What she said~I used them when it was time for me to transition from ACA to Medicare and they were very helpful and made a dizzying series of choices actually clear and easy to navigate. Here’s who I used:
Free, trained, under state aegis. Not in anyway a broker or agent, they have no pecuniary interest. And it is important to do it correctly right out of the chute or it can cost you in penalties or higher preminuims later.
albertatech made a short on it.
My experience was not great. The SHIP representative I met with did not really know much.
I felt sad when I left and decided I would try the brokers next but haven’t got that far besides a telephone call yet.
Someone at work claims to know a retired nurse who might be able to help explain more of this madness to me.
I’m sorry this was your experience. I would try again. They’re volunteers, and as in all things, there are good ones and bad ones. You may have caught a less experienced person.
Probably time for us to get back on topic. This is a side discussion that belongs in a different thread if we carry on with it.
A long time ago, the county my wife and I work for (combined 75 years) opted out of SS. Employees got their own accounts. IRAs really. So instead of paying into SS, we paid ourselves. It’s our money.
One other Colorado county did this. My understanding is that it was a one time deal.
Providing the Trump ‘administration’ doesn’t totally jack up IRA’s, we should be ok without SS. But that’s kind of a big if. I suspect they are going to try to steal that too.
We have a financial advisor to help with all this crap.
I also believe that Trump and Co. believe they are the ones that deserve the money. And that everyone else is certainly siting around on 5 million bucks.
Has your county or equivalent got an Office for the Aging? They may be able to help.
I would touch base with the County, a good idea really thorny. Some counties should at least be able to point you in the right direction.
@Ellecram
I think, perhaps, you are looking for palliative care or similar.
Your 80 year old mom can not handle this.
When my mother… got to the edge, it was right when COVID struck. I live 100 miles away, but I can work from anywhere.
But I was 60 years old. I’m a pretty big strong guy, my mom weighed 100 lbs wet. So I managed to wrangle her and the wheel chair. Doc appointments and stuff.
I wish you the best. I’m not going to say I understand YOUR situation. But I knew mine very, very well. It can be a hard road.
My Medicare goes live on Tuesday. I’ve had all the ID cards (Medicare, Supplement, and Part D coverage) for almost two months. Hopefully there’s nothing Doge can do in the next two days to screw it up.
I’m a retired Federal employee, drawing a federal pension. I never worked under SocSec long enough to earn the required credits, but I do have Medicare. Due to the Government Pension Offset provision I was not eligible for any survivor benefit payment on my late wife’s account. The recent Social Security Fairness Act repealed the GPO, so I am now eligible for those benefits.
Thursday I have a telephone appointment to apply for survivor benefits. At the time I made the appointment I was assured that everything would be handled by telephone and mail, and there would be no need for me to go to the office (which is good, because I would have to use Uber to do so). I’m waiting to see if this will still be the case, and how long the process will take.
I’ve been saying since IRA’s were invented that the rich ol’ boys were going to try to find a way to take them because there’s no way they can stand seeing money “just sitting around” accumulating interest for someone else.
I’m beginning to understand why stuff mattresses with money used to be so popular.
I just completed this process. Assuming they haven’t overhauled this in the week between now and your phone appointment this should be true.
Have a copy of your wife’s documents to hand - they ask questions to confirm identity such as birth date, date of death, and deceased spouse’s social security number.
After your phone meeting is completed they will ask for an original of your marriage certificate. You do have the option to mail that into them, but if so include a self-addressed stamped envelope to ensure return (and follow any other instructions given to the letter).
I choose to take mine in person to my local SSA office, but in my case I have a working car, it’s close, and I did it easily after one of my work shifts. Only waited about 5 minutes, then it was done.
Shortly after I made the appointment I got a notice with a list of documents I would need to have to hand for the appointment. When my wife died I had applied for the lump sum death benefit, so they may have some of that already in her file. Fortunately, when I had gone to Chicago last year to get my birth certificate for my passport I also made a point of getting certified copies of every other document I could think of ever needing.
It’s one of the roots of the ‘investor’ class’s desire to see SS privatized. They think they have the right to gamble with the money set aside for your retirement and charge you for it to boot.
“We are no longer planning to issue press releases or those dear colleague letters to inform the media and public about programmatic and service changes,” said SSA regional commissioner Linda Kerr-Davis in a meeting with managers earlier this week. “Instead, the agency will be using X to communicate to the press and the public … so this will become our communication mechanism.”
Previously, the agency used dear colleague letters to engage with advocacy groups and third-party organizations that help people access social security benefits. Recent letters covered everything from the agency’s new identity verification procedures to updates on the accuracy of SSA death records (“less than one-third of 1 percent are erroneously reported deaths that need to be corrected,” the agency wrote
I expect most of us agree that the government should use multiple communication channels instead.
We should call this what it is: a favor from Donald Trump to his good buddy Elon Musk in order to help the latter’s engagement and subscriber numbers. Anything else requires ignoring the entire concept of context.
This harkens back to the era of party-owned newspaper, when the “official organ” for government announcements would change whenever a new administration came in (usually on the local or state level). Corrupt as hell back then, too.
And I expect that the government is going to do whatever the fuck it wants while the rest of us shout “That just ain’t right!” into the wind.
Did anyone else get a weird, propaganda-adjacent email from SSA touting the benefits of that oversized bill that passed yesterday?
Oh, yes. It’s been mentioned in several threads here. I received it last night, and I’m not even receiving Social Security benefits yet.
I got it too and don’t get benefits yet - I’m guessing it got sent to every who signed up for an online SSA account
Well… poo, I didn’t get one.
Although I never have been able to get my on-line account to work. It’s on my List of Important But Not Urgent Things I Really Need to Get Around To Doing In My Non-Existent Copius Spare Time.
I finally got my online account to work a couple months ago after nearly a year of it being inaccessible for whatever reason. At least it works from my work computer. I have not tried it at home.
Royal pain in the butt for sure.