April 1, 2025 • 40 mins
Boston attorney Jim Roosevelt, grandson of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (who signed the Social Security Act into law) and former associate commissioner of the Social Security Admin. during the Clinton Administration, believes the Trump Admin. is “trying to hollow out Social Security” and “undermine confidence in the system” by weakening the agency that manages the program. Do you think the Trump Admin. is doing more harm than good to the Social Security Admin. or straightening it out for the better? Attorney Roosevelt joined us to discuss!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray I WBS Costs Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Well, thank you very much. Welcome back everyone to hour
number two. Delighted to be joined by Jim Roosevelt. James
Roosevelt who's been a friend for many, many years, and
last night we were supposed to have him, but he
was on a train that ran some transportation problems and Jim,
I trust your off that train. How are you tonight?
Speaker 3 (00:27):
I'm off that train and I slept in my own
bed last night. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Let me tell you. We spoke last night for about
an hour about Social Security, which has obviously had a
lot of a lot of conversation lately dealing with Social Security.
You probably know more about Social Security than anyone that
(00:53):
I know, as the grandson of Franklin Roosevelt, who signed
the Sociecurity Act in five and you've been involved in
insurance and been served as as a commissioner on the
so Security Board. I'd just like to start off with
a couple of questions that I think are foundational. And
(01:16):
I'm not sure most people really understand Social Security, and
I think it's important for people to understand it. I
do social Security system as an insurance program. How far
how far wrong am I on.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
That, and you've got it right. Actually, a lot of
people think of it as a retirement investment program. Apparently
our friend Elon thinks of it that way. That's not
what it is. I'm all for people saving money and
having all kinds of investment accounts, but particularly for one
(01:53):
case and health savings accounts and so on, that's not
what social Security is. Social Security, as my grand father said,
is insurance against destitution in old age, or in disability,
or from the loss of a parent. It's fundamentally it's
(02:13):
just like your homeowner's insurance, your auto insurance, or even
your health insurance. You buy insurance, you spread out the
risk when you need to need payments, either of your
age or because of a disability or something like that.
The people who currently are paying premiums.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Pay for that.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
But it's not a Ponzi scheme. As Elon decided to
call it. That indicated he either doesn't understand what Social
Security is or he doesn't understand what a Ponzi scheme is.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
I also look at it as a besides being an
insurance program, it's also a contract. I don't want to
take it to the level of it being a social contract.
But I think it's a contract where if you pay
in and you work the requisite number of years, which
is ten years or forty quarters upon a certain time,
(03:10):
you then are able to receive some retirement benefits. So
I see it as kind of twofold insurance and contractual. Yes.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
No, so, yeah, social security. A lot of people kind
of shigh away from the term social contract, but it's
a contract between you as a worker and other workers
represented by the government. Basically, you pay your fair share,
(03:40):
you expect to get your fair share of benefits.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Yeah, so there's sort of these dual elements of it.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Now.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
I know that a lot of people are pretty freaked
out about some of the stories that have been written
into the newspaper. In the newspapers recently, I referenced last
night not only your experience, but also the piece that
now I guess is I'm not sure if it's hit
the Globe yet or not, but there's there's a piece
(04:08):
with you in the in the Globe, and I'm not
sure if it's in the digital edition or if we'll
get it tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Was updated, it's only been in the in the digital edition.
You're right, you know that I know that because we
still look at the great edition, right.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yes, of course, of course, of course we're of the
same uh, the same vintage Jim Roosevelt. So uh that.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Robert Reisman of the Globe staff, uh has has this
piece which I suspect will be in the paper tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Sean Murphy wrote a piece yesterday, uh, digging into Social Security,
which which looked at a lot of these these issues.
And what troubles me is I I did an hour,
well I did two hours last night on it, and
there were a lot of people who had questions. And
I'm not the expert on soci security. I think I
understand it, but I was trying to sort of assuage
people's apprehensions. I mean, I think people need to be alert,
(05:00):
People need to be aware of what's going on. You yourself,
you know, not only again you served you're an Associate
Commissioner for retirement policy at the Social Security Administration. It's
been headed by Republicans and Democrats. Jim Astrew is a
friend of mine who was the Social Security Commissioner cast
(05:22):
My Gaster. I apologize, I apologize. I was thinking of
his son. Actually they went to school together at Roxbury
Latin School. So that's what happened. You you you missed,
but he's uh, he was a George Bush forty three appointee,
if I recall.
Speaker 5 (05:37):
Yeah, correct and R and so this is this has
become this political issue with you know, Elon Musk having
been injected.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Into the middle of it. And I'm just wondering if uh,
I don't know anybody who is in favor of waste
and uh and you know, wasteful spending and fraud. So
I'm assuming everyone would like to see any waste of
fraud that is identified cleaned up. But how much waste
(06:12):
of fraud? I've read enough of your piece yesterday. You
don't think there's a lot of waste and fraud. There
may be mistakes, there may be some people who are
on the system who shouldn't be, but the Republicans have
made and matter of fact, President Trump in his speech
to the Joint Session of Congress made that comment that
(06:34):
they were like, I don't know, three five thousand people
over the age of one hundred and fifty did you
watch that speech? And if you did, I'd love to
know what your reaction was to it, because I think
what the President was saying clearly clearly was misleading.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Well, I did watch the speech, and I'm not going
to comment on my views overall. I'll just on Social
Security mislet someone misled him on that what he was taking.
He seemed to say that there was this large number
of people over getting benefits over the age of one
(07:11):
hundred and fifty. There is nobody getting benefits in that category.
First of all, when you reach out when the records
show that you reached one hundred and fifteen, your benefits
automatically stop and they will reach out to you and say,
show us that you're still alive. Okay, So it's just
mechanically impossible. But secondly, the reason it appears that way,
(07:35):
and this is the problem with what the kids and
I do mean kids. If you consider a nineteen twenty
twenty one year old a kid, which I do. When
the kids go in and don't really understand something, they
make mistakes and they have not had enough experience to say,
(07:55):
wait a minute, that doesn't compute. They also don't takes
the time. You know, the Silicon Valley is saying work
fast and break things. Well, they work fast and they
don't ask, well, why would it show up that there's
that many people that old. Well, it's because so Security
(08:16):
had one of the first totally computer based systems for
doing people's benefits. It's written in a computer language that
was invented fifty or sixty years ago, invented actually by
a team led by the first female admiral ever, Grace Hopper,
and there was no setting in that language to insert
(08:39):
the date when people when people were born. So they
made up a date as a default and they picked
a date sometime in the eighteen eighties so that people
wouldn't get confused. Yeah, there was no default date. If
you had a date, it was okay, But there was
no default date.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
So one would characterize that, and I've characterized it to
the dismay of some of my listeners as in effect
what would be called a coding error.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
That's exactly what it will was. And it's not that
it was somebody's fault. It's that the code at that
point did not allow for a default date, and so
that all the people who had signed up for SOCI
Security before there was computer code were listed on this
data in eighteen eighty okay. And it doesn't impact benefits
(09:31):
at all, because, as I say, there's automatic cutoffs, and
in general, Social Security has the Master Death List, where
almost every death that occurs in the United States is
reported to Social Security.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
Right.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
I learned that the other day as I was doing
some research on it. I did not realize as an
obligation of funeral homes to file a report of someone's passing.
I was unaware of that.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
That is absolutely right, Yeah, that's absolutely right. That is
a major source. But state medical examiners and departments of
public health are also required to report.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Now, I assume that if there's some people living in
the wiles of Montana and someone passes away and there's
no I guess it's conceivable that someone could be buried
out on the back forty and a nice you headstone there,
but the government would not know that. So there could
(10:28):
be theoretically a handful of people here or there. But
those people, if they were getting so Security checks every
month for someone who had not been reported had passed,
and if they were crazy enough to cash those checks,
they're involved. They're committing fraud against the government, cashing a
(10:49):
check on behalf of someone other than themselves.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Correct, they would end up in federal court charged with
a crime. Absolutely so Okay. Another little known fact people
don't know, and another reason that there is so little
fraud at Social Security is so Security has its own
police force that goes after things like this. It works
(11:13):
out of the Inspector General's office, but they're actually Social
Security police that investigate things like this. And there are
a few people who try to defraud the system. The
most notorious one is when people try to have checks
diverted to their bank account by stealing people's bank account
(11:34):
and social security numbers. When I was, as you remember, Dan,
when I ran tough self planned, one day a couple
of Social Security police officers showed up at the front
desk and they called me from down there and said,
we've got a couple of people here who say there
are Social Security police officers. And I said, yeah, I
(11:54):
know what that is. You do, Yes, I do from
when I worked to work there, And so we talked
with them about My general counsel joined me in talking
with them, and they said, we think three of your
employees are taking screenshots of people's health plan records to
get their day to birth, their social Security number, and
(12:15):
their and their bank account numbers and diverting checks there.
And they investigated they had arrested three health plan employees
on the spot and ultimately prosecuted them and they went
to prison. Okay, this is not like, you know, like
just let it go.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
No, I just did it because obviously, if money is misdirected,
or if there are those engaged in fraud, that means
that So Security has less funds available to pay out
to people who either have a disability, you know, or
the surviving spouse of someone who hadn't worked, or a retiree.
(12:54):
My guest is Jim Rosell. As you can tell, he
knows a lot about this subject. And I have tried
to cut through the statements that has been made that
have been made by the Trump administration, and I have
not taken any of them on face value, and every
one that I have tried to investigate. The latest one
(13:16):
that they have, which I'm going to ask Jim if
if he's heard about it, is that some of the
folks who have come in in the last few years
have been given Social Security numbers even though they are
not US citizens. Now, those comments were made by Musk,
I believe over the weekend in Wisconsin. Jim, I don't
know if you're up to date on those or not.
But I wanted to ask you about those on the
(13:36):
other side because it seems to me that the burden
of proof does risk rest with the Trump administration. And
when I as go back to the to the speech
the President made to the Joint Session of Congress, when
he was going on with those numbers, I thought to myself,
this cannot be true. It just cannot be true, or
(13:57):
people would know about it, because if people were ripping
off the government, they would tell their friends. Hey, it's easy.
So if you like to ask Jim Roosevelt a question
about Social Security, and I want to get into some
of the plans. There are our offices that are going
to be closed. There's going to be a couple of
changes that are significant regarding a telephone access, when you
have when you want to change your depositor bank. We'll
(14:20):
go through all of that and take your questions along
the way. My name is Dan Ray. This is Nightsime.
My guess is Jim Rosevelt, who knows probably more about
Social Security than anyone I know. Six one, seven, two, five,
four ten thirty, six one seven, nine, three, one, ten
thirty Those are the numbers that get you through. Jim
will stay with us until ten o'clock and he's he's
agreed to do an hour and take some phone calls.
(14:41):
So if you want to ask a question, now is
the time I learned in law school. As I've told
you many times, there are no such things as dumb questions.
The only dumb questions the ones you don't have the
courage to ask, because those are the ones that show
up in the midterm of the final exam. Trust me, back,
couldn't That's through Jim, It's through back, couldn't that side?
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Right after of this, you're on Night Side with Dan
Ray on Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
My guest is Jim Roosevelt, the grandson of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
He certainly understands the Social Security system. He worked as
an Associate Commissioner for Retirement Policy for soci Security Administration
before joining Tough's Health Plan as their senior vice president
and general counsel. Now, I don't want to put you
(15:31):
on the spot here, but there was some comments made
I think at a campaign rally in Wisconsin. They're having
a fight out there for one of these they elect
their state Supreme Court justices. In response and putting that aside,
and over the weekend, either Elon Musk or one of
his associates claimed that they had found a lot of
(15:52):
people who were getting Social Security benefits who had been
given Social Security numbers by the bidenministration, but people who
are here illegally. Is there any substance to that. If
you haven't heard about it, there's no reason for you
to comment on it.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
But I did hear about it over the weekend, so
I did some checking yesterday because the numbers didn't make
sense to me, and they were large numbers. What I
found out is these are people who legally got Social
Security cards because and they would get them now under
(16:27):
the Trump administration. It's not a political Like almost everything
within Social Security, it's actually not a political issue. It's
actually an administrative issue. If you are here legally on
a visa that lets you work, and you get a
Green card, you are required to get a Social Security
number so that when you work, you pay taxes and
(16:52):
your employer pays taxes. So that's what these numbers are. Again,
this is a matter of not understanding what they're dealing
with fair enough.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
I mean, the numbers that they threw out there are
are astonishing if true. But but again I think you've
You've given an explanation, and let's we have full lines.
Let's see what some of our callers want to talk about.
And what I'm going to do is just take a
very quick pause. We have to break for the news
at the bottom of the hour. I wanted to get
rid of that question. Uh, some of these questions might
(17:23):
be with their own circumstances. Again, if you can help
them and guide them, that's great. I do know that
there will be some Social Security offices closed if the
DOGE team has their way, And I do know that
I believe you can help me here on this one.
That some of the telephone services that were available before
(17:45):
today no longer can be accomplished over the phone. Most specifically,
if you want to change the bank that where your
so security check is deposited directly. My correct on that
that now people once they want to change their bank,
theoretically an effort to avoid people becoming the victims of fraud,
they have to go to the to a Social Security
(18:08):
office and make that request in person.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
That is the rule that has been announced by the
Acting Commissioner appointed by Musk and Trump. And actually I
don't think that's a bad rule if you really want
to know. Okay, there, it's not so security fraud, it's
bank fraud. Okay. And yes, you can ask enough questions
(18:34):
on the phone to eliminate ninety nine point nine percent
of the fraud. But the point one percent people pretty
unhappy if someone gets their so security check. So I
actually think that one's okay.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Okay, Well again, I think that's when I hear you
say that, that means a lot to me. So we'll
take a quick break. We've got a news break coming up,
and I'm going to ask everyone who wants to get
on the line if you have a question, great, not
here to debate Jim Roosevelt. Please, you don't want to
make that mistake. If you have a question, more than
(19:08):
happy to entertain the question. And we'll try to get
to as many callers as we can between now and
ten o'clock right after this.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Quickness, and we can talk about the office closures when
we come back.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Yes, absolutely, that's that's that's another one that we can
that we will hit upon, that's for sure. Back on
night Side right after this.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's News Radio with.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Me's Jim Roosevelt. Jim, we wanted to talk about there
will be some office closures, which I don't know how
much inconvenience. It's impossible to even anticipate how much inconvenience
that will cause people. But I guess if they're going
to cut back staff, and they have there will be
there will be fewer office closures.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
Your comments on those, so be the doge kids that
I call them, release a long list of offices that
are going to be closed. Some of them were regular
field offices, like you having many cities and towns, including
Cambridge where I live. Some of them were hearing offices
where you go when you appeal a denial of disability
(20:14):
benefits or some problem with your retirement benefits. The list
as it first came out was very long, many closures.
Some of them did not make sense geographically. Some of them,
as you say, are going to be necessary if they're
going to cut the staff. They have proposed cutting the
(20:35):
staff by twelve percent, and SOUB Security was already at
a bare bone staffing, the lowest staffing in the history
of the agency, while having the highest number of beneficiaries
in the history of the agency. So if they're going
to cut the staff. They probably do need to close
some offices. They've already pulled back on some of those
(20:55):
that we understand that that would be too much of
a burden on people. I think there will be more changes,
but people should stay alert on that.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Okay, And one final question. I was able to a
few years ago create my own social security my personal
social Security account. It's called a free insecure of my
Social Security. My understanding is that if you have a
my Social Security account, you have already proven your identity
to the government satisfactorily that if I were to move
(21:29):
and have to change my bank deposit, if you have
a my Social Security account, you can do that electronically.
You do not have to visit an office. Am I
correct in that?
Speaker 3 (21:41):
That is the current state of the rules?
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (21:45):
That works great for somebody who's computer savvy, even to
a basic degree like me, and I suspect you.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Let me tell you it was. It was not a
walk in the park, but I was able to accomplish
it myself.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
I feel about things thought on computer right. So if
you can do that, yeah, you're all set. But not
everybody can do that. And that's why again, cutting staff
is going to be a problem.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Yeah, and I hope I hope that some of the
senior centers and some of the senior organizations with every community,
we'll learn how to do that and help people and
walk them through it. Let's go to phone calls, my friend,
we got a lot of people want to talk with you.
Let me start it off with and again, I'm going
to ask everyone please, we're not looking at debates, questions, comments.
(22:37):
I'm going to move through a lot of callers quickly.
Let me start it off with John and Boston. John,
go right ahead, You're on with Jim Roosevelt.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
Yeah, h good evening, good evening.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Sure.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
I'm wonder if you could just mention what is the
difference between the three types of social securities? Is A
d I is as regular social security that I might
know it as and SSI Because I know on the SSI,
I am not allowed to leave the country more than
thirty days. If I do, we'll take it away from me.
I'm not allowed to have more than two thousands of
the banks. And okay, let's.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Explain that before we get to your situation. John. Let's
get Jimmy. You're familiar with those specific categories. Can you
comment on those.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
I am yes. A basic part of social Security is
Social Security Disability Insurance ssd I, and that's you applied
if you're disabled or injured, and there are a lot
of rules to follow because you have to demonstrate that
you are unable to work in order to get it.
(23:41):
But that's the basic disability coverage. Then there there is SSI,
which actually is not related to pardon me, yeah, what
is the difference.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
He's about to explain it, John, Just hold on, okay,
go ahead, go ahead, Please get this.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
So FFI is something totally different. That's Supplemental Security Income
and it is essentially an income, an income replacement program.
It's not an arned benefit like the rest of Social Security.
It depends on a means test and it's not funded
(24:21):
out of the Trust Fund of Social Security. It's appropriated
by Congress out of the general budget. So that's a
separate thing. And then there is a Supplemental Disability Income,
which if you are extremely disabled you can get some
supplemental disability income.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
No, I think you know. I asked if I could
leave the country to go to school another country, and
they said I can't because if I do, I would
lose it.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
Okay, let's see if that's true. Let's see John, Let's
see if that's true.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
Jim Roselt. So you would not lose sociecurity disabilit the
income coverage, but you would lose SSI coverage because that's
to meet your cost of living in this country.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
I wish you would mention there was a woman in you.
I saw this cabinet that doesn't get credit for Social Security.
Her name was Francis Perkins. Do you know can you
mention her?
Speaker 3 (25:20):
I'm actually I actually did a talk last week at
Temple Israel about Francis Perkins with the author of a
new book about her. The new book is called Dear
Miss Perkins.
Speaker 6 (25:33):
UH.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
She was the only she was the first woman ever
in a presidential cabinet. She was the only person in
all four cabinets of my of the New Deal administrations.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
UH.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
And she was a real hero. The dear Miss Perkins
are people who would write about UH, people particularly children
and Jewish people who were displaced by the Nazis, and
they would write and say, dear miss Perkins, and you
help us get refugee status. And she particularly helped those people.
So she was a wonderful wonderful hero. She was also
(26:09):
controversial in her time because she tried to expand people's
access to benefits, even with an attempt to impeach her,
which failed. Fortunately she but my grandfather did not walk
away from her. He kept her in the cabinet even
though people went after her.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
John great questions. Thank you much for your call. Let
me go next to Kathleen and Melrose. Kathleen, you're next time,
Nisager right ahead.
Speaker 7 (26:34):
Hi, thanks for taking this call. I have a quick
question at specifics, so tell me if you can answer
it or not. I'm calling for my mom. She's eighty
three years old. She lives in California, and my father
died of a surprise heart attack when she was fifty three.
She's been a school teacher her whole life, which means
she paid She doesn't get Social Security because she paid
into the California state.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Whatever she does know she does now but glhead.
Speaker 7 (26:57):
Okay, so that's where I'm going with this. So my
dad was in sales his whole life and had his
pension was literally like twenty eight dollars a month.
Speaker 8 (27:07):
I mean, it was crazy.
Speaker 7 (27:08):
Anyway, her George for a very poor school district, and
her retirement plan has been like twenty seven thousand dollars
a year in total, so she's never gotten SOID security.
Apparently it's happening now she's over the moon at age
eighty three. She's going to start getting something like I
don't know, fifteen hundred dollars a month. And someone just said,
(27:29):
oh my goodness, I heard about that, and their mother
same situation school nurse paid into the schools here in Massachusetts.
She not only is going to be getting like thirteen
hundred dollars a month, but she got a check for like,
I don't know, twelve thousand dollars. Is like a catchup
because her.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
I know a little bit about that. Jim probably knows more,
but I think those checks were more in the vicinity
of about five thousand dollars because it was ketchup from
last January January twenty twenty four, Jim, I'm sure you
got a better answer, Goretta.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
Well, so, starting in nineteen eighty three, when they made
a whole lot of changes in the Social Security law,
people who worked for state and local governments that had
chosen not to participate in Social Security were penalized, not
just because they didn't get Social Security since they hadn't
paid their Social Security tax and their employer had not,
(28:25):
but they were penalized on not getting their spouses of
benefits either. With some small exceptions. The law change was
changed by Congress about six or seven months ago. It's
great news for people. And that large check is because
it took so long to pass the law that it
(28:47):
actually went into effect a year before it passed. It
was retroactive, and so that's catch up for that year.
Speaker 7 (28:56):
Okay, so the catchup was one year. Her husband happened
to passed away recently, so they thought it was and
I thought, oh my goodness, there's no chance they're going
to give my mom thirty years.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
But the catchup, that's right. The catch up is one year.
And what it does, it's not it doesn't just give
people those security benefits who hadn't paid in to Social Security,
but if they had a spouse, it gives the benefits
from their spouse, correct, whereas they were deprived of those before.
Speaker 7 (29:29):
Yeah, because my mom was like.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Keathley, I hate to do this to you, but I
got a whole bunch of callers and I think we
got an answer for you. So I got to let
you go. Thank you, Kathleen, appreciate it. We've got to
take a quick commercial break back with Jim Roosevelt's going
to get try to get everyone in. That's why it's important.
Everybody has to get a couple of minutes. I wish
I could give everybody twenty minutes. I can't do that
in fairness. Back on nights Side right after.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
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Speaker 1 (32:26):
It's night Side with Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
I'm gonna try madily to get four callers in for you, toub.
Let's see what we can do. You're gonna go to
David in San Francisco. David questioned a comment right.
Speaker 13 (32:39):
Ahead, Yes, Dan, thank you for taking my calls. I
want to thank you for your grandfather was just He
did everything he used to put colb the country together.
Kind of victory in your oppression, Dallas Francis Perkins. However,
my question, sir, is do you have any suggestive things
(33:02):
for me so I can get to the handicapped portion
of Social Security.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
Yes. On the Social Scurity website there is affection regarding
disability access and you should go to that. If you
don't find what you're looking for, I do recommend that
you make an appointment out of SOBI Security Field Office.
The agents there are trained to help you access the
(33:32):
disability benefits.
Speaker 13 (33:34):
All right, thank you, thank you very much, Thank you, David.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Appreciate the quickness of the call. Appreciate it. Let me
go next to Larry and down to the Cape. Larry
next on Nightside with Jim Rosevelke right a head talking
about social security.
Speaker 6 (33:46):
Yes, about ten years ago, my wife and I went
down to the Hyenna's office to sign up the social security.
She had her own statement and I had mine, and
we went in and we signed up for it. And
that's what we were informed that. Unfortunately, my wife was
involved with that WEP because she was a teacher, but
she also had a social security also paid into social Security,
(34:07):
so she had her own statement. So he said, and
I don't know if this was the proper advice at
that time, he said, my wife is better off collecting
on her social security statement. I collect on mine and
then when she's seventy switch it over and what happened
was then COVID came and then I got sick. Long
story short, I have an appointment now coming up next month.
(34:30):
I couldn't make I couldn't reach anybody by phone. I
did it online and I got an email and a
text saying it's going to be a telephone appointment. Is
that the case now? And should my wife switch over
to collect half of mine? That's what I want to do,
because I'm collecting more than hers.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
I would say, do the telephone thing, Larry, and I'm
sure Jim will have a better answer. But do the
telephone thing. Have your wife with you at the time
of the telephone thing so both of you can be available.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
Jim, yes that Dan, You're exactly right. It has all
changed with the web as you referred to. It is
the windfall Elimination provision, and that is part of what
was changed by Congress about six or seven months ago.
So it's worth taking another look at it. It might
(35:20):
still be the same as it was before, but it
might be better to do it differently. So it's a
good idea to have that telephone appointment. A telephone appointment
is probably just as good as an in person appointment
and they can get the details that I don't have here.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
So make sure your wife, Jim, Jim, Jim Rothera, Larry,
make sure your wife is there because the time that.
Speaker 6 (35:45):
You get we're both going to be there. But doesn't
it make sense for me to switch her to half
of mine? It's another two one do dollars a month.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Let them run the actual numbers and tell you.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
Let them do the analysis. Okay, thanks mis s calculator,
good night, real quickly get Marrian Moubern. Gary next on
Nice How with Jim Rosow. Go ahead, Gary, gotta be quick.
Speaker 8 (36:04):
Yes, I have a quick question. I'll just take the
answer of the year. I'm going to be taking to
an application on the phone tomorrow. So sixty one sixty
two in May. They said my fresh check will be
in July for fourteen hundred dollars a month. Jim, could
you tell me all the other benefits are involved where
I'll be also just getting a check?
Speaker 3 (36:21):
Thank you. So I think you should keep in mind
that if you start taking benefits at sixty two what
you're entitled to do, you will get a lower benefit
than if you wait until your full retirement age, which
is probably sixty seven and a half in your age
(36:42):
bracket or a seventy when you'd get the highest benefit.
But if you want the benefit now, you can take
that cut and eventually when you hit seventy, they will
adjust it to get you up with the full benefit.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
All right, I hope you heard that answer. Gary. Thank
you for the quickness of the call. Quickly, let me
go to Michael and Attenborough. Michael, you got to be
quick for me. Got one out of call here. Please
go ahead, Michael.
Speaker 6 (37:10):
Yeah, sir, I think you answer my question, but I
want to ask you directly. My wife passed about six
months ago. She worked for the state.
Speaker 14 (37:21):
They said, if you're not married at the time you're working,
your husband's not entitled to any benefits. And I didn't
realize maybe Social she did get a little bit of
Social Does that only mean my pension?
Speaker 6 (37:36):
I did call Social Security office and they said, no,
she's not.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
But I suspect that not everyone knows the rules, So
I'm sorry for your loss. First of all, this is
really a state pension question more than a Social Security question.
Getting the Social Security benefit is not dependent on being
married at the time you were working. Getting the state
(38:03):
pensure benefit is right right.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Well, Michael, I can't get into it much more deeply.
I think when you talk to the people, you've got
to explain your specific situation.
Speaker 6 (38:18):
Right, Okay, thank you very much, by bye.
Speaker 3 (38:21):
And the change in the law might help you. We'll see.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
Okay, hope you heard that. Let me go to Brenda
on the Cape. Brenda, you the last call of the hour.
Speaker 4 (38:27):
Go right ahead, Brenda, by Dan, how are you?
Speaker 15 (38:31):
I want to just call? I was listening to you
tonight and heard the conversation about the Social Security offices closing,
and I just happened to be online with them the
other day and they put out a press release dated
in March twenty seventh stating that none of the offices
are going to be permanently closing. That all you're hearing
is false.
Speaker 8 (38:51):
So I would encourage.
Speaker 15 (38:53):
People to go to the site and read what I
just read.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
That's partly correct. I would say some will be, but
some of them will be just temporary as well.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Yeah. Thinks a political process that's going on, and Congress
may step into some of this as well. Brenda. Thank you, Bob,
thank you for that information. We talked a little bit
about that last night, as well, because I think we
all need to kind of calm down a little bit.
And you know, it may not be the Trump administration
may not get everything they want. Here is what I'm
trying to say.
Speaker 15 (39:27):
Okay, simplest thanks, that's right, and the more information that's
out there for everyone to know about it think is better.
Speaker 8 (39:34):
We thank you, appreciate it.
Speaker 15 (39:36):
So nice to talk to you.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Good to talk with you as well, Jim Roosevelt. Delightful
to talk with you. Thank you for your time, and
thank you for what you've done over the years for
for people you know, in and and out of government.
I really do appreciate our friendship as well.
Speaker 3 (39:52):
I appreciate it very much as well. And I always
enjoyed talking with you, Dan and with your listeners.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
And we'll keep in touch, and who knows, a couple
three months down the road, we may revisit this if
circumstances change, if that.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
Would work for you, happy to do it.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
Thank you much, Jim Roosevelt, Ladies and gentlemen, a friend
for many years and someone who is just a font
of great information, and I hope all of you if
maybe your question wasn't asked, you might have bet your
question might have been asked by someone else. We're coming
back on Nightside, going to talk about the decision of
the Attorney General today to seek the death penalty against
Luigi Mangioni. I think you know who he is. He's
(40:32):
the guy that killed the insurance executive in New York
City on December fourth. I don't have a big problem
with that. Left to know what you think. Coming back
on Nightside,
It's Night Side with Dan Ray I WBS Costs Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Well, thank you very much. Welcome back everyone to hour
number two. Delighted to be joined by Jim Roosevelt. James
Roosevelt who's been a friend for many, many years, and
last night we were supposed to have him, but he
was on a train that ran some transportation problems and Jim,
I trust your off that train. How are you tonight?
Speaker 3 (00:27):
I'm off that train and I slept in my own
bed last night. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Let me tell you. We spoke last night for about
an hour about Social Security, which has obviously had a
lot of a lot of conversation lately dealing with Social Security.
You probably know more about Social Security than anyone that
(00:53):
I know, as the grandson of Franklin Roosevelt, who signed
the Sociecurity Act in five and you've been involved in
insurance and been served as as a commissioner on the
so Security Board. I'd just like to start off with
a couple of questions that I think are foundational. And
(01:16):
I'm not sure most people really understand Social Security, and
I think it's important for people to understand it. I
do social Security system as an insurance program. How far
how far wrong am I on.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
That, and you've got it right. Actually, a lot of
people think of it as a retirement investment program. Apparently
our friend Elon thinks of it that way. That's not
what it is. I'm all for people saving money and
having all kinds of investment accounts, but particularly for one
(01:53):
case and health savings accounts and so on, that's not
what social Security is. Social Security, as my grand father said,
is insurance against destitution in old age, or in disability,
or from the loss of a parent. It's fundamentally it's
(02:13):
just like your homeowner's insurance, your auto insurance, or even
your health insurance. You buy insurance, you spread out the
risk when you need to need payments, either of your
age or because of a disability or something like that.
The people who currently are paying premiums.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Pay for that.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
But it's not a Ponzi scheme. As Elon decided to
call it. That indicated he either doesn't understand what Social
Security is or he doesn't understand what a Ponzi scheme is.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
I also look at it as a besides being an
insurance program, it's also a contract. I don't want to
take it to the level of it being a social contract.
But I think it's a contract where if you pay
in and you work the requisite number of years, which
is ten years or forty quarters upon a certain time,
(03:10):
you then are able to receive some retirement benefits. So
I see it as kind of twofold insurance and contractual. Yes.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
No, so, yeah, social security. A lot of people kind
of shigh away from the term social contract, but it's
a contract between you as a worker and other workers
represented by the government. Basically, you pay your fair share,
(03:40):
you expect to get your fair share of benefits.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Yeah, so there's sort of these dual elements of it.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Now.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
I know that a lot of people are pretty freaked
out about some of the stories that have been written
into the newspaper. In the newspapers recently, I referenced last
night not only your experience, but also the piece that
now I guess is I'm not sure if it's hit
the Globe yet or not, but there's there's a piece
(04:08):
with you in the in the Globe, and I'm not
sure if it's in the digital edition or if we'll
get it tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Was updated, it's only been in the in the digital edition.
You're right, you know that I know that because we
still look at the great edition, right.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yes, of course, of course, of course we're of the
same uh, the same vintage Jim Roosevelt. So uh that.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Robert Reisman of the Globe staff, uh has has this
piece which I suspect will be in the paper tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Sean Murphy wrote a piece yesterday, uh, digging into Social Security,
which which looked at a lot of these these issues.
And what troubles me is I I did an hour,
well I did two hours last night on it, and
there were a lot of people who had questions. And
I'm not the expert on soci security. I think I
understand it, but I was trying to sort of assuage
people's apprehensions. I mean, I think people need to be alert,
(05:00):
People need to be aware of what's going on. You yourself,
you know, not only again you served you're an Associate
Commissioner for retirement policy at the Social Security Administration. It's
been headed by Republicans and Democrats. Jim Astrew is a
friend of mine who was the Social Security Commissioner cast
(05:22):
My Gaster. I apologize, I apologize. I was thinking of
his son. Actually they went to school together at Roxbury
Latin School. So that's what happened. You you you missed,
but he's uh, he was a George Bush forty three appointee,
if I recall.
Speaker 5 (05:37):
Yeah, correct and R and so this is this has
become this political issue with you know, Elon Musk having
been injected.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Into the middle of it. And I'm just wondering if uh,
I don't know anybody who is in favor of waste
and uh and you know, wasteful spending and fraud. So
I'm assuming everyone would like to see any waste of
fraud that is identified cleaned up. But how much waste
(06:12):
of fraud? I've read enough of your piece yesterday. You
don't think there's a lot of waste and fraud. There
may be mistakes, there may be some people who are
on the system who shouldn't be, but the Republicans have
made and matter of fact, President Trump in his speech
to the Joint Session of Congress made that comment that
(06:34):
they were like, I don't know, three five thousand people
over the age of one hundred and fifty did you
watch that speech? And if you did, I'd love to
know what your reaction was to it, because I think
what the President was saying clearly clearly was misleading.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Well, I did watch the speech, and I'm not going
to comment on my views overall. I'll just on Social
Security mislet someone misled him on that what he was taking.
He seemed to say that there was this large number
of people over getting benefits over the age of one
(07:11):
hundred and fifty. There is nobody getting benefits in that category.
First of all, when you reach out when the records
show that you reached one hundred and fifteen, your benefits
automatically stop and they will reach out to you and say,
show us that you're still alive. Okay, So it's just
mechanically impossible. But secondly, the reason it appears that way,
(07:35):
and this is the problem with what the kids and
I do mean kids. If you consider a nineteen twenty
twenty one year old a kid, which I do. When
the kids go in and don't really understand something, they
make mistakes and they have not had enough experience to say,
(07:55):
wait a minute, that doesn't compute. They also don't takes
the time. You know, the Silicon Valley is saying work
fast and break things. Well, they work fast and they
don't ask, well, why would it show up that there's
that many people that old. Well, it's because so Security
(08:16):
had one of the first totally computer based systems for
doing people's benefits. It's written in a computer language that
was invented fifty or sixty years ago, invented actually by
a team led by the first female admiral ever, Grace Hopper,
and there was no setting in that language to insert
(08:39):
the date when people when people were born. So they
made up a date as a default and they picked
a date sometime in the eighteen eighties so that people
wouldn't get confused. Yeah, there was no default date. If
you had a date, it was okay, But there was
no default date.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
So one would characterize that, and I've characterized it to
the dismay of some of my listeners as in effect
what would be called a coding error.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
That's exactly what it will was. And it's not that
it was somebody's fault. It's that the code at that
point did not allow for a default date, and so
that all the people who had signed up for SOCI
Security before there was computer code were listed on this
data in eighteen eighty okay. And it doesn't impact benefits
(09:31):
at all, because, as I say, there's automatic cutoffs, and
in general, Social Security has the Master Death List, where
almost every death that occurs in the United States is
reported to Social Security.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
Right.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
I learned that the other day as I was doing
some research on it. I did not realize as an
obligation of funeral homes to file a report of someone's passing.
I was unaware of that.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
That is absolutely right, Yeah, that's absolutely right. That is
a major source. But state medical examiners and departments of
public health are also required to report.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Now, I assume that if there's some people living in
the wiles of Montana and someone passes away and there's
no I guess it's conceivable that someone could be buried
out on the back forty and a nice you headstone there,
but the government would not know that. So there could
(10:28):
be theoretically a handful of people here or there. But
those people, if they were getting so Security checks every
month for someone who had not been reported had passed,
and if they were crazy enough to cash those checks,
they're involved. They're committing fraud against the government, cashing a
(10:49):
check on behalf of someone other than themselves.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Correct, they would end up in federal court charged with
a crime. Absolutely so Okay. Another little known fact people
don't know, and another reason that there is so little
fraud at Social Security is so Security has its own
police force that goes after things like this. It works
(11:13):
out of the Inspector General's office, but they're actually Social
Security police that investigate things like this. And there are
a few people who try to defraud the system. The
most notorious one is when people try to have checks
diverted to their bank account by stealing people's bank account
(11:34):
and social security numbers. When I was, as you remember, Dan,
when I ran tough self planned, one day a couple
of Social Security police officers showed up at the front
desk and they called me from down there and said,
we've got a couple of people here who say there
are Social Security police officers. And I said, yeah, I
(11:54):
know what that is. You do, Yes, I do from
when I worked to work there, And so we talked
with them about My general counsel joined me in talking
with them, and they said, we think three of your
employees are taking screenshots of people's health plan records to
get their day to birth, their social Security number, and
(12:15):
their and their bank account numbers and diverting checks there.
And they investigated they had arrested three health plan employees
on the spot and ultimately prosecuted them and they went
to prison. Okay, this is not like, you know, like
just let it go.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
No, I just did it because obviously, if money is misdirected,
or if there are those engaged in fraud, that means
that So Security has less funds available to pay out
to people who either have a disability, you know, or
the surviving spouse of someone who hadn't worked, or a retiree.
(12:54):
My guest is Jim Rosell. As you can tell, he
knows a lot about this subject. And I have tried
to cut through the statements that has been made that
have been made by the Trump administration, and I have
not taken any of them on face value, and every
one that I have tried to investigate. The latest one
(13:16):
that they have, which I'm going to ask Jim if
if he's heard about it, is that some of the
folks who have come in in the last few years
have been given Social Security numbers even though they are
not US citizens. Now, those comments were made by Musk,
I believe over the weekend in Wisconsin. Jim, I don't
know if you're up to date on those or not.
But I wanted to ask you about those on the
(13:36):
other side because it seems to me that the burden
of proof does risk rest with the Trump administration. And
when I as go back to the to the speech
the President made to the Joint Session of Congress, when
he was going on with those numbers, I thought to myself,
this cannot be true. It just cannot be true, or
(13:57):
people would know about it, because if people were ripping
off the government, they would tell their friends. Hey, it's easy.
So if you like to ask Jim Roosevelt a question
about Social Security, and I want to get into some
of the plans. There are our offices that are going
to be closed. There's going to be a couple of
changes that are significant regarding a telephone access, when you
have when you want to change your depositor bank. We'll
(14:20):
go through all of that and take your questions along
the way. My name is Dan Ray. This is Nightsime.
My guess is Jim Rosevelt, who knows probably more about
Social Security than anyone I know. Six one, seven, two, five,
four ten thirty, six one seven, nine, three, one, ten
thirty Those are the numbers that get you through. Jim
will stay with us until ten o'clock and he's he's
agreed to do an hour and take some phone calls.
(14:41):
So if you want to ask a question, now is
the time I learned in law school. As I've told
you many times, there are no such things as dumb questions.
The only dumb questions the ones you don't have the
courage to ask, because those are the ones that show
up in the midterm of the final exam. Trust me, back,
couldn't That's through Jim, It's through back, couldn't that side?
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Right after of this, you're on Night Side with Dan
Ray on Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
My guest is Jim Roosevelt, the grandson of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
He certainly understands the Social Security system. He worked as
an Associate Commissioner for Retirement Policy for soci Security Administration
before joining Tough's Health Plan as their senior vice president
and general counsel. Now, I don't want to put you
(15:31):
on the spot here, but there was some comments made
I think at a campaign rally in Wisconsin. They're having
a fight out there for one of these they elect
their state Supreme Court justices. In response and putting that aside,
and over the weekend, either Elon Musk or one of
his associates claimed that they had found a lot of
(15:52):
people who were getting Social Security benefits who had been
given Social Security numbers by the bidenministration, but people who
are here illegally. Is there any substance to that. If
you haven't heard about it, there's no reason for you
to comment on it.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
But I did hear about it over the weekend, so
I did some checking yesterday because the numbers didn't make
sense to me, and they were large numbers. What I
found out is these are people who legally got Social
Security cards because and they would get them now under
(16:27):
the Trump administration. It's not a political Like almost everything
within Social Security, it's actually not a political issue. It's
actually an administrative issue. If you are here legally on
a visa that lets you work, and you get a
Green card, you are required to get a Social Security
number so that when you work, you pay taxes and
(16:52):
your employer pays taxes. So that's what these numbers are. Again,
this is a matter of not understanding what they're dealing
with fair enough.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
I mean, the numbers that they threw out there are
are astonishing if true. But but again I think you've
You've given an explanation, and let's we have full lines.
Let's see what some of our callers want to talk about.
And what I'm going to do is just take a
very quick pause. We have to break for the news
at the bottom of the hour. I wanted to get
rid of that question. Uh, some of these questions might
(17:23):
be with their own circumstances. Again, if you can help
them and guide them, that's great. I do know that
there will be some Social Security offices closed if the
DOGE team has their way, And I do know that
I believe you can help me here on this one.
That some of the telephone services that were available before
(17:45):
today no longer can be accomplished over the phone. Most specifically,
if you want to change the bank that where your
so security check is deposited directly. My correct on that
that now people once they want to change their bank,
theoretically an effort to avoid people becoming the victims of fraud,
they have to go to the to a Social Security
(18:08):
office and make that request in person.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
That is the rule that has been announced by the
Acting Commissioner appointed by Musk and Trump. And actually I
don't think that's a bad rule if you really want
to know. Okay, there, it's not so security fraud, it's
bank fraud. Okay. And yes, you can ask enough questions
(18:34):
on the phone to eliminate ninety nine point nine percent
of the fraud. But the point one percent people pretty
unhappy if someone gets their so security check. So I
actually think that one's okay.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Okay, Well again, I think that's when I hear you
say that, that means a lot to me. So we'll
take a quick break. We've got a news break coming up,
and I'm going to ask everyone who wants to get
on the line if you have a question, great, not
here to debate Jim Roosevelt. Please, you don't want to
make that mistake. If you have a question, more than
(19:08):
happy to entertain the question. And we'll try to get
to as many callers as we can between now and
ten o'clock right after this.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Quickness, and we can talk about the office closures when
we come back.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Yes, absolutely, that's that's that's another one that we can
that we will hit upon, that's for sure. Back on
night Side right after this.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's News Radio with.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Me's Jim Roosevelt. Jim, we wanted to talk about there
will be some office closures, which I don't know how
much inconvenience. It's impossible to even anticipate how much inconvenience
that will cause people. But I guess if they're going
to cut back staff, and they have there will be
there will be fewer office closures.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
Your comments on those, so be the doge kids that
I call them, release a long list of offices that
are going to be closed. Some of them were regular
field offices, like you having many cities and towns, including
Cambridge where I live. Some of them were hearing offices
where you go when you appeal a denial of disability
(20:14):
benefits or some problem with your retirement benefits. The list
as it first came out was very long, many closures.
Some of them did not make sense geographically. Some of them,
as you say, are going to be necessary if they're
going to cut the staff. They have proposed cutting the
(20:35):
staff by twelve percent, and SOUB Security was already at
a bare bone staffing, the lowest staffing in the history
of the agency, while having the highest number of beneficiaries
in the history of the agency. So if they're going
to cut the staff. They probably do need to close
some offices. They've already pulled back on some of those
(20:55):
that we understand that that would be too much of
a burden on people. I think there will be more changes,
but people should stay alert on that.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Okay, And one final question. I was able to a
few years ago create my own social security my personal
social Security account. It's called a free insecure of my
Social Security. My understanding is that if you have a
my Social Security account, you have already proven your identity
to the government satisfactorily that if I were to move
(21:29):
and have to change my bank deposit, if you have
a my Social Security account, you can do that electronically.
You do not have to visit an office. Am I
correct in that?
Speaker 3 (21:41):
That is the current state of the rules?
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (21:45):
That works great for somebody who's computer savvy, even to
a basic degree like me, and I suspect you.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Let me tell you it was. It was not a
walk in the park, but I was able to accomplish
it myself.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
I feel about things thought on computer right. So if
you can do that, yeah, you're all set. But not
everybody can do that. And that's why again, cutting staff
is going to be a problem.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Yeah, and I hope I hope that some of the
senior centers and some of the senior organizations with every community,
we'll learn how to do that and help people and
walk them through it. Let's go to phone calls, my friend,
we got a lot of people want to talk with you.
Let me start it off with and again, I'm going
to ask everyone please, we're not looking at debates, questions, comments.
(22:37):
I'm going to move through a lot of callers quickly.
Let me start it off with John and Boston. John,
go right ahead, You're on with Jim Roosevelt.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
Yeah, h good evening, good evening.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Sure.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
I'm wonder if you could just mention what is the
difference between the three types of social securities? Is A
d I is as regular social security that I might
know it as and SSI Because I know on the SSI,
I am not allowed to leave the country more than
thirty days. If I do, we'll take it away from me.
I'm not allowed to have more than two thousands of
the banks. And okay, let's.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Explain that before we get to your situation. John. Let's
get Jimmy. You're familiar with those specific categories. Can you
comment on those.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
I am yes. A basic part of social Security is
Social Security Disability Insurance ssd I, and that's you applied
if you're disabled or injured, and there are a lot
of rules to follow because you have to demonstrate that
you are unable to work in order to get it.
(23:41):
But that's the basic disability coverage. Then there there is SSI,
which actually is not related to pardon me, yeah, what
is the difference.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
He's about to explain it, John, Just hold on, okay,
go ahead, go ahead, Please get this.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
So FFI is something totally different. That's Supplemental Security Income
and it is essentially an income, an income replacement program.
It's not an arned benefit like the rest of Social Security.
It depends on a means test and it's not funded
(24:21):
out of the Trust Fund of Social Security. It's appropriated
by Congress out of the general budget. So that's a
separate thing. And then there is a Supplemental Disability Income,
which if you are extremely disabled you can get some
supplemental disability income.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
No, I think you know. I asked if I could
leave the country to go to school another country, and
they said I can't because if I do, I would
lose it.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
Okay, let's see if that's true. Let's see John, Let's
see if that's true.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
Jim Roselt. So you would not lose sociecurity disabilit the
income coverage, but you would lose SSI coverage because that's
to meet your cost of living in this country.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
I wish you would mention there was a woman in you.
I saw this cabinet that doesn't get credit for Social Security.
Her name was Francis Perkins. Do you know can you
mention her?
Speaker 3 (25:20):
I'm actually I actually did a talk last week at
Temple Israel about Francis Perkins with the author of a
new book about her. The new book is called Dear
Miss Perkins.
Speaker 6 (25:33):
UH.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
She was the only she was the first woman ever
in a presidential cabinet. She was the only person in
all four cabinets of my of the New Deal administrations.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
UH.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
And she was a real hero. The dear Miss Perkins
are people who would write about UH, people particularly children
and Jewish people who were displaced by the Nazis, and
they would write and say, dear miss Perkins, and you
help us get refugee status. And she particularly helped those people.
So she was a wonderful wonderful hero. She was also
(26:09):
controversial in her time because she tried to expand people's
access to benefits, even with an attempt to impeach her,
which failed. Fortunately she but my grandfather did not walk
away from her. He kept her in the cabinet even
though people went after her.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
John great questions. Thank you much for your call. Let
me go next to Kathleen and Melrose. Kathleen, you're next time,
Nisager right ahead.
Speaker 7 (26:34):
Hi, thanks for taking this call. I have a quick
question at specifics, so tell me if you can answer
it or not. I'm calling for my mom. She's eighty
three years old. She lives in California, and my father
died of a surprise heart attack when she was fifty three.
She's been a school teacher her whole life, which means
she paid She doesn't get Social Security because she paid
into the California state.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Whatever she does know she does now but glhead.
Speaker 7 (26:57):
Okay, so that's where I'm going with this. So my
dad was in sales his whole life and had his
pension was literally like twenty eight dollars a month.
Speaker 8 (27:07):
I mean, it was crazy.
Speaker 7 (27:08):
Anyway, her George for a very poor school district, and
her retirement plan has been like twenty seven thousand dollars
a year in total, so she's never gotten SOID security.
Apparently it's happening now she's over the moon at age
eighty three. She's going to start getting something like I
don't know, fifteen hundred dollars a month. And someone just said,
(27:29):
oh my goodness, I heard about that, and their mother
same situation school nurse paid into the schools here in Massachusetts.
She not only is going to be getting like thirteen
hundred dollars a month, but she got a check for like,
I don't know, twelve thousand dollars. Is like a catchup
because her.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
I know a little bit about that. Jim probably knows more,
but I think those checks were more in the vicinity
of about five thousand dollars because it was ketchup from
last January January twenty twenty four, Jim, I'm sure you
got a better answer, Goretta.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
Well, so, starting in nineteen eighty three, when they made
a whole lot of changes in the Social Security law,
people who worked for state and local governments that had
chosen not to participate in Social Security were penalized, not
just because they didn't get Social Security since they hadn't
paid their Social Security tax and their employer had not,
(28:25):
but they were penalized on not getting their spouses of
benefits either. With some small exceptions. The law change was
changed by Congress about six or seven months ago. It's
great news for people. And that large check is because
it took so long to pass the law that it
(28:47):
actually went into effect a year before it passed. It
was retroactive, and so that's catch up for that year.
Speaker 7 (28:56):
Okay, so the catchup was one year. Her husband happened
to passed away recently, so they thought it was and
I thought, oh my goodness, there's no chance they're going
to give my mom thirty years.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
But the catchup, that's right. The catch up is one year.
And what it does, it's not it doesn't just give
people those security benefits who hadn't paid in to Social Security,
but if they had a spouse, it gives the benefits
from their spouse, correct, whereas they were deprived of those before.
Speaker 7 (29:29):
Yeah, because my mom was like.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Keathley, I hate to do this to you, but I
got a whole bunch of callers and I think we
got an answer for you. So I got to let
you go. Thank you, Kathleen, appreciate it. We've got to
take a quick commercial break back with Jim Roosevelt's going
to get try to get everyone in. That's why it's important.
Everybody has to get a couple of minutes. I wish
I could give everybody twenty minutes. I can't do that
in fairness. Back on nights Side right after.
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Speaker 1 (32:26):
It's night Side with Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
I'm gonna try madily to get four callers in for you, toub.
Let's see what we can do. You're gonna go to
David in San Francisco. David questioned a comment right.
Speaker 13 (32:39):
Ahead, Yes, Dan, thank you for taking my calls. I
want to thank you for your grandfather was just He
did everything he used to put colb the country together.
Kind of victory in your oppression, Dallas Francis Perkins. However,
my question, sir, is do you have any suggestive things
(33:02):
for me so I can get to the handicapped portion
of Social Security.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
Yes. On the Social Scurity website there is affection regarding
disability access and you should go to that. If you
don't find what you're looking for, I do recommend that
you make an appointment out of SOBI Security Field Office.
The agents there are trained to help you access the
(33:32):
disability benefits.
Speaker 13 (33:34):
All right, thank you, thank you very much, Thank you, David.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Appreciate the quickness of the call. Appreciate it. Let me
go next to Larry and down to the Cape. Larry
next on Nightside with Jim Rosevelke right a head talking
about social security.
Speaker 6 (33:46):
Yes, about ten years ago, my wife and I went
down to the Hyenna's office to sign up the social security.
She had her own statement and I had mine, and
we went in and we signed up for it. And
that's what we were informed that. Unfortunately, my wife was
involved with that WEP because she was a teacher, but
she also had a social security also paid into social Security,
(34:07):
so she had her own statement. So he said, and
I don't know if this was the proper advice at
that time, he said, my wife is better off collecting
on her social security statement. I collect on mine and
then when she's seventy switch it over and what happened
was then COVID came and then I got sick. Long
story short, I have an appointment now coming up next month.
(34:30):
I couldn't make I couldn't reach anybody by phone. I
did it online and I got an email and a
text saying it's going to be a telephone appointment. Is
that the case now? And should my wife switch over
to collect half of mine? That's what I want to do,
because I'm collecting more than hers.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
I would say, do the telephone thing, Larry, and I'm
sure Jim will have a better answer. But do the
telephone thing. Have your wife with you at the time
of the telephone thing so both of you can be available.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
Jim, yes that Dan, You're exactly right. It has all
changed with the web as you referred to. It is
the windfall Elimination provision, and that is part of what
was changed by Congress about six or seven months ago.
So it's worth taking another look at it. It might
(35:20):
still be the same as it was before, but it
might be better to do it differently. So it's a
good idea to have that telephone appointment. A telephone appointment
is probably just as good as an in person appointment
and they can get the details that I don't have here.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
So make sure your wife, Jim, Jim, Jim Rothera, Larry,
make sure your wife is there because the time that.
Speaker 6 (35:45):
You get we're both going to be there. But doesn't
it make sense for me to switch her to half
of mine? It's another two one do dollars a month.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Let them run the actual numbers and tell you.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
Let them do the analysis. Okay, thanks mis s calculator,
good night, real quickly get Marrian Moubern. Gary next on
Nice How with Jim Rosow. Go ahead, Gary, gotta be quick.
Speaker 8 (36:04):
Yes, I have a quick question. I'll just take the
answer of the year. I'm going to be taking to
an application on the phone tomorrow. So sixty one sixty
two in May. They said my fresh check will be
in July for fourteen hundred dollars a month. Jim, could
you tell me all the other benefits are involved where
I'll be also just getting a check?
Speaker 3 (36:21):
Thank you. So I think you should keep in mind
that if you start taking benefits at sixty two what
you're entitled to do, you will get a lower benefit
than if you wait until your full retirement age, which
is probably sixty seven and a half in your age
(36:42):
bracket or a seventy when you'd get the highest benefit.
But if you want the benefit now, you can take
that cut and eventually when you hit seventy, they will
adjust it to get you up with the full benefit.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
All right, I hope you heard that answer. Gary. Thank
you for the quickness of the call. Quickly, let me
go to Michael and Attenborough. Michael, you got to be
quick for me. Got one out of call here. Please
go ahead, Michael.
Speaker 6 (37:10):
Yeah, sir, I think you answer my question, but I
want to ask you directly. My wife passed about six
months ago. She worked for the state.
Speaker 14 (37:21):
They said, if you're not married at the time you're working,
your husband's not entitled to any benefits. And I didn't
realize maybe Social she did get a little bit of
Social Does that only mean my pension?
Speaker 6 (37:36):
I did call Social Security office and they said, no,
she's not.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
But I suspect that not everyone knows the rules, So
I'm sorry for your loss. First of all, this is
really a state pension question more than a Social Security question.
Getting the Social Security benefit is not dependent on being
married at the time you were working. Getting the state
(38:03):
pensure benefit is right right.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Well, Michael, I can't get into it much more deeply.
I think when you talk to the people, you've got
to explain your specific situation.
Speaker 6 (38:18):
Right, Okay, thank you very much, by bye.
Speaker 3 (38:21):
And the change in the law might help you. We'll see.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
Okay, hope you heard that. Let me go to Brenda
on the Cape. Brenda, you the last call of the hour.
Speaker 4 (38:27):
Go right ahead, Brenda, by Dan, how are you?
Speaker 15 (38:31):
I want to just call? I was listening to you
tonight and heard the conversation about the Social Security offices closing,
and I just happened to be online with them the
other day and they put out a press release dated
in March twenty seventh stating that none of the offices
are going to be permanently closing. That all you're hearing
is false.
Speaker 8 (38:51):
So I would encourage.
Speaker 15 (38:53):
People to go to the site and read what I
just read.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
That's partly correct. I would say some will be, but
some of them will be just temporary as well.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Yeah. Thinks a political process that's going on, and Congress
may step into some of this as well. Brenda. Thank you, Bob,
thank you for that information. We talked a little bit
about that last night, as well, because I think we
all need to kind of calm down a little bit.
And you know, it may not be the Trump administration
may not get everything they want. Here is what I'm
trying to say.
Speaker 15 (39:27):
Okay, simplest thanks, that's right, and the more information that's
out there for everyone to know about it think is better.
Speaker 8 (39:34):
We thank you, appreciate it.
Speaker 15 (39:36):
So nice to talk to you.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Good to talk with you as well, Jim Roosevelt. Delightful
to talk with you. Thank you for your time, and
thank you for what you've done over the years for
for people you know, in and and out of government.
I really do appreciate our friendship as well.
Speaker 3 (39:52):
I appreciate it very much as well. And I always
enjoyed talking with you, Dan and with your listeners.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
And we'll keep in touch, and who knows, a couple
three months down the road, we may revisit this if
circumstances change, if that.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
Would work for you, happy to do it.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
Thank you much, Jim Roosevelt, Ladies and gentlemen, a friend
for many years and someone who is just a font
of great information, and I hope all of you if
maybe your question wasn't asked, you might have bet your
question might have been asked by someone else. We're coming
back on Nightside, going to talk about the decision of
the Attorney General today to seek the death penalty against
Luigi Mangioni. I think you know who he is. He's
(40:32):
the guy that killed the insurance executive in New York
City on December fourth. I don't have a big problem
with that. Left to know what you think. Coming back
on Nightside,
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