may be legal hurdles for the state. The data may not be centralized that it can be accessed to verify electronically. SSA can want it, that doesn't mean the states are prepared to provide it. No change replacements went behind mySSA in 2015 - still not totally rolled out nationwide because of state challenges. Name change due to marriage rolled out in April 2022 for select states. SSA is doing its part.
@328pm That would be a lot of sharing. Divorce documents are held at county level.
It's taken many years for states to share information about birth records and last I checked that is only to verify a record, not look one up.
Marriage records used to be requested from the county where the license was obtained which is usually the same as the place the ceremony was performed.
No excuse for no appointments available other than lack of manpower to take those claims.
Very newsworthy @ 7:19. It's getting cold now even out here in SoCali especially in the mornings. Having these poor souls freeze in the cold months or bake in the warm months is beyond the pale. But really not the local SSA fault. The appointment thing is the key. The SSA, however, can provide water, shelter or canopies if they want. The security guards can help. Get it done.
Social distancing has not been employed in the lobbies for quite some time now, so there should not be lines out the door any longer.
The field offices here strongly encourage appointments
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