August 22, 2025 • 51 mins
On WOVU 95.9 FM, DJ Black Unicorn speaks with Brandon Smith of the Social Security Administration about the history and evolution of Social Security. Brandon explains key benefits, the shift to appointment-based services, and the phaseout of paper checks this September. He urges listeners to use ssa.gov, report life changes, watch for scams, and call 1-800-772-1213 for help.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
This is WOVU Studios.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Welcome to our voices today right here on WOBU ninety
five point nine FM, with your A Love Unicorn of
the Land DJ. Black Unicorn aka Uni, and how you're doing,
how you're living, how you're feeling at this top of
the ten o'clock our here on our voices today, w OVU,
Cleveland's urban alternative ninety five point nine FM.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
You know what we do at the top of the
ten o'clock hour.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
We breathe because look, life be lifing, as the kids say,
and I tend to agree. Sometimes I'm cool today, but
look ripping and running, and I gotta remind myself just
like I gotta remind you all to breathe, honey.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
So let's breathe together right now, right here, deep.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
In hell through the nose, boss, slow exhil through the mouth,
because again, life be lifing. We be ripping and running
and doing all the things that have us so razzled
and dazzled and frazzled in all the wrong way sometimes,
so we got to just breathe and take a moment, okay,
(01:04):
And again you need is here to remind you and
myself of that because we practice transparency here at WOWU
as well, and I have a lovely guest live at
the studio with me here to talk all about social security,
what you can do in the office versus virtually what
you need to know, the things that have changed, things
that will change. We're gonna talk all about it, but
before we get there, I'm gonna allow him to probably
(01:26):
introduce himself to our listening audience here at WOBU.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
So it's a pleasure to be here. My name is
Brandon Smith. I'm a public affairs specialist in the Social
Security Administration. I'm work out of the Downtown office in
the Federal Building.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Thank you so much for joining me here on our
voices today. I'm super excited to have you here and
to update the people on Social Security and what's going on.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Because it's a lot of things up in the air.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
People have a lot of questions and I'm happy to
clarify that and some other questions they may.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Have with you today here.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Can you just give me a little bit of background
up about social Security just for those who may not
be too familiar. My youngsters out there a little bit
younger than my millennial self, and they.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
May use the services one day, so they need that
to say what we're talking about.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Well, I'm not a millennial, but I'm a proud gen xer.
Who you know, I not a shame to say this.
I turned fifty earlier this year. And speaking of big birthday,
social Security celebrating the big birthday on August fourteenth, the
agency will be turning ninety years old. I'm kind of
doing air quotes. People can't see me in the studio.
But Social Security was born on August fourteenth, nineteen thirty five,
(02:32):
when it was signed in law by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
And you know, you and I were talking off air
about people often say well I don't want something to change,
But whenever I hear that, I think, well, you maybe
do you assuming that it's always been sort of this way,
So you know, I'll keep this really brief. But the
agency was born essentially as retirement benefits. So if you
were sixty five and older worked paid in you'd get
(02:55):
a check. That's what Social Security was at the beginning.
So born on August fourteenth, nineteen thirty five. People started
to get Social Security numbers in nineteen thirty six via
the post office. So the post office would drop off
applications at people's jobs. People would fill it them out,
and then the post office would pick those applications back
up to start issuing people numbers. Because you got to understand,
(03:16):
you know, this was for workers, so most of the
people that were applying for Social Security were older than
Social Security itself. There is a nice local connection I
emailed you about. So the first person that started to
get benefits was from Cleveland. So I from nineteen thirty seven,
when we started to first paid benefits, till nineteen forty,
people would just get a lump sum because you hadn't
(03:37):
paid in long enough to get ongoing monthly benefits. So
there was a gentleman by the name of Ernest Ackerman.
He was a motorman. Don't ask me what that is.
I guess maybe the street cars or the precursor to
the RTA. But mister Ackman retired on January second, nineteen
thirty seven, after paying in the Social Security for a day,
he paid in the nickel and he got seventeen cents back.
(03:59):
So for that first three year period, you know, people
might get a lump sum as large as like fifty
some odd dollars. The smallest lump sum payment was about
a nickel or five cents. The first person who got
ongoing monthly boutefits didn't get a check until nineteen forty.
But the year before that was when one of the
big changes happened. So once again people sometimes think of
Social Security it is just retirement. Nineteen thirty nine it changed.
(04:22):
So nineteen thirty nine the amendments happened where we became
a benefit for spouses. So, hey, you know your spouse
is working, if you aren't able to work because you're
at home, maybe with the kids or taking the house.
We can pay spouses, we could pay children, and in
the event of a person's untimely passing, we could pay
survivor benefits. So this program goes from just being for
(04:44):
retirement to sort of a family social insurance program that
can pay the worker, the worker's spouse, the worker's children,
and the worker survivors if that person passes away. That
it's a lot.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
It's a lot lot as about Social Security, a lot
of history.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Ninety years.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Oh wow, and you've been with them, mister Brednon for
how long?
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Not ninety it'll be it's twenty two years. So I
started in June of three, so you know. In this case,
I'm born and raised in Cleveland, a group in Cleveland Heights.
I was a Catholic school kid from kindergarten twelfth grade,
graduate from Benedictine High School class in nineteen ninety three,
Go Bangles. I spent a year at a historically black
college my parents saw am a moda Grammling state in Louisiana.
After that, for a year, I did a reverse Lebron.
(05:30):
He took its talents down south. I brought my talents
back up north, and I eventually landed at the University
of Akron, where I'm a proud zip. It was different
in Gramlin, but it was still a good school. It
was still a good school, and I got my degree
in interpersonal public Communication. I taught for three years and
the Dieces of Cleveland, primarily at a school called Archbishop Like.
(05:51):
It was the former Saint Thame's one hundred and thirty
first in Garfield, and then it was the old Saint
Henry's on Harvard over by where Whitney Young was at
the time, it was the old Saint Catharine's campus which
is on ninety third, and then after that, you know,
my wife had a friend who's working at Essay, gave
him my resume. Fast forward. I'm here, so I've been
(06:11):
with the agency for a while.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
I love it. I love it.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Thank you for that, because I was just about to say,
we're about to have a conversation like I never have them.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Yeah, for the new listeners.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
That we have, yea, I hard shout out to all
of you, and it's definitely shout out to my og
WVU listeners as well.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
We had a lot of changes since you've been here.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Yeah, I know. We came early in the year and
I feel like to a certain extent, the dust is
sort of settled, so you know, I know, we talked
about the aniverse. That's sort of the big hook. And
one more thing about that. People often say, Well, who
was the first person to get benefits? Was a woman
out of Vermont. Her name was Itam A Fuller. And
I'm gonna say this before we talk about the changes,
because think about it's insurance, right, you work, you're paying.
(06:55):
If something happens, you become eligible for the better. So
I want to make sure that people understand this. So
Itam a Fuller. She was a legal secretary from Ludlow, Vermont.
She paid in Social Security for three years. She got
her first check on January thirty first, nineteen forty. That
check was for twenty two dollars and fifty four cents.
(07:15):
Twenty two dollars and fifty four cents seems like that's
not a lot of money, But those three years that
she worked, she only paid in twenty four dollars and
seventy five cents, So that first check she got was
almost all of the money that she had ever paid
in Ida may Fuller got that first check in nineteen forty.
She lived until she was one hundred. She passed away
in nineteen seventy five, the year that I was born.
(07:36):
In those years, she received twenty two thousand, eight hundred
and eighty eight dollars and ninety two cents. So if
you sit there and say, hey, look, i'm gonna pay
in twenty almost twenty five dollars, I'm gonna get twenty
two thousand dollars back. That's not a bad return. You know,
some of us are blessed with longevity. Your parents are
still alive, your parents lived a long life, You're relatively healthy.
It's not uncommon for people to live receiving Social Secure
(08:00):
for forget two or three years, how about two or
three or four decades. So it is in a program
that's touched almost everybody's family. At some point. You may
not be on Social Security, but I'm sure that a grandparent,
an uncle and aunt, somebody somebody went to school with
was getting benefits. So on to the changes, and we
mentioned this last time I was on the air, the
(08:22):
office locations haven't changed, the office hours have not changed.
Here in Cleveland, We're blessed to have four offices in
the city, four in the suburbs. So, like I said,
I'm an east Side kids, I look at the city
east side, west side, so on the east side. Still
got our Buckeye Shaker office on one hundred and sixteenth
in Chagar Boulevard, just west of Shaker Square, across from
the Rice Library. We have our what we call the
(08:45):
Cleveland Northeast office. It's over there one hundred and fifty
second in South Waterloo, over by the Greater Cleveland Food
Bank Community Resource Center. That's a mouthful, but people know
where the old food Bank was. We have a Warrensville
office one eight seven eleven Miles Avenue over by the
old Miles Driving Movie theater if you have a certain age,
you know about the old Miles Driving movie theater. And
(09:05):
we have our Beachwood office. It's on Parkies Drive. So
if you're heading and I'm at the age and I
where I talk about east and west, heading east on
Chagrin towards Woodmere, it'll be on your right hand side.
You'll turn right on Parkies Drive. The office is over there.
I'm in the Federal Building East nine Street, Lakeside, So
we're the one downtown office. Then if you want to,
you know, go on the west side. And I know,
(09:26):
I know some people don't want to cross that river,
but if you want to go to the west side,
we have an office on the rain of forty fourth
down the street for Mgnatius. We have an office in
middlebrog Heights. It's on Pearl Road, just south of Bagley.
We have our Lakewood office, which is on Detroit. Like
so many other things in Lakewood, it's across from Saint
James Catholic Church next to a Dunkin Donuts. Offices are
(09:47):
still open Monday through Friday, nine am to four pm.
You can still call us. Our toll free national number
is not changed. It's one eight hundred and seven seven
to two one two one three. You can talk a
live person between eight am and seven pm. Money through Friday.
But onto the changes. So the agency has shifted to
(10:10):
what we call an appointment focused model, meaning a lot
of the services that people access you are going to
need an appointment. You want to apply for benefits, retirements,
survive or spousal disability SSI, which is Supplemental Security Income.
It's a federal needs based program medicare you need the appointment.
(10:30):
These days, even if you want to get a replacement
Social Security card, we need you to make an appointment
because we want you to make sure that you have
all the proper documentation. But there are a couple of
things that you can still physically walk into the office.
You do not need an appointment. Number one, if you
need to change your direct deposit. So if you're getting
Social Security and you need to change the financial institution
(10:53):
where it's going, we have a new rule where we
can't change that over the phone anymore. So back in
the day, Hey, my money's going to a key bank account.
I wanted to go to dollar. We can answer you,
ask you some questions. We can change it over the phone.
We're not doing that anymore so right now, if you
want to change your bank account in most and once again,
bank account, if you're getting Social Security, if you work
in or you're not getting Social Security, we have no
(11:15):
idea where your money is going. You know, you don't
contact us for that. But if you're getting Social Security
benefits and you need to change where that benefit is going,
you can do that online on our website SSA dot gov.
We have something called a Mysocial Security Account where you
can create an account and change it online. You can
change it right through your bank or credit union in
(11:36):
most instances, so you go to your bank in most instances,
they can send that information electronically to SSA. And I
think that might work for a lot of people, because
a lot of people especially, you know, depending on your circumstances,
you might have a personal relationship with your bankers. Hey
I like that teller. I don't like that teller. They
always got candy on the counter. I mean, there's a
(11:56):
social aspect and is the same thing with direct deposits
that something else will talk about in a second. If
you're still getting pay per checks, the government is going
to stop sending out paper checks at the end of September.
So we really need people that are still getting pay
per checks and we think it's like less than one
percent to change over the direct deposit because they may
not continue to get those paper checks and all someone said, well,
(12:16):
I want my check in my hand. With direct deposit,
you can still go to the bank, you can still
have that relationship with the teller, you can still meet
your friends, but the money's waiting on you. So if
you wake up and you're like, you know, my stomach's
hurting or snow. You know, this is Cleveland. It might
snow one day, it might be a hurricane, might be
a flood. You just don't feel like getting out. You
just wake up. I don't feel like getting up. Your
(12:36):
money's already there because if you think about it, when
you get that check in the mail, it's worthless until
I signed it and then go deposited. With direct depositive,
money is already there waiting on you. So we would
really encourage everybody and people that are still getting pay
per checks, we've been putting an insert in. They're letting
them know, hey, look we need you to switch over
to direct deposit by the end of the month. But
(12:57):
going back to what you don't need to do, which
you don't need to make an a.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
For one, what will happen for those that do not
update their account information to D I mean, excuse me,
direct deposit.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
There might be a suspension of the benefits until we
otherwise hear from them because from the government's perspective, it
is less expensive to send. And I know, and it
took me while to grasp this. It's because someone will say, well,
wait a minute, you don't want to mail the check
to me, but you're going to mail it to the bank.
But that's not how direct deposit works. It's all an
electronic transfer. So it's cheaper to send the money directly
(13:32):
to the bank, and it's faster versus snail mailing it
to your house or your apartment or your PO box
and then waiting for you to get it, waiting for
you to go to your financial institution and sign it
and deposit it. Once again, your money's waiting on you.
And I see this a lot people go on vacation. Well,
(13:53):
if your checks supposed to come on a Wednesday, I
can't go on vacation till that Wednesday or Thursday, because
I got to have my money or if I'm are
on vacation, I want to make sure that I'm back
in time to get my money, versus all right, I'm
gonna go on Monday, my check's gonna be there on Wednesday.
I can spend that money while I'm on vacation or
just out of time. For whatever reason, we just feel
like it's much more convenient for everybody. You know, when
(14:15):
I first started working for all parties, I mean, my
wife works at a local bank. No names please, but
my assumptions they would probably prefer you to have direct
deposits and have to physically come in. We've all been
with a parent or a grandparent or somebody on a
Friday at the bank and the line is wrapped around buildings.
Everybody got to catch my check. I gotta catch my check.
(14:36):
And my dad is always telling these stories of man back,
you know, with my dad's seventy seventy eight seventy nine.
Back in my day, we didn't have ATMs. You had
to physically go to positives, you check and get all
the money that you thought you were going to spend
for the rest of the weekend. Now, hey, my money's
waiting on me. I may go to ATM or I
may just use you know, electronic payment once again, it's
just a little bit safer and convenient. And I say
this as a parent of two teenagers, especially one that's
(14:58):
starting to drive. He's got a deb car. Like man,
I don't want you having to go to a bank
at night getting money. You know, you know, you don't
need to have cash with you, and we can move
that money to Apple pay. We can put that money
in your your debit card. So direct deposit. I don't
know for sure, but better safe than sorry. And a
(15:18):
lot of people they already have bank accounts, we just
don't have the routing and account number. So you're just
closing that loop. Still keep your bank accounts, Still keep
where the money's going, except the money just going there
before you get to check.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
And I presume a letter will go out as well.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Yes, yes, if a person needs a benefit letter, so
sometimes people call it award letter, prove an income letter.
You see this all over the place for housing, energy
assistance loans. I need to prove my income. You know,
I'm getting fifteen hundred dollars from Social Security. I need
to prove it to them. Then I'm getting this. You
(15:54):
can get that letter in the office and we can
mail it to you. But let's be honest, sometimes you
need it yesterday, I can so on the office, I
can pick it up and I can leave with it.
If it's a if you were benefits were suspended. You know,
stuff happens. An individual you know may have got hemmed
up and unfortunately they were incarcerated for a couple of months,
those benefits stopped or were suspended why you were incarcerated.
(16:15):
But once you're out and you have your ID and
you have your proof of release, we can unsuspend the benefits.
So these are individuals where look, you know, I haven't
gotten a check in a couple of months. I really
need to get the ball rolling again. You don't need
to make it a point for that. You can just
come in with your ID and the proof of your
legal release and we can resume the benefits. Or you
(16:35):
might have the benefits might have been suspended because you
moved and we didn't know. So that's another thing. When
you do that change of address of the post office,
that doesn't change the address with Social Security. Now most people,
if you get in Social Security, we may send you
a letter or to a year, but depending on your benefit.
We may send you more letters, maybe we need you
to prove your income or prove some other stuff. Well,
(16:57):
if those letters bounce back to us as underli liberable
and we call you and the phone it's disconnected or
maybe there was no phone on the record, you know,
we're going to err on the side of caution and
maybe suspend the benefits until we otherwise hear from you.
So that's when you know, if your benefits are suspended,
you can come in to get them unsuspended. And of course,
(17:17):
and this is going to be up to each individual.
If there are dire need situations, I know people say,
what does that mean. Everybody's circumstances are different. It might
be a situation where I need, you know, verification of this,
or I need my benefit because I'm about to be
evicted like asap, or you know, I am about to
lose custody of my child. Anything could be considered die need.
Everyone's circumstances are different. And of course, if it's sort
(17:40):
of like a public relations issue, or if it's a
terminal illness, because you know, unfortunately there's some individuals where
you know it may not be too long until I transition.
I really need to get on Social Security. Try to
get as many checks as I can, or at least
set up my loved ones, you know, for potential survivor benefits.
I may not have the ability the way you know,
(18:01):
three four or five six weeks fro an appointment. If
that's the case, we can often take care of you
right then and there.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
That it was.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
I hope y'all count all of that, because, look, I
know it was a lot, but look, there's things that
have changed there, but there's a lot that you can
still take care of in the office, like receiving your letter,
like changing your account info things.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
I've also gone virtual and look.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
SSA dot gov, SA dot gov, SA dot gov.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
You can do a lot of things on there. You
can apply as well.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
For those new individuals that will be applying for Social Security.
Is it preferred to be online?
Speaker 3 (18:46):
So I look at it like this. If you're in
your early to mid sixties, I mean, you're good ten
fifteen years older than me. The concept of the internet
is not new. You know, you grew you're an adult
when the Internet really hit. But it's been a part
of our lives for the last couple of decades. So
it's not. You know, no one should be shocked that
(19:08):
you got a website. I mean, these days, everybody's got
a website or some social media presence. I often tell people,
you've got to be honest with yourself, because what I
don't do is I don't tell people, oh man, it's
so easier. So because I don't know what EASi or
difficult is to you as the individual. Maybe that's the
only child in me. Maybe that's the tourus in me.
But I try to be real careful. For some people, Hey, look,
(19:30):
online works best. You shop online, you did your taxes online,
You're on social media. You know, if you need to
look up a recipe, and once again, if you're looking
up do a cookbook, that's great. But some people, I'm
going on my computer, I'm going on my laptop, I'm
going on my phone. That's what works best for me,
you know. I know, during the pandemic, I myself changed
a lot of my shopping habits. All I can get
(19:52):
this online and it's in stock, versus driving to the
store and hoping, man, I hope they got my size
or hope they got that color, versus let me save
myself the trip and just see does this random website,
be it the small independently on store or the vast
big box store online. That just works best for me.
(20:13):
But some people, no, I got to touch it. I
gotta feel it. I need to see it great, just
like some people. I'm my mother, wonderful woman, highly intelligent.
She still likes to write checks. When it's time to
pay a bill, she will write checks. You know. My
dad will make sure she got stamps and she'll put
them in the post office. I'm paying the bills on
my phone. That's what works best for me. When my
(20:34):
kids start paying bills, my guess is they'll expect me
to pay it. We'll see, you know what I'm saying.
We'll see, but we'll hope. I'll be working wrong and
I want to. But online is the most convenient from
a time frame perspective. You know, like I said, We're
officer opened Monday through Friday, nine or four. It's six
o'clock on Saturday. You know, Brown's preseason game isn't until
(20:57):
the next couple of days or now. I don't feel
like going to the movies, but I I can do
that online. My parents both chose to apply online for
their benefits because that's what worked best for them. If
that doesn't work for you, call us once again one
eight hundred seven seven two one two one three schedule
(21:17):
and appointment and we can have a phone kind of
you know, we'll ask you the questions. One of the
big things, especially the last couple of months, I've been realizing,
you really don't need to be an expert on Social Security.
You need to be an expert on yourself, because when
you're applying for batterfits, you are the star of the show.
I mean, unless or someone loved one is if you're
applying for your child, or you're you know, you're applying
(21:38):
for spousal or survivor bantemits. You need to know stuff
about your spouse x spouse, late spouse. But this isn't
like a pop quiz. You know, we're not asking you, hey,
what's the circumference of Jupiter? Or you know how many
steals did Lebron have his rookie season? Not this isn't
a game show. We're asking you you know your name,
your date of birth, your Social Security number, your marital history,
(22:01):
because we want to see are you eligible for benefits
on someone else's record or someone eligible on your record.
How old are your kids because they might be eligible.
What is the routing and account number of where you
want your checks to go? See you and you know
you deal with the banks. If my riting account number
is wrong, I'm not getting paid. You know, it'say way,
(22:23):
I thought it was one, two, three four, but it
was really six seven eight. Well, guess what if we
don't have the right account number, We're not sending you
the check. So that's got to work best, you know,
sort of for for you. So you're gonna apply online
for retirement benefits, spousal disability, and Medicare if that works
best for you. If not, call us in schedule an appointment.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Okay, So can we break those different sectors of Social
Security down a little further just for those.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Who you know, just oh yeah, yeah, because you know,
I've I've been with the agency for since June of
o three. I've been in this position as a public
affairs specially since June April of seven. And you know,
I've been blessed with this position. I'm able to, you know,
to go to a lot of different places over the years.
You know, you know, you might be at a company
in Westlake, you might be at a library in East Cleveland.
(23:13):
It varies, and sometimes people will say, well, I'm just
getting regular social Security. What does no such thing as
regular social Security? It's Social Security retirement benefits meaning you
were at least sixty two years old, you had worked
and paid in the Social Security for at least ten years,
then you decided to apply for benefits, so you were
getting a check that is based on what you had
(23:34):
worked and paid in the Social Security. Then off shoot
of that, there's spousal benefits meaning I'm still alive, but
I'm married and my husband or wife is getting a
check based off of my work record. There's ex spousal
benefits meaning we were married at least ten consecutive years,
and now my ex might be getting benefits or I
(23:56):
might be getting benefits from my ex. None of that
lowers the workers payment, So I don't want somebody who's
listening to thinking, man, I don't want my ex to
get a check. Your ex getting a check does not
lower your check. And then of course there's your children.
So depending on when you had children or how old
they are, if you're receiving Social Security benefits, retirement benefits,
(24:16):
or disability your kids if they're under the age of eighteen,
if they're nineteen but still in high school, or if
your children were disabled before they turned twenty two, we're
paying them a check. And that's not child support. We
don't pull money out of your check to pay the kids.
It's money in addition to what they're receiving. So those
are what I call the life age benefits, retirement benefits,
(24:39):
spousal xpousal children. Then there's the transition because at some
point we're all going to meet our maker. So then
you got survivor benefits. So there was an individual who'd
worked and paid the Social Security he's here. They had
passed away, the children are still eligible. So if we
can pay your child while you're alive, so you know
I once again, let's say a father is sixty four
(25:01):
years old, wife or ex wife is fifty seven, and
they got a fourteen year old child. That fourteen year
old child is going to be eligible whether that man
or woman is dead or alive. Then we pay survivor benefits.
Once again, we were married, you unfortunately passed away, and
depending on my circumstance, I might be getting a check.
(25:22):
There's expousal benefits, meaning we were married we got divorced,
then you passed away. If we were married long enough,
I might be eligible for a benefit. Once again, that
is not going to hurt anyone else that might be eligible.
So I don't want anybody to think, wait a minute,
my husband or wife they were married before. That's a
(25:44):
non issue regarding us, meaning you know, you fell in
love with your husband or wife later on life. You
guys were married for twenty five years, they passed away,
but they got it, you know an X they were
married for eleven twelve years. Their eligibility will not lower yours,
you know. And I know I don't want to be
naive or disrespectful and tell someone, man, don't worry about them,
don't worry about that. But it's one of those situations
where you can worry about it, but you're worrying about
(26:07):
something that isn't going to hurt you. You know. At
some point it just becomes the principle, like I just
don't want them to get a check, right, but if
they did or didn't exist, it's not gonna pay you
a dime more or less. So right with everything that's
going on in the world, how much energy do I
have to devote to that person like you're here. Sometimes
on social media you'll see, hey, we're gonna pay you
(26:27):
one hundred million dollars, but your worst enemy's got to
be paid two hundred million. Well guess what they can
get there, two hundre million because I'm gonna be rich.
And you know, good for them, good for them, good
for them. I'm in Barbados. They believed we're good to go.
So that's sort of the survivor benefits. Then you have
the disability angle. And what I want to caution people
(26:49):
to understand is retirement benefits, spisal benefits. Did you work
long enough or you're old enough. If so, you will
get paid. Were you're married long enough for the benefit,
we'll pay. Disability is different because disability I don't know
with one hundred percent certainly, if you're going to be
awarded the payment, it's you know, you got sports where
(27:12):
you know, baseball, football, basketball, I scored more points than you,
I scored more runs than you. I'm going to win.
Then you have the more subjective sports where there's a
judge and it's not like, well did I win? I
got to see and disability And once again, I'm not
trying to be disrespectful to disability. But it's not sort
of as clear cut from the perspective of because you know,
the human body is different. What may be disabling to
(27:34):
me at fifty may not have been disabling at twenty five,
may have been considerably worse at sixty. Everybody's circumstances are different.
You may have you know, two people, man, that's you know,
they both severely injured their ankle. But you know, one person,
much younger, higher degree of education, is able to transition
into another line of work that might pay them significantly
(27:55):
in a new job, versus the other person. They may
not be able to transition. So the big thing is
you can can't say, well, I have the same ailment
as her or him, how come they're getting a check
and I'm not. So there's disability benefits Social Security disability SSD.
I person had worked paid in the Social Security became
unable to work because of a medically determinable and unless
(28:19):
the big words for me condition be it physical, mental,
or psychological.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
So I can't work at all, or I can't work.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
At sort of a substantial level. So I my condition
is keeping me from being able to make a lot
of money and that's where the confusion, yes, because there's
a difference between I can't work in that field that
I was in anymore, versus the medical evidence shows that
(28:50):
I might not be able to work substantially at all.
So what I usually tell people is this, and I'm
still from a gentleman. His name was Bill Norris, William Norris.
He was the first manager I had when I worked
in Middleburg Heights. He passed away. God rest is so
great man. He told me. When you're applying for disability,
(29:10):
you are painting a picture who you are and what
your condition is to Social Security. And that is not
the time to get shy. Now, mind you, If you're
applying for disability because of I don't know, let's say,
a lower back or a hip or a heart issue.
Who took out your tonsils when you were ten, that's
a non issue, you know. But every doctor, hospital, clinic,
(29:35):
to the best of your knowledge that you can remember,
we want that information. I know there's a lot of
movies out there in TV shows, well, the coman knows
everything about you, not, ain't It's not true like Social
Security has no idea what doctors you've been to, what
medicines you're on what medical tests that you've had done.
So let's keep it real. Simple. Person has a heart
(29:55):
condition and they are on two medications. They've seen one doctor.
That doctor is the Cleveland Clinic. Okay, give us all
of that. What's the what's the doctor's name? Oh you
know that's doctor you know Keisha Jones. Okay, when did
you see or was it inpatient or outpatient? What medicine?
Zerre you want? And what I want to tell people
to understand is don't assume we know what your condition is.
(30:20):
So hey, I'm on this medicine, all right, Well to
the best of you. Now do you know why you're
on it? And are you having any side effects? And
we all see those those commercials for medications on TV
and the side effects are always worse than the actual condition. Well,
don't y'all know what this? No, no, no, what are
what's going on with you? Forget about the commercials, forget
(30:40):
about the knowledge, what if any side effects or conditions
are you experiencing? Because we can only contact oops are
we can only contact the doctors that you told us about.
So if you saw five doctors at Metro and Cleveland
Clinic and the VA, which only tell us about one.
(31:01):
Guess what, we only contacted that one and that doctor.
They may have been on they may be on vacation,
they may be on sabbatical, they may be retired, they
may have passed away, and we just don't get that
information in a timely fashion. So if you saw six doctors,
give us that information about those six doctors. So and
also with disability, there's a bit of a waiting because
(31:21):
you're it takes time for a medical decision because when
you apply, you know, we send that information down to
our medical team and they contact the doctors that you
told us about, and that that takes months three to five,
three to six months on average to go buy versus, hey,
I'm sixty six years old, don't want apply for benefits? Man,
We might have might get a check in the next
month or so, depending on how everything lines up. So
(31:44):
there's a bit of a bit of a weight, like
I gotta wait for the medical decision. Well, yes, that
because right because if it's a if it's a terminal illness,
we can get you in quicker. Other conditions, we might
be able to make a decision, you know, quicker if
you were a veteran and you have a certain rating
from the VA, we might be able to make a
decision quicker. And then there's SSI Supplemental Security Income, which
(32:07):
is another it's a disability program unless you're sixty five,
So it is a what we call a needs based
program for people that are blind, disabled, or over the
age of sixty five with limited income limited resources. So
SSI is the one benefit that we pay where you
do not have to have worked or your husband, wife, mother, father,
(32:30):
no one had to work for your eligibility, but you
got to be under the income and resource limits. So
if a single person, that's two thousand dollars. If you're
married and your spouse is living with you, it's three
thousand dollars. So if you're applying for SSI, you need
to sort of you don't you need to get comfortable,
(32:51):
but you need to understand because it's needs based, the
questions are going to be a little bit more in depth.
Meaning if you apply for let's say you were third
years older and apply for retirement benefits, we're not going
to ask you about your house bank accounts. A only
time we got to ask you bank accounts because we
want to know where to send them money. We're not
getting into your financial because that's a non issue for us.
(33:12):
But let's flip the reverse. Let's say you're three, you know,
in your sixties or seventies, and you're applying for SSI.
We'll ask you about your income. You know, stocks, bonds, CDs,
I rays, mutual funds, pension plans, lotter winnings, annuities, adherences.
Do you have more than one vehicle? Do you have
more than one piece of property? And SCI is the
(33:34):
only benefit where if you're married and living together. It's
a classic case of what's mine is hers and what's
hers is mine. So they could be somebody who's listening,
who I don't have the dime to my name, but
I'm married and my spouse has six thousand dollars in
the bank. That money might be, Hey, we're saving up
to finish the basement or do the roof. Scide doesn't
(33:56):
look at it like that. Are you married, yes? Living together? Yes?
Does this person have the six thousand dollars? Yes, you
are currently ineligible for SSI. SSI is a benefit of
last resort, But you're an adult. Do what you feel
is in your best interest. Live your life. But just
understand that if you wanna keep that check coming, you
(34:18):
gotta report stuff, and you take a bus trip to
a casino. Not that I'm not advocating gambled, but if
you're an adult, you want to spend your money, spend
your money. Let's say you know you hit for a
little bit on the slot machines. Now, hey, I hit
for you know, ten thousand dollars or five thousand dollars.
That's good. You know, it's nice money. It's not gonna
fundamentally change your life indefinitely, but it's enough money that
(34:41):
you need to report that to SSI because it's gonna
stop your check for a while, because you're over the
income and resource limit. And I know the pushback is,
I'm an adult, I'm living my life. You are absolutely right.
You are an adult, live in your life. You have
free will. You can do what you want. But part
of that freedom is understanding that all these actions there
are consequences, positively and negatively for those actions. It isn't
(35:05):
when when you start getting benefits. And this will feel preachy,
but forgive me, when you get benefits, it is not
the end, but it feels like it for so many people.
I made the appointment I got my documentation, I applied
for benefits, I waited, I got my check, I got
my war letter of the money's coming. The end. No,
it is now the beginning of a new relationship. And
(35:26):
with that new relationship, you got to know what you
need to do to keep that relationship going right. I mean,
let's forget about take your job. You know what you
can and cannot do at your job, and assuming you
want to keep the job, you will keep on the
path of well, this is what I do. This is
the basis I need to know. I need to know.
I need to be able to do this to keep
(35:46):
that check flowing, for to keep my employment going, to
keep my health insurance. That's what it is. Once you
start getting benefits. Everybody has reporting responsibilities circumstances in which
you need to contact the agency, and some of them simple.
If you move, if you change banks, if you leave
the country. We need to know because some of that
(36:07):
can affect your eligibility, It can affect the amount of
the check. And I I just didn't know.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
Can I be charged with fraud if I just didn't
know I needed to report all of those things.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
The main thing would probably be with just the benefits,
would stop and then you run the risk of being overpaid. So,
you know, let's say you're getting SSI, which once again
is a needs based program, and the intent doesn't even
have to be malicious. It could be something innocent, like,
you know, yeah I was we were dating and then
we got married and we moved in together. Well, you know,
(36:40):
I didn't think I had to you know, why did
I have to report that? Well, that's because that's a
change that's consequential to your situation. So that's the key.
It is on one size fits all thing. You know,
you're talking to your friend who lives across the street.
You're both getting benefits. Your friend is getting retirement benefits.
I mean, they had worked, they paid in system, and
that doesn't mean they're better worse. It's just they're getting
(37:01):
a different type of benefit. They may not even be
getting more than you. So let's say you're both get
nine hundred bucks. They're getting nine hundred dollars retirement benefits.
We don't need to know if they get married or
divorced or that's not because that has no consequence on
their eligibility. Maybe you're getting nine hundred dollars SSI because
SSI is a needs based program, you do need to
(37:24):
report it because that affects the eligibility for your check.
And I know it's really simple. We all have trusted
people in our lives, your friends, some family members, and
it's so easy to say, well, you mean you're getting
benefits what I need to do and all of us,
so many of us are hearts in the right place,
but we don't have the wherewithal to say, you know what,
(37:47):
I'm getting a different benefit than you. You need to
check to see what's going on with your specific situation.
So worry about to see or if you helping your
kids or a family member locking on them, is their
circumstance maybe different than yours?
Speaker 2 (38:03):
Yes, yes, As an independent agency, how does Social Security
Association really coordinate with all of the offices throughout the nation.
Speaker 3 (38:14):
So we we have sort of a decentralized way of
doing things. So here in Northern Ohio, there's twenty nine
offices in Northern Ohio and those offices report to what
we call our Area Director's office. So there's you know,
there's one office that's sort of the I guess, I
guess I would almost look at it and I would say,
(38:36):
like in politics, where you have, I mean thisipilogy. You've
got cities and counties, and you know, everything is sort
of bigger and bigger and bigger, even though I know
the mayor of Cleveland doesn't necessarily report to the county executive.
But so think of Social Security. You have a local office,
the manager of that local office reports to someone might
(38:56):
be a larger Social Security office. It might be the
area Director's office. So you have what we call areas
and and mind you for the general public, you know
this has nothing to do this, It doesn't affect them
really in any way. Those areas once again toined out
office in northern Ohio. They report to a regional office,
(39:16):
you know the regional the four regional offices in the
in the country, and those regional offices report to our headquarters.
Our headquarters is in Baltimore and Woodlawn, Maryland. So there
is there is a you know, a structure from office,
Area Director's office, regional office, and then the national office
where our commissioner is located.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
Gotcha, has there been anything since Trump has gotten into
office that has rocked your office?
Speaker 3 (39:43):
You know what I always tell people is, you know,
we we often talked about that silver tsunami and the
baby boomers ain't going to retire. Well, guess what a
lot of those people boomers worked with us, So you know,
some people were gonna retire regardless of who won the election,
who was in power, they were going to retire anyway.
So you know, we've had every times. But you get higher,
some people leave. You know, I've noticed no noticeable turnover
(40:08):
the last couple of months or years, just sort of
the ebb and flow as I have been in my
career longer. You know, you do this, you start like,
wait a minute, I've been here longer than her, been
longer than him, I'm older. You know, you blink and
you're one of the old heads. You know you see
on social medium, man, hey, what's going on? Uncle? Like,
wait a minute, I'm not unco But then your knees, oh,
you definitely needs to tell you you are. So I
(40:31):
feel to a certain s like unk when I'm in
the office because I start count like, wait a minute,
I'm older than them. I'm older than them. So it's
just it's not so much once again who's in power.
It's just as I've gotten older and I realized that
I have more years behind me. Essay than I do
in front of me, not necessarily, but I don't want
to work another twenty two years at essay. So I mean, yeah,
(40:54):
I'm hopeing I got plenty of years left in life.
But you know, you just notice that, you know, things
have changed from the perspective once again, and online services.
When I started, people have smartphones. And that's the thing,
Sothon as you talked about it. A lot of people
they still think of filing online. Means I am on
a desktop computer that is gray with no People are
(41:17):
applying on their tablets, People are applying on their laptops.
Some people are applying on their phones. You know, you
pinch and zoom. I know that some people like you know,
I got buddies, right, I got buddies. Hey, man, I
bought a car through my phone or I signed the
mortgage or the rental agreement on my phone. So I've
(41:40):
noticed more than that than any one thing as far
as the administration, just the change and technology. And as
I'm getting older and I inch closer to the age
of the peace people I'm talking to and I was saying, man,
I got to get my ducks in a row too.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
Is there anything else you want to leave with our
listening audience here at our voices today. Besides again the
end of September. At the end of September. At the
end of September, you have to add your bank account.
You will not receive a physical check in the mail anymore.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
If you are one of those one percenters.
Speaker 3 (42:15):
In mind you most people they hear this, they may
not even get the paper checks. A lot of people
have never seen a physical payper check. And they get
an IRS refund, it goes in the debit card, goes
into a bank account, they get paid, they get a
Social Security check. I mean, you know it's gonna I've
never hit for money at a casino, but I don't
know what the options are. But it's like, hey, you
just want five mili. You want this paper check? No man,
(42:36):
send that money to me. I don't want to be
holding on to it anything at all. I want to
make sure people know how to contact us once again,
so I'll give the contact information. I'll go slow. So
if you want to call Social Security one eight hundred
seven seven two one two one three, that's basically one
(42:56):
eight hundred SSA twelve thirteen. Our website SSA dot gov
you can do a lot of stuff online. I guess
the last thing I want to say, the main thing
that drives people to our offices is people needing a
replacement Social Security card. The birth certificate is not ID
(43:19):
forgetting a replacement card, no matter how old you are,
Meaning you got a two month old who has a
Social Security number, you just can't find it. The birth
certificate is not ID for that infant. Your twelve year
old child is about to start school, your twenty two
year old cousin, your thirty five year old girlfriend, your
fifty five year old mom. We need ID, driver's license,
(43:42):
state ID, passport. If they don't have any of those things,
we can take something from their doctor, the hospital, the clinic,
something with their name and age, name, a data, birth name,
and social Security number. We want it to be stamped
and signed by the person who provided you with those records.
Everybody's circumstances are different. Some people have safe deposit boxes.
(44:05):
Some people are you know, they're more transient. If you
can keep your Social Security card in a safe place,
there's probably no reason for most people on a day
to day basis that carry with you. Because you know
how it is. The more you carry with you, the
more likely you are to lose it. Keep it in
the safe place whatever that means, under the mattress, at
your parents' house, at the bank, whatever. But we would
just say keep it with your important documents, your birth certificate,
(44:27):
your car insurance or your car title if you got
a car, if you've got any other important documents, just
don't carry with you because once again you carried with you,
you run the risk of loosing it.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
Can we talk, Okay, last thing, I promise a promise.
Appeals and scams just really quick.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
Process? Is it grueling? Is it quick?
Speaker 3 (44:45):
Is it just?
Speaker 1 (44:46):
It is what it is? Get out the way. There's
a lot of scammers out here.
Speaker 2 (44:51):
Yes, and they are getting very creative to the point
like I recently purchased a home and I I was
added to the list of recent Yes, so I got
all the you know, advertisement and all those things. I
also got a lot of scams via in the mail
and things of that nature. And I also received my
(45:13):
sister actually received a text message, an urgent and ah
mean text message saying that I need to contact her
legal action would be taken and d all these scams
are getting My point is, look y'all, look y'all, these
scams are getting outrageous and stay on your toes.
Speaker 3 (45:31):
Yes, So I can only speak for me when it
comes to this. I've gone back and forth with this,
but once, especially having teenagers, you want to make sure
there's a level of availability to yourself because you never
know if it's gonna be the school, something like that.
But often, and I switched this setting on my phone.
Sometimes I'll set it to not ring for unknown numbers.
(45:54):
I've had the same phone number for twenty some odd years,
and often there aren't a lot of new calls that
I'm going to get, and I'm like, if it's some
one of the kids, they with text I got the number,
leave me a voicemail. We'll see. But so here's the thing.
Social Security is not a law enforcement agency. So there's
no reason why you would get a call or a
(46:15):
text from Social Security saying, hey, if you don't do this,
you're going to be arrested. If you don't do this,
you're going to be convicted. This whole thing about, well,
you know, I got a call or a text saying
that my Social Security number was associated with this car
there was illicit drugs. Wait a minute, we've all watched
cop shows. That's not they don't call you ahead of time.
That's not how it works, or the scammers. To your point,
(46:39):
everything is threatening. Everything is in uh uppercase letters, it's bold,
it's you need.
Speaker 1 (46:45):
To take action now, urgent. And that's the thing.
Speaker 3 (46:48):
Urgent.
Speaker 1 (46:48):
Try to give you zero time.
Speaker 3 (46:50):
To Yes, they bombard your senses and once again and
you'll see these horror stories. We're not talking about. Oh
it's not the elderly. It could be somebody twenty thirty forty,
ten thousand, one hundred thousand, their retirement savings gone, and
unfortunately for often it doesn't click in until the millisecond
(47:10):
after they've given them money. So what a lot of
the scams are. One would be the gift card like, hey,
your sol schid that has been compromised. You need to
go to random big box store buy you know, gift cards,
then read us off the numbers. And I know you're panicking,
your nervous, but if you just to the best of
your ability, just sit there and say, wait a minute,
(47:31):
wait a minute minute, what is the government gonna do
with Apple gift cards? They don't need that, How is
that gonna what that doesn't you know when you stop
and saying like that that's complicated, or the whole thing
about well you're gonna you gotta go to your bank,
but don't tell the teller because if you tell it,
and I'm like, wait a minute, if I go to
(47:51):
the bank and get out my own money, why would
that affect my sister? Like how did what? If that
doesn't make sense? Or look, I still don't fully understand cryptocurrency,
but you'll, you know, I know you've seen this stuff
on the news where they'll scare people and you go
to a crypto eight a m. And you you put
money in and like, wait a minute, I know how
to I can. I can give you cash in my hand.
(48:12):
I can write a check. But these scams, they're so
complicated and they require you to do so much, so
often you have time to just say you know what, man,
do you I mean? And once again this is just sometimes.
Speaker 1 (48:22):
They don't though.
Speaker 2 (48:23):
Sometimes it's just a click away. Sometimes it's just a
call away. As soon as you call them, they can
hack your phone. As soon as you text them.
Speaker 1 (48:31):
Back, they're hacking. They're already in your account.
Speaker 3 (48:33):
Yes, yes, that's why I don't even with my phone.
And mostly you know, but you can hold on to it.
I can delete it, send it to spam block, but yeah,
it'll be well your Amazon packages its two minutes late
if you want to change it. And I'm like, wait
a minute. Amazon doesn't text me. Everything is through the
Amazon app, but they'll email me. But this link, don't
(48:54):
click that link. Or sometimes I'll get a lot of these. Hey,
you're looking for work content on what's app.
Speaker 1 (49:01):
Well, we found your resume one indeed, But is this
foreign number?
Speaker 3 (49:06):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (49:06):
Or is this email?
Speaker 3 (49:07):
Yes? Yes? Yes? Hit us up on Telegram. And I'm like,
wait a minute, I got you found my resume and
I haven't applied for a job in thirty years. But
I'm supposed to download this app to call you, and
then you want.
Speaker 1 (49:19):
Me to be in a stop it I use what's app.
Speaker 3 (49:22):
Well, yeah, I gotta use what's app to get this
new job. I don't that job better pay me as.
Speaker 1 (49:26):
Much as Lebron appeals Before we got.
Speaker 3 (49:29):
Appeals appeals, So there are circumstances unfortunate where a person
may be overpaid. I mean they got more money than
they were due for a number of reasons. You have
appeal right, So when you get your letter it's going
to have the number of the form. It's usually the
SSA five sixty one. It's a request for a reconsideration
where you have up to sixty days to follow an appeal.
Once again, going back to the comments for my late manager,
(49:52):
painting picture of who you are on, what your condition is,
what's going on? Why is this incorrect? Why are you appealing?
Give us as much details. It can't be just well
I don't want to pay it back. That's it's not
really a reason. It's oh, no, you have incorrect wages,
or oh I gave you misinformation inadvertently, I wasn't working,
that was a gift from my mom or whatever.
Speaker 1 (50:10):
Just I already spent it.
Speaker 3 (50:12):
Something. You got to tell your story because this notion
of I'm not gonna respond to that. If you don't
respond to the letters regarding an overpayment, they're gonna assume
that you got it and are complying with it, and
they're just gonna stop your check until you do something.
Speaker 1 (50:26):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (50:27):
I thank you, mister Vernon for sharing all of this
information with us about social security and forming us about
just all the different sectors and benefits you can receive.
Speaker 1 (50:36):
Your entire family and household can receive when you basically
broke it down. Now, only couldn't the disable person, the
wife and the child as well or t dredn look
different circumstances and each one is different. Each one is
just that. So please check on your benefits see if
(50:57):
you can't get them.
Speaker 3 (51:01):
But they say a closed mouse doesn't get fed, Yes, the.
Speaker 1 (51:03):
Closed mouth definitely does not get fed. W O w
U ninety five point nine FL.
Speaker 2 (51:08):
Again, thank you mister Brady for joining me on our
voices today.
Speaker 1 (51:15):
This is w O v U Studios
This is WOVU Studios.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Welcome to our voices today right here on WOBU ninety
five point nine FM, with your A Love Unicorn of
the Land DJ. Black Unicorn aka Uni, and how you're doing,
how you're living, how you're feeling at this top of
the ten o'clock our here on our voices today, w OVU,
Cleveland's urban alternative ninety five point nine FM.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
You know what we do at the top of the
ten o'clock hour.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
We breathe because look, life be lifing, as the kids say,
and I tend to agree. Sometimes I'm cool today, but
look ripping and running, and I gotta remind myself just
like I gotta remind you all to breathe, honey.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
So let's breathe together right now, right here, deep.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
In hell through the nose, boss, slow exhil through the mouth,
because again, life be lifing. We be ripping and running
and doing all the things that have us so razzled
and dazzled and frazzled in all the wrong way sometimes,
so we got to just breathe and take a moment, okay,
(01:04):
And again you need is here to remind you and
myself of that because we practice transparency here at WOWU
as well, and I have a lovely guest live at
the studio with me here to talk all about social security,
what you can do in the office versus virtually what
you need to know, the things that have changed, things
that will change. We're gonna talk all about it, but
before we get there, I'm gonna allow him to probably
(01:26):
introduce himself to our listening audience here at WOBU.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
So it's a pleasure to be here. My name is
Brandon Smith. I'm a public affairs specialist in the Social
Security Administration. I'm work out of the Downtown office in
the Federal Building.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Thank you so much for joining me here on our
voices today. I'm super excited to have you here and
to update the people on Social Security and what's going on.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Because it's a lot of things up in the air.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
People have a lot of questions and I'm happy to
clarify that and some other questions they may.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Have with you today here.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Can you just give me a little bit of background
up about social Security just for those who may not
be too familiar. My youngsters out there a little bit
younger than my millennial self, and they.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
May use the services one day, so they need that
to say what we're talking about.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Well, I'm not a millennial, but I'm a proud gen xer.
Who you know, I not a shame to say this.
I turned fifty earlier this year. And speaking of big birthday,
social Security celebrating the big birthday on August fourteenth, the
agency will be turning ninety years old. I'm kind of
doing air quotes. People can't see me in the studio.
But Social Security was born on August fourteenth, nineteen thirty five,
(02:32):
when it was signed in law by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
And you know, you and I were talking off air
about people often say well I don't want something to change,
But whenever I hear that, I think, well, you maybe
do you assuming that it's always been sort of this way,
So you know, I'll keep this really brief. But the
agency was born essentially as retirement benefits. So if you
were sixty five and older worked paid in you'd get
(02:55):
a check. That's what Social Security was at the beginning.
So born on August fourteenth, nineteen thirty five. People started
to get Social Security numbers in nineteen thirty six via
the post office. So the post office would drop off
applications at people's jobs. People would fill it them out,
and then the post office would pick those applications back
up to start issuing people numbers. Because you got to understand,
(03:16):
you know, this was for workers, so most of the
people that were applying for Social Security were older than
Social Security itself. There is a nice local connection I
emailed you about. So the first person that started to
get benefits was from Cleveland. So I from nineteen thirty seven,
when we started to first paid benefits, till nineteen forty,
people would just get a lump sum because you hadn't
(03:37):
paid in long enough to get ongoing monthly benefits. So
there was a gentleman by the name of Ernest Ackerman.
He was a motorman. Don't ask me what that is.
I guess maybe the street cars or the precursor to
the RTA. But mister Ackman retired on January second, nineteen
thirty seven, after paying in the Social Security for a day,
he paid in the nickel and he got seventeen cents back.
(03:59):
So for that first three year period, you know, people
might get a lump sum as large as like fifty
some odd dollars. The smallest lump sum payment was about
a nickel or five cents. The first person who got
ongoing monthly boutefits didn't get a check until nineteen forty.
But the year before that was when one of the
big changes happened. So once again people sometimes think of
Social Security it is just retirement. Nineteen thirty nine it changed.
(04:22):
So nineteen thirty nine the amendments happened where we became
a benefit for spouses. So, hey, you know your spouse
is working, if you aren't able to work because you're
at home, maybe with the kids or taking the house.
We can pay spouses, we could pay children, and in
the event of a person's untimely passing, we could pay
survivor benefits. So this program goes from just being for
(04:44):
retirement to sort of a family social insurance program that
can pay the worker, the worker's spouse, the worker's children,
and the worker survivors if that person passes away. That
it's a lot.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
It's a lot lot as about Social Security, a lot
of history.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Ninety years.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Oh wow, and you've been with them, mister Brednon for
how long?
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Not ninety it'll be it's twenty two years. So I
started in June of three, so you know. In this case,
I'm born and raised in Cleveland, a group in Cleveland Heights.
I was a Catholic school kid from kindergarten twelfth grade,
graduate from Benedictine High School class in nineteen ninety three,
Go Bangles. I spent a year at a historically black
college my parents saw am a moda Grammling state in Louisiana.
After that, for a year, I did a reverse Lebron.
(05:30):
He took its talents down south. I brought my talents
back up north, and I eventually landed at the University
of Akron, where I'm a proud zip. It was different
in Gramlin, but it was still a good school. It
was still a good school, and I got my degree
in interpersonal public Communication. I taught for three years and
the Dieces of Cleveland, primarily at a school called Archbishop Like.
(05:51):
It was the former Saint Thame's one hundred and thirty
first in Garfield, and then it was the old Saint
Henry's on Harvard over by where Whitney Young was at
the time, it was the old Saint Catharine's campus which
is on ninety third, and then after that, you know,
my wife had a friend who's working at Essay, gave
him my resume. Fast forward. I'm here, so I've been
(06:11):
with the agency for a while.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
I love it. I love it.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Thank you for that, because I was just about to say,
we're about to have a conversation like I never have them.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Yeah, for the new listeners.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
That we have, yea, I hard shout out to all
of you, and it's definitely shout out to my og
WVU listeners as well.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
We had a lot of changes since you've been here.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Yeah, I know. We came early in the year and
I feel like to a certain extent, the dust is
sort of settled, so you know, I know, we talked
about the aniverse. That's sort of the big hook. And
one more thing about that. People often say, Well, who
was the first person to get benefits? Was a woman
out of Vermont. Her name was Itam A Fuller. And
I'm gonna say this before we talk about the changes,
because think about it's insurance, right, you work, you're paying.
(06:55):
If something happens, you become eligible for the better. So
I want to make sure that people understand this. So
Itam a Fuller. She was a legal secretary from Ludlow, Vermont.
She paid in Social Security for three years. She got
her first check on January thirty first, nineteen forty. That
check was for twenty two dollars and fifty four cents.
(07:15):
Twenty two dollars and fifty four cents seems like that's
not a lot of money, But those three years that
she worked, she only paid in twenty four dollars and
seventy five cents, So that first check she got was
almost all of the money that she had ever paid
in Ida may Fuller got that first check in nineteen forty.
She lived until she was one hundred. She passed away
in nineteen seventy five, the year that I was born.
(07:36):
In those years, she received twenty two thousand, eight hundred
and eighty eight dollars and ninety two cents. So if
you sit there and say, hey, look, i'm gonna pay
in twenty almost twenty five dollars, I'm gonna get twenty
two thousand dollars back. That's not a bad return. You know,
some of us are blessed with longevity. Your parents are
still alive, your parents lived a long life, You're relatively healthy.
It's not uncommon for people to live receiving Social Secure
(08:00):
for forget two or three years, how about two or
three or four decades. So it is in a program
that's touched almost everybody's family. At some point. You may
not be on Social Security, but I'm sure that a grandparent,
an uncle and aunt, somebody somebody went to school with
was getting benefits. So on to the changes, and we
mentioned this last time I was on the air, the
(08:22):
office locations haven't changed, the office hours have not changed.
Here in Cleveland, We're blessed to have four offices in
the city, four in the suburbs. So, like I said,
I'm an east Side kids, I look at the city
east side, west side, so on the east side. Still
got our Buckeye Shaker office on one hundred and sixteenth
in Chagar Boulevard, just west of Shaker Square, across from
the Rice Library. We have our what we call the
(08:45):
Cleveland Northeast office. It's over there one hundred and fifty
second in South Waterloo, over by the Greater Cleveland Food
Bank Community Resource Center. That's a mouthful, but people know
where the old food Bank was. We have a Warrensville
office one eight seven eleven Miles Avenue over by the
old Miles Driving Movie theater if you have a certain age,
you know about the old Miles Driving movie theater. And
(09:05):
we have our Beachwood office. It's on Parkies Drive. So
if you're heading and I'm at the age and I
where I talk about east and west, heading east on
Chagrin towards Woodmere, it'll be on your right hand side.
You'll turn right on Parkies Drive. The office is over there.
I'm in the Federal Building East nine Street, Lakeside, So
we're the one downtown office. Then if you want to,
you know, go on the west side. And I know,
(09:26):
I know some people don't want to cross that river,
but if you want to go to the west side,
we have an office on the rain of forty fourth
down the street for Mgnatius. We have an office in
middlebrog Heights. It's on Pearl Road, just south of Bagley.
We have our Lakewood office, which is on Detroit. Like
so many other things in Lakewood, it's across from Saint
James Catholic Church next to a Dunkin Donuts. Offices are
(09:47):
still open Monday through Friday, nine am to four pm.
You can still call us. Our toll free national number
is not changed. It's one eight hundred and seven seven
to two one two one three. You can talk a
live person between eight am and seven pm. Money through Friday.
But onto the changes. So the agency has shifted to
(10:10):
what we call an appointment focused model, meaning a lot
of the services that people access you are going to
need an appointment. You want to apply for benefits, retirements,
survive or spousal disability SSI, which is Supplemental Security Income.
It's a federal needs based program medicare you need the appointment.
(10:30):
These days, even if you want to get a replacement
Social Security card, we need you to make an appointment
because we want you to make sure that you have
all the proper documentation. But there are a couple of
things that you can still physically walk into the office.
You do not need an appointment. Number one, if you
need to change your direct deposit. So if you're getting
Social Security and you need to change the financial institution
(10:53):
where it's going, we have a new rule where we
can't change that over the phone anymore. So back in
the day, Hey, my money's going to a key bank account.
I wanted to go to dollar. We can answer you,
ask you some questions. We can change it over the phone.
We're not doing that anymore so right now, if you
want to change your bank account in most and once again,
bank account, if you're getting Social Security, if you work
in or you're not getting Social Security, we have no
(11:15):
idea where your money is going. You know, you don't
contact us for that. But if you're getting Social Security
benefits and you need to change where that benefit is going,
you can do that online on our website SSA dot gov.
We have something called a Mysocial Security Account where you
can create an account and change it online. You can
change it right through your bank or credit union in
(11:36):
most instances, so you go to your bank in most instances,
they can send that information electronically to SSA. And I
think that might work for a lot of people, because
a lot of people especially, you know, depending on your circumstances,
you might have a personal relationship with your bankers. Hey
I like that teller. I don't like that teller. They
always got candy on the counter. I mean, there's a
(11:56):
social aspect and is the same thing with direct deposits
that something else will talk about in a second. If
you're still getting pay per checks, the government is going
to stop sending out paper checks at the end of September.
So we really need people that are still getting pay
per checks and we think it's like less than one
percent to change over the direct deposit because they may
not continue to get those paper checks and all someone said, well,
(12:16):
I want my check in my hand. With direct deposit,
you can still go to the bank, you can still
have that relationship with the teller, you can still meet
your friends, but the money's waiting on you. So if
you wake up and you're like, you know, my stomach's
hurting or snow. You know, this is Cleveland. It might
snow one day, it might be a hurricane, might be
a flood. You just don't feel like getting out. You
just wake up. I don't feel like getting up. Your
(12:36):
money's already there because if you think about it, when
you get that check in the mail, it's worthless until
I signed it and then go deposited. With direct depositive,
money is already there waiting on you. So we would
really encourage everybody and people that are still getting pay
per checks, we've been putting an insert in. They're letting
them know, hey, look we need you to switch over
to direct deposit by the end of the month. But
(12:57):
going back to what you don't need to do, which
you don't need to make an a.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
For one, what will happen for those that do not
update their account information to D I mean, excuse me,
direct deposit.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
There might be a suspension of the benefits until we
otherwise hear from them because from the government's perspective, it
is less expensive to send. And I know, and it
took me while to grasp this. It's because someone will say, well,
wait a minute, you don't want to mail the check
to me, but you're going to mail it to the bank.
But that's not how direct deposit works. It's all an
electronic transfer. So it's cheaper to send the money directly
(13:32):
to the bank, and it's faster versus snail mailing it
to your house or your apartment or your PO box
and then waiting for you to get it, waiting for
you to go to your financial institution and sign it
and deposit it. Once again, your money's waiting on you.
And I see this a lot people go on vacation. Well,
(13:53):
if your checks supposed to come on a Wednesday, I
can't go on vacation till that Wednesday or Thursday, because
I got to have my money or if I'm are
on vacation, I want to make sure that I'm back
in time to get my money, versus all right, I'm
gonna go on Monday, my check's gonna be there on Wednesday.
I can spend that money while I'm on vacation or
just out of time. For whatever reason, we just feel
like it's much more convenient for everybody. You know, when
(14:15):
I first started working for all parties, I mean, my
wife works at a local bank. No names please, but
my assumptions they would probably prefer you to have direct
deposits and have to physically come in. We've all been
with a parent or a grandparent or somebody on a
Friday at the bank and the line is wrapped around buildings.
Everybody got to catch my check. I gotta catch my check.
(14:36):
And my dad is always telling these stories of man back,
you know, with my dad's seventy seventy eight seventy nine.
Back in my day, we didn't have ATMs. You had
to physically go to positives, you check and get all
the money that you thought you were going to spend
for the rest of the weekend. Now, hey, my money's
waiting on me. I may go to ATM or I
may just use you know, electronic payment once again, it's
just a little bit safer and convenient. And I say
this as a parent of two teenagers, especially one that's
(14:58):
starting to drive. He's got a deb car. Like man,
I don't want you having to go to a bank
at night getting money. You know, you know, you don't
need to have cash with you, and we can move
that money to Apple pay. We can put that money
in your your debit card. So direct deposit. I don't
know for sure, but better safe than sorry. And a
(15:18):
lot of people they already have bank accounts, we just
don't have the routing and account number. So you're just
closing that loop. Still keep your bank accounts, Still keep
where the money's going, except the money just going there
before you get to check.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
And I presume a letter will go out as well.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Yes, yes, if a person needs a benefit letter, so
sometimes people call it award letter, prove an income letter.
You see this all over the place for housing, energy
assistance loans. I need to prove my income. You know,
I'm getting fifteen hundred dollars from Social Security. I need
to prove it to them. Then I'm getting this. You
(15:54):
can get that letter in the office and we can
mail it to you. But let's be honest, sometimes you
need it yesterday, I can so on the office, I
can pick it up and I can leave with it.
If it's a if you were benefits were suspended. You know,
stuff happens. An individual you know may have got hemmed
up and unfortunately they were incarcerated for a couple of months,
those benefits stopped or were suspended why you were incarcerated.
(16:15):
But once you're out and you have your ID and
you have your proof of release, we can unsuspend the benefits.
So these are individuals where look, you know, I haven't
gotten a check in a couple of months. I really
need to get the ball rolling again. You don't need
to make it a point for that. You can just
come in with your ID and the proof of your
legal release and we can resume the benefits. Or you
(16:35):
might have the benefits might have been suspended because you
moved and we didn't know. So that's another thing. When
you do that change of address of the post office,
that doesn't change the address with Social Security. Now most people,
if you get in Social Security, we may send you
a letter or to a year, but depending on your benefit.
We may send you more letters, maybe we need you
to prove your income or prove some other stuff. Well,
(16:57):
if those letters bounce back to us as underli liberable
and we call you and the phone it's disconnected or
maybe there was no phone on the record, you know,
we're going to err on the side of caution and
maybe suspend the benefits until we otherwise hear from you.
So that's when you know, if your benefits are suspended,
you can come in to get them unsuspended. And of course,
(17:17):
and this is going to be up to each individual.
If there are dire need situations, I know people say,
what does that mean. Everybody's circumstances are different. It might
be a situation where I need, you know, verification of this,
or I need my benefit because I'm about to be
evicted like asap, or you know, I am about to
lose custody of my child. Anything could be considered die need.
Everyone's circumstances are different. And of course, if it's sort
(17:40):
of like a public relations issue, or if it's a
terminal illness, because you know, unfortunately there's some individuals where
you know it may not be too long until I transition.
I really need to get on Social Security. Try to
get as many checks as I can, or at least
set up my loved ones, you know, for potential survivor benefits.
I may not have the ability the way you know,
(18:01):
three four or five six weeks fro an appointment. If
that's the case, we can often take care of you
right then and there.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
That it was.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
I hope y'all count all of that, because, look, I
know it was a lot, but look, there's things that
have changed there, but there's a lot that you can
still take care of in the office, like receiving your letter,
like changing your account info things.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
I've also gone virtual and look.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
SSA dot gov, SA dot gov, SA dot gov.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
You can do a lot of things on there. You
can apply as well.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
For those new individuals that will be applying for Social Security.
Is it preferred to be online?
Speaker 3 (18:46):
So I look at it like this. If you're in
your early to mid sixties, I mean, you're good ten
fifteen years older than me. The concept of the internet
is not new. You know, you grew you're an adult
when the Internet really hit. But it's been a part
of our lives for the last couple of decades. So
it's not. You know, no one should be shocked that
(19:08):
you got a website. I mean, these days, everybody's got
a website or some social media presence. I often tell people,
you've got to be honest with yourself, because what I
don't do is I don't tell people, oh man, it's
so easier. So because I don't know what EASi or
difficult is to you as the individual. Maybe that's the
only child in me. Maybe that's the tourus in me.
But I try to be real careful. For some people, Hey, look,
(19:30):
online works best. You shop online, you did your taxes online,
You're on social media. You know, if you need to
look up a recipe, and once again, if you're looking
up do a cookbook, that's great. But some people, I'm
going on my computer, I'm going on my laptop, I'm
going on my phone. That's what works best for me,
you know. I know, during the pandemic, I myself changed
a lot of my shopping habits. All I can get
(19:52):
this online and it's in stock, versus driving to the
store and hoping, man, I hope they got my size
or hope they got that color, versus let me save
myself the trip and just see does this random website,
be it the small independently on store or the vast
big box store online. That just works best for me.
(20:13):
But some people, no, I got to touch it. I
gotta feel it. I need to see it great, just
like some people. I'm my mother, wonderful woman, highly intelligent.
She still likes to write checks. When it's time to
pay a bill, she will write checks. You know. My
dad will make sure she got stamps and she'll put
them in the post office. I'm paying the bills on
my phone. That's what works best for me. When my
(20:34):
kids start paying bills, my guess is they'll expect me
to pay it. We'll see, you know what I'm saying.
We'll see, but we'll hope. I'll be working wrong and
I want to. But online is the most convenient from
a time frame perspective. You know, like I said, We're
officer opened Monday through Friday, nine or four. It's six
o'clock on Saturday. You know, Brown's preseason game isn't until
(20:57):
the next couple of days or now. I don't feel
like going to the movies, but I I can do
that online. My parents both chose to apply online for
their benefits because that's what worked best for them. If
that doesn't work for you, call us once again one
eight hundred seven seven two one two one three schedule
(21:17):
and appointment and we can have a phone kind of
you know, we'll ask you the questions. One of the
big things, especially the last couple of months, I've been realizing,
you really don't need to be an expert on Social Security.
You need to be an expert on yourself, because when
you're applying for batterfits, you are the star of the show.
I mean, unless or someone loved one is if you're
applying for your child, or you're you know, you're applying
(21:38):
for spousal or survivor bantemits. You need to know stuff
about your spouse x spouse, late spouse. But this isn't
like a pop quiz. You know, we're not asking you, hey,
what's the circumference of Jupiter? Or you know how many
steals did Lebron have his rookie season? Not this isn't
a game show. We're asking you you know your name,
your date of birth, your Social Security number, your marital history,
(22:01):
because we want to see are you eligible for benefits
on someone else's record or someone eligible on your record.
How old are your kids because they might be eligible.
What is the routing and account number of where you
want your checks to go? See you and you know
you deal with the banks. If my riting account number
is wrong, I'm not getting paid. You know, it'say way,
(22:23):
I thought it was one, two, three four, but it
was really six seven eight. Well, guess what if we
don't have the right account number, We're not sending you
the check. So that's got to work best, you know,
sort of for for you. So you're gonna apply online
for retirement benefits, spousal disability, and Medicare if that works
best for you. If not, call us in schedule an appointment.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Okay, So can we break those different sectors of Social
Security down a little further just for those.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Who you know, just oh yeah, yeah, because you know,
I've I've been with the agency for since June of
o three. I've been in this position as a public
affairs specially since June April of seven. And you know,
I've been blessed with this position. I'm able to, you know,
to go to a lot of different places over the years.
You know, you know, you might be at a company
in Westlake, you might be at a library in East Cleveland.
(23:13):
It varies, and sometimes people will say, well, I'm just
getting regular social Security. What does no such thing as
regular social Security? It's Social Security retirement benefits meaning you
were at least sixty two years old, you had worked
and paid in the Social Security for at least ten years,
then you decided to apply for benefits, so you were
getting a check that is based on what you had
(23:34):
worked and paid in the Social Security. Then off shoot
of that, there's spousal benefits meaning I'm still alive, but
I'm married and my husband or wife is getting a
check based off of my work record. There's ex spousal
benefits meaning we were married at least ten consecutive years,
and now my ex might be getting benefits or I
(23:56):
might be getting benefits from my ex. None of that
lowers the workers payment, So I don't want somebody who's
listening to thinking, man, I don't want my ex to
get a check. Your ex getting a check does not
lower your check. And then of course there's your children.
So depending on when you had children or how old
they are, if you're receiving Social Security benefits, retirement benefits,
(24:16):
or disability your kids if they're under the age of eighteen,
if they're nineteen but still in high school, or if
your children were disabled before they turned twenty two, we're
paying them a check. And that's not child support. We
don't pull money out of your check to pay the kids.
It's money in addition to what they're receiving. So those
are what I call the life age benefits, retirement benefits,
(24:39):
spousal xpousal children. Then there's the transition because at some
point we're all going to meet our maker. So then
you got survivor benefits. So there was an individual who'd
worked and paid the Social Security he's here. They had
passed away, the children are still eligible. So if we
can pay your child while you're alive, so you know
I once again, let's say a father is sixty four
(25:01):
years old, wife or ex wife is fifty seven, and
they got a fourteen year old child. That fourteen year
old child is going to be eligible whether that man
or woman is dead or alive. Then we pay survivor benefits.
Once again, we were married, you unfortunately passed away, and
depending on my circumstance, I might be getting a check.
(25:22):
There's expousal benefits, meaning we were married we got divorced,
then you passed away. If we were married long enough,
I might be eligible for a benefit. Once again, that
is not going to hurt anyone else that might be eligible.
So I don't want anybody to think, wait a minute,
my husband or wife they were married before. That's a
(25:44):
non issue regarding us, meaning you know, you fell in
love with your husband or wife later on life. You
guys were married for twenty five years, they passed away,
but they got it, you know an X they were
married for eleven twelve years. Their eligibility will not lower yours,
you know. And I know I don't want to be
naive or disrespectful and tell someone, man, don't worry about them,
don't worry about that. But it's one of those situations
where you can worry about it, but you're worrying about
(26:07):
something that isn't going to hurt you. You know. At
some point it just becomes the principle, like I just
don't want them to get a check, right, but if
they did or didn't exist, it's not gonna pay you
a dime more or less. So right with everything that's
going on in the world, how much energy do I
have to devote to that person like you're here. Sometimes
on social media you'll see, hey, we're gonna pay you
(26:27):
one hundred million dollars, but your worst enemy's got to
be paid two hundred million. Well guess what they can
get there, two hundre million because I'm gonna be rich.
And you know, good for them, good for them, good
for them. I'm in Barbados. They believed we're good to go.
So that's sort of the survivor benefits. Then you have
the disability angle. And what I want to caution people
(26:49):
to understand is retirement benefits, spisal benefits. Did you work
long enough or you're old enough. If so, you will
get paid. Were you're married long enough for the benefit,
we'll pay. Disability is different because disability I don't know
with one hundred percent certainly, if you're going to be
awarded the payment, it's you know, you got sports where
(27:12):
you know, baseball, football, basketball, I scored more points than you,
I scored more runs than you. I'm going to win.
Then you have the more subjective sports where there's a
judge and it's not like, well did I win? I
got to see and disability And once again, I'm not
trying to be disrespectful to disability. But it's not sort
of as clear cut from the perspective of because you know,
the human body is different. What may be disabling to
(27:34):
me at fifty may not have been disabling at twenty five,
may have been considerably worse at sixty. Everybody's circumstances are different.
You may have you know, two people, man, that's you know,
they both severely injured their ankle. But you know, one person,
much younger, higher degree of education, is able to transition
into another line of work that might pay them significantly
(27:55):
in a new job, versus the other person. They may
not be able to transition. So the big thing is
you can can't say, well, I have the same ailment
as her or him, how come they're getting a check
and I'm not. So there's disability benefits Social Security disability SSD.
I person had worked paid in the Social Security became
unable to work because of a medically determinable and unless
(28:19):
the big words for me condition be it physical, mental,
or psychological.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
So I can't work at all, or I can't work.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
At sort of a substantial level. So I my condition
is keeping me from being able to make a lot
of money and that's where the confusion, yes, because there's
a difference between I can't work in that field that
I was in anymore, versus the medical evidence shows that
(28:50):
I might not be able to work substantially at all.
So what I usually tell people is this, and I'm
still from a gentleman. His name was Bill Norris, William Norris.
He was the first manager I had when I worked
in Middleburg Heights. He passed away. God rest is so
great man. He told me. When you're applying for disability,
(29:10):
you are painting a picture who you are and what
your condition is to Social Security. And that is not
the time to get shy. Now, mind you, If you're
applying for disability because of I don't know, let's say,
a lower back or a hip or a heart issue.
Who took out your tonsils when you were ten, that's
a non issue, you know. But every doctor, hospital, clinic,
(29:35):
to the best of your knowledge that you can remember,
we want that information. I know there's a lot of
movies out there in TV shows, well, the coman knows
everything about you, not, ain't It's not true like Social
Security has no idea what doctors you've been to, what
medicines you're on what medical tests that you've had done.
So let's keep it real. Simple. Person has a heart
(29:55):
condition and they are on two medications. They've seen one doctor.
That doctor is the Cleveland Clinic. Okay, give us all
of that. What's the what's the doctor's name? Oh you
know that's doctor you know Keisha Jones. Okay, when did
you see or was it inpatient or outpatient? What medicine?
Zerre you want? And what I want to tell people
to understand is don't assume we know what your condition is.
(30:20):
So hey, I'm on this medicine, all right, Well to
the best of you. Now do you know why you're
on it? And are you having any side effects? And
we all see those those commercials for medications on TV
and the side effects are always worse than the actual condition. Well,
don't y'all know what this? No, no, no, what are
what's going on with you? Forget about the commercials, forget
(30:40):
about the knowledge, what if any side effects or conditions
are you experiencing? Because we can only contact oops are
we can only contact the doctors that you told us about.
So if you saw five doctors at Metro and Cleveland
Clinic and the VA, which only tell us about one.
(31:01):
Guess what, we only contacted that one and that doctor.
They may have been on they may be on vacation,
they may be on sabbatical, they may be retired, they
may have passed away, and we just don't get that
information in a timely fashion. So if you saw six doctors,
give us that information about those six doctors. So and
also with disability, there's a bit of a waiting because
(31:21):
you're it takes time for a medical decision because when
you apply, you know, we send that information down to
our medical team and they contact the doctors that you
told us about, and that that takes months three to five,
three to six months on average to go buy versus, hey,
I'm sixty six years old, don't want apply for benefits? Man,
We might have might get a check in the next
month or so, depending on how everything lines up. So
(31:44):
there's a bit of a bit of a weight, like
I gotta wait for the medical decision. Well, yes, that
because right because if it's a if it's a terminal illness,
we can get you in quicker. Other conditions, we might
be able to make a decision, you know, quicker if
you were a veteran and you have a certain rating
from the VA, we might be able to make a
decision quicker. And then there's SSI Supplemental Security Income, which
(32:07):
is another it's a disability program unless you're sixty five,
So it is a what we call a needs based
program for people that are blind, disabled, or over the
age of sixty five with limited income limited resources. So
SSI is the one benefit that we pay where you
do not have to have worked or your husband, wife, mother, father,
(32:30):
no one had to work for your eligibility, but you
got to be under the income and resource limits. So
if a single person, that's two thousand dollars. If you're
married and your spouse is living with you, it's three
thousand dollars. So if you're applying for SSI, you need
to sort of you don't you need to get comfortable,
(32:51):
but you need to understand because it's needs based, the
questions are going to be a little bit more in depth.
Meaning if you apply for let's say you were third
years older and apply for retirement benefits, we're not going
to ask you about your house bank accounts. A only
time we got to ask you bank accounts because we
want to know where to send them money. We're not
getting into your financial because that's a non issue for us.
(33:12):
But let's flip the reverse. Let's say you're three, you know,
in your sixties or seventies, and you're applying for SSI.
We'll ask you about your income. You know, stocks, bonds, CDs,
I rays, mutual funds, pension plans, lotter winnings, annuities, adherences.
Do you have more than one vehicle? Do you have
more than one piece of property? And SCI is the
(33:34):
only benefit where if you're married and living together. It's
a classic case of what's mine is hers and what's
hers is mine. So they could be somebody who's listening,
who I don't have the dime to my name, but
I'm married and my spouse has six thousand dollars in
the bank. That money might be, Hey, we're saving up
to finish the basement or do the roof. Scide doesn't
(33:56):
look at it like that. Are you married, yes? Living together? Yes?
Does this person have the six thousand dollars? Yes, you
are currently ineligible for SSI. SSI is a benefit of
last resort, But you're an adult. Do what you feel
is in your best interest. Live your life. But just
understand that if you wanna keep that check coming, you
(34:18):
gotta report stuff, and you take a bus trip to
a casino. Not that I'm not advocating gambled, but if
you're an adult, you want to spend your money, spend
your money. Let's say you know you hit for a
little bit on the slot machines. Now, hey, I hit
for you know, ten thousand dollars or five thousand dollars.
That's good. You know, it's nice money. It's not gonna
fundamentally change your life indefinitely, but it's enough money that
(34:41):
you need to report that to SSI because it's gonna
stop your check for a while, because you're over the
income and resource limit. And I know the pushback is,
I'm an adult, I'm living my life. You are absolutely right.
You are an adult, live in your life. You have
free will. You can do what you want. But part
of that freedom is understanding that all these actions there
are consequences, positively and negatively for those actions. It isn't
(35:05):
when when you start getting benefits. And this will feel preachy,
but forgive me, when you get benefits, it is not
the end, but it feels like it for so many people.
I made the appointment I got my documentation, I applied
for benefits, I waited, I got my check, I got
my war letter of the money's coming. The end. No,
it is now the beginning of a new relationship. And
(35:26):
with that new relationship, you got to know what you
need to do to keep that relationship going right. I mean,
let's forget about take your job. You know what you
can and cannot do at your job, and assuming you
want to keep the job, you will keep on the
path of well, this is what I do. This is
the basis I need to know. I need to know.
I need to be able to do this to keep
(35:46):
that check flowing, for to keep my employment going, to
keep my health insurance. That's what it is. Once you
start getting benefits. Everybody has reporting responsibilities circumstances in which
you need to contact the agency, and some of them simple.
If you move, if you change banks, if you leave
the country. We need to know because some of that
(36:07):
can affect your eligibility, It can affect the amount of
the check. And I I just didn't know.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
Can I be charged with fraud if I just didn't
know I needed to report all of those things.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
The main thing would probably be with just the benefits,
would stop and then you run the risk of being overpaid. So,
you know, let's say you're getting SSI, which once again
is a needs based program, and the intent doesn't even
have to be malicious. It could be something innocent, like,
you know, yeah I was we were dating and then
we got married and we moved in together. Well, you know,
(36:40):
I didn't think I had to you know, why did
I have to report that? Well, that's because that's a
change that's consequential to your situation. So that's the key.
It is on one size fits all thing. You know,
you're talking to your friend who lives across the street.
You're both getting benefits. Your friend is getting retirement benefits.
I mean, they had worked, they paid in system, and
that doesn't mean they're better worse. It's just they're getting
(37:01):
a different type of benefit. They may not even be
getting more than you. So let's say you're both get
nine hundred bucks. They're getting nine hundred dollars retirement benefits.
We don't need to know if they get married or
divorced or that's not because that has no consequence on
their eligibility. Maybe you're getting nine hundred dollars SSI because
SSI is a needs based program, you do need to
(37:24):
report it because that affects the eligibility for your check.
And I know it's really simple. We all have trusted
people in our lives, your friends, some family members, and
it's so easy to say, well, you mean you're getting
benefits what I need to do and all of us,
so many of us are hearts in the right place,
but we don't have the wherewithal to say, you know what,
(37:47):
I'm getting a different benefit than you. You need to
check to see what's going on with your specific situation.
So worry about to see or if you helping your
kids or a family member locking on them, is their
circumstance maybe different than yours?
Speaker 2 (38:03):
Yes, yes, As an independent agency, how does Social Security
Association really coordinate with all of the offices throughout the nation.
Speaker 3 (38:14):
So we we have sort of a decentralized way of
doing things. So here in Northern Ohio, there's twenty nine
offices in Northern Ohio and those offices report to what
we call our Area Director's office. So there's you know,
there's one office that's sort of the I guess, I
guess I would almost look at it and I would say,
(38:36):
like in politics, where you have, I mean thisipilogy. You've
got cities and counties, and you know, everything is sort
of bigger and bigger and bigger, even though I know
the mayor of Cleveland doesn't necessarily report to the county executive.
But so think of Social Security. You have a local office,
the manager of that local office reports to someone might
(38:56):
be a larger Social Security office. It might be the
area Director's office. So you have what we call areas
and and mind you for the general public, you know
this has nothing to do this, It doesn't affect them
really in any way. Those areas once again toined out
office in northern Ohio. They report to a regional office,
(39:16):
you know the regional the four regional offices in the
in the country, and those regional offices report to our headquarters.
Our headquarters is in Baltimore and Woodlawn, Maryland. So there
is there is a you know, a structure from office,
Area Director's office, regional office, and then the national office
where our commissioner is located.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
Gotcha, has there been anything since Trump has gotten into
office that has rocked your office?
Speaker 3 (39:43):
You know what I always tell people is, you know,
we we often talked about that silver tsunami and the
baby boomers ain't going to retire. Well, guess what a
lot of those people boomers worked with us, So you know,
some people were gonna retire regardless of who won the election,
who was in power, they were going to retire anyway.
So you know, we've had every times. But you get higher,
some people leave. You know, I've noticed no noticeable turnover
(40:08):
the last couple of months or years, just sort of
the ebb and flow as I have been in my
career longer. You know, you do this, you start like,
wait a minute, I've been here longer than her, been
longer than him, I'm older. You know, you blink and
you're one of the old heads. You know you see
on social medium, man, hey, what's going on? Uncle? Like,
wait a minute, I'm not unco But then your knees, oh,
you definitely needs to tell you you are. So I
(40:31):
feel to a certain s like unk when I'm in
the office because I start count like, wait a minute,
I'm older than them. I'm older than them. So it's
just it's not so much once again who's in power.
It's just as I've gotten older and I realized that
I have more years behind me. Essay than I do
in front of me, not necessarily, but I don't want
to work another twenty two years at essay. So I mean, yeah,
(40:54):
I'm hopeing I got plenty of years left in life.
But you know, you just notice that, you know, things
have changed from the perspective once again, and online services.
When I started, people have smartphones. And that's the thing,
Sothon as you talked about it. A lot of people
they still think of filing online. Means I am on
a desktop computer that is gray with no People are
(41:17):
applying on their tablets, People are applying on their laptops.
Some people are applying on their phones. You know, you
pinch and zoom. I know that some people like you know,
I got buddies, right, I got buddies. Hey, man, I
bought a car through my phone or I signed the
mortgage or the rental agreement on my phone. So I've
(41:40):
noticed more than that than any one thing as far
as the administration, just the change and technology. And as
I'm getting older and I inch closer to the age
of the peace people I'm talking to and I was saying, man,
I got to get my ducks in a row too.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
Is there anything else you want to leave with our
listening audience here at our voices today. Besides again the
end of September. At the end of September. At the
end of September, you have to add your bank account.
You will not receive a physical check in the mail anymore.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
If you are one of those one percenters.
Speaker 3 (42:15):
In mind you most people they hear this, they may
not even get the paper checks. A lot of people
have never seen a physical payper check. And they get
an IRS refund, it goes in the debit card, goes
into a bank account, they get paid, they get a
Social Security check. I mean, you know it's gonna I've
never hit for money at a casino, but I don't
know what the options are. But it's like, hey, you
just want five mili. You want this paper check? No man,
(42:36):
send that money to me. I don't want to be
holding on to it anything at all. I want to
make sure people know how to contact us once again,
so I'll give the contact information. I'll go slow. So
if you want to call Social Security one eight hundred
seven seven two one two one three, that's basically one
(42:56):
eight hundred SSA twelve thirteen. Our website SSA dot gov
you can do a lot of stuff online. I guess
the last thing I want to say, the main thing
that drives people to our offices is people needing a
replacement Social Security card. The birth certificate is not ID
(43:19):
forgetting a replacement card, no matter how old you are,
Meaning you got a two month old who has a
Social Security number, you just can't find it. The birth
certificate is not ID for that infant. Your twelve year
old child is about to start school, your twenty two
year old cousin, your thirty five year old girlfriend, your
fifty five year old mom. We need ID, driver's license,
(43:42):
state ID, passport. If they don't have any of those things,
we can take something from their doctor, the hospital, the clinic,
something with their name and age, name, a data, birth name,
and social Security number. We want it to be stamped
and signed by the person who provided you with those records.
Everybody's circumstances are different. Some people have safe deposit boxes.
(44:05):
Some people are you know, they're more transient. If you
can keep your Social Security card in a safe place,
there's probably no reason for most people on a day
to day basis that carry with you. Because you know
how it is. The more you carry with you, the
more likely you are to lose it. Keep it in
the safe place whatever that means, under the mattress, at
your parents' house, at the bank, whatever. But we would
just say keep it with your important documents, your birth certificate,
(44:27):
your car insurance or your car title if you got
a car, if you've got any other important documents, just
don't carry with you because once again you carried with you,
you run the risk of loosing it.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
Can we talk, Okay, last thing, I promise a promise.
Appeals and scams just really quick.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
Process? Is it grueling? Is it quick?
Speaker 3 (44:45):
Is it just?
Speaker 1 (44:46):
It is what it is? Get out the way. There's
a lot of scammers out here.
Speaker 2 (44:51):
Yes, and they are getting very creative to the point
like I recently purchased a home and I I was
added to the list of recent Yes, so I got
all the you know, advertisement and all those things. I
also got a lot of scams via in the mail
and things of that nature. And I also received my
(45:13):
sister actually received a text message, an urgent and ah
mean text message saying that I need to contact her
legal action would be taken and d all these scams
are getting My point is, look y'all, look y'all, these
scams are getting outrageous and stay on your toes.
Speaker 3 (45:31):
Yes, So I can only speak for me when it
comes to this. I've gone back and forth with this,
but once, especially having teenagers, you want to make sure
there's a level of availability to yourself because you never
know if it's gonna be the school, something like that.
But often, and I switched this setting on my phone.
Sometimes I'll set it to not ring for unknown numbers.
(45:54):
I've had the same phone number for twenty some odd years,
and often there aren't a lot of new calls that
I'm going to get, and I'm like, if it's some
one of the kids, they with text I got the number,
leave me a voicemail. We'll see. But so here's the thing.
Social Security is not a law enforcement agency. So there's
no reason why you would get a call or a
(46:15):
text from Social Security saying, hey, if you don't do this,
you're going to be arrested. If you don't do this,
you're going to be convicted. This whole thing about, well,
you know, I got a call or a text saying
that my Social Security number was associated with this car
there was illicit drugs. Wait a minute, we've all watched
cop shows. That's not they don't call you ahead of time.
That's not how it works, or the scammers. To your point,
(46:39):
everything is threatening. Everything is in uh uppercase letters, it's bold,
it's you need.
Speaker 1 (46:45):
To take action now, urgent. And that's the thing.
Speaker 3 (46:48):
Urgent.
Speaker 1 (46:48):
Try to give you zero time.
Speaker 3 (46:50):
To Yes, they bombard your senses and once again and
you'll see these horror stories. We're not talking about. Oh
it's not the elderly. It could be somebody twenty thirty forty,
ten thousand, one hundred thousand, their retirement savings gone, and
unfortunately for often it doesn't click in until the millisecond
(47:10):
after they've given them money. So what a lot of
the scams are. One would be the gift card like, hey,
your sol schid that has been compromised. You need to
go to random big box store buy you know, gift cards,
then read us off the numbers. And I know you're panicking,
your nervous, but if you just to the best of
your ability, just sit there and say, wait a minute,
(47:31):
wait a minute minute, what is the government gonna do
with Apple gift cards? They don't need that, How is
that gonna what that doesn't you know when you stop
and saying like that that's complicated, or the whole thing
about well you're gonna you gotta go to your bank,
but don't tell the teller because if you tell it,
and I'm like, wait a minute, if I go to
(47:51):
the bank and get out my own money, why would
that affect my sister? Like how did what? If that
doesn't make sense? Or look, I still don't fully understand cryptocurrency,
but you'll, you know, I know you've seen this stuff
on the news where they'll scare people and you go
to a crypto eight a m. And you you put
money in and like, wait a minute, I know how
to I can. I can give you cash in my hand.
(48:12):
I can write a check. But these scams, they're so
complicated and they require you to do so much, so
often you have time to just say you know what, man,
do you I mean? And once again this is just sometimes.
Speaker 1 (48:22):
They don't though.
Speaker 2 (48:23):
Sometimes it's just a click away. Sometimes it's just a
call away. As soon as you call them, they can
hack your phone. As soon as you text them.
Speaker 1 (48:31):
Back, they're hacking. They're already in your account.
Speaker 3 (48:33):
Yes, yes, that's why I don't even with my phone.
And mostly you know, but you can hold on to it.
I can delete it, send it to spam block, but yeah,
it'll be well your Amazon packages its two minutes late
if you want to change it. And I'm like, wait
a minute. Amazon doesn't text me. Everything is through the
Amazon app, but they'll email me. But this link, don't
(48:54):
click that link. Or sometimes I'll get a lot of these. Hey,
you're looking for work content on what's app.
Speaker 1 (49:01):
Well, we found your resume one indeed, But is this
foreign number?
Speaker 3 (49:06):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (49:06):
Or is this email?
Speaker 3 (49:07):
Yes? Yes? Yes? Hit us up on Telegram. And I'm like,
wait a minute, I got you found my resume and
I haven't applied for a job in thirty years. But
I'm supposed to download this app to call you, and
then you want.
Speaker 1 (49:19):
Me to be in a stop it I use what's app.
Speaker 3 (49:22):
Well, yeah, I gotta use what's app to get this
new job. I don't that job better pay me as.
Speaker 1 (49:26):
Much as Lebron appeals Before we got.
Speaker 3 (49:29):
Appeals appeals, So there are circumstances unfortunate where a person
may be overpaid. I mean they got more money than
they were due for a number of reasons. You have
appeal right, So when you get your letter it's going
to have the number of the form. It's usually the
SSA five sixty one. It's a request for a reconsideration
where you have up to sixty days to follow an appeal.
Once again, going back to the comments for my late manager,
(49:52):
painting picture of who you are on, what your condition is,
what's going on? Why is this incorrect? Why are you appealing?
Give us as much details. It can't be just well
I don't want to pay it back. That's it's not
really a reason. It's oh, no, you have incorrect wages,
or oh I gave you misinformation inadvertently, I wasn't working,
that was a gift from my mom or whatever.
Speaker 1 (50:10):
Just I already spent it.
Speaker 3 (50:12):
Something. You got to tell your story because this notion
of I'm not gonna respond to that. If you don't
respond to the letters regarding an overpayment, they're gonna assume
that you got it and are complying with it, and
they're just gonna stop your check until you do something.
Speaker 1 (50:26):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (50:27):
I thank you, mister Vernon for sharing all of this
information with us about social security and forming us about
just all the different sectors and benefits you can receive.
Speaker 1 (50:36):
Your entire family and household can receive when you basically
broke it down. Now, only couldn't the disable person, the
wife and the child as well or t dredn look
different circumstances and each one is different. Each one is
just that. So please check on your benefits see if
(50:57):
you can't get them.
Speaker 3 (51:01):
But they say a closed mouse doesn't get fed, Yes, the.
Speaker 1 (51:03):
Closed mouth definitely does not get fed. W O w
U ninety five point nine FL.
Speaker 2 (51:08):
Again, thank you mister Brady for joining me on our
voices today.
Speaker 1 (51:15):
This is w O v U Studios
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CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.