From AARP:
We’re asking the Social Security Administration (SSA) to put customer service on the front burner now that Congress and the Biden administration have approved a $785 million budget increase for the agency.
AARP members sent Congress more than 200,000 emails last year urging it to approve more funding for customer service issues amid historically high wait times and a backlog in disability claims. The agency primarily blamed the delays on years of understaffing and insufficient funds. ...We wrote to SSA Acting Commissioner Kilolo Kijakazi last week, urging her to make customer service a top priority in the operating plan the agency is required to submit to Congress next month as part of the recently approved 2023 spending bill. ...
The AARP is a shell of its former self. If they were truly advocates for retirees, they would be putting out a press release criticizing Congress for effectively cutting SSA's budget. Instead they appeal to the LCD by pretending that the agency's budget, in inflation adjusted terms, was increased and that the public should somehow expect service to improve. That's magical thinking.
ReplyDeleteAARP started with good intentions, lets be the voice of aging America. Then someone looked at AARP and said..."hmmm we can make some money off of this by endorsing and lending our name to things." So now we have AARP UnitedHealthcare. AARP isnt going to say or do anything that is going to stop the money flowing. People are catching on and the prestige is fading like a summer romance.
ReplyDeleteExactly, AARP has been captured and is now more a mouthpiece and lobbying assister for all the insurance companies hawking questionable (or worse), e.g., Medicare Advantage plans and whatnot. And cheap cruises! It is in no way the serious NGO advocating for the aged it (maybe?) used to be originally.
ReplyDeletePart of the backlog on disability claims is futzing around in an atmosphere of we must prevent waste and abuse and only approving people for disability beyond a reasonable doubt. They get approved when hoops are run out of for people to jump through. Blame on front line SS workers in misplaced. AARP needs to get educated on the real problems with SSA.
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