How Governments Make Enemies

There’s nothing that disrupts the serenity of a retired person’s existence quite like the arrival of a form letter from the Social Security Administration saying that your monthly allotment has been suspended.

Particularly when the notice arrives on a weekend, when any sort of help line or office visit is not an option.

No, all you can do is stew about it until Monday, assuming Monday isn’t some sort of federal holiday.

What complicates this experience is the constant drumbeat you get about fraud and how you cannot trust anyone impersonating the Social Security Administration personnel should they contact you.

So what about if you contact them?

Such was the less-than-delightful news on my Saturday morning that my monthly check, due next Wednesday, has been suspended because either my banking information or my address is incorrect.

But my banking information and address have not changed in years and I went on the SSA site, where I verified that they are correct.

The site also verified that my payment has been suspended.

I’m starting to feel like Yossarian in Catch 22.

So I “updated” my information on the site, basically just to confirm it, in the hope that would make a difference.

No luck.

There was nothing else to do until Monday, but stew, which I did all weekend. The SSA ruined my weekend. How can I put a price on that?

And oh, BTW, my bank reports that the Medicare payment has already been deducted from my account this month despite the suspension of the income needed to cover it.

So thanks, Uncle Sam. By the way, you suck. Didn’t anyone teach you to respect the people you serve? You might have at least called. But your call would have been a scam.

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