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Category: SSA

Our Blog

February 27, 2025

Staffing Shortages at SSA May Close Local Offices

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is a lifeline for millions of Americans, particularly those with long-term disabilities. However, recent local SSA staff...

July 31, 2014

Despite promising data, Medicare trust still in trouble

Because we have talked about it so many times before on this blog, many of our more frequent readers are quite aware of the trouble facing the Social Security Administration’s trust funds than other residents across Illinois. As some of you already know, the rise in the number of baby boomers who need Medicare assistance has created a vacuum, allowing funds to leave the trust faster than they are coming in. Although initial estimates were incredibly bleak, only giving the...

July 23, 2014

SSA will not cut services in Illinois field offices as planned

In the last few years, the Social Security Administration has seen an increase in the number of applications for benefits in all of its programs. From retirement to disability, the administration has struggled for months now to clear its backlog and provide benefits to millions of Americans across the United States. But an uncertainty regarding the budget has conflicted with the increased workload, which has caused the administration to make some rather difficult decisions like limiting services offered at many...

July 7, 2014

How could recent VA decision affect your disability claim?

As so many of our Illinois readers know from first-hand experience, filing for disability benefits can be a frustrating process filled with complicated restrictions and confusing questions. But this process can be made even more frustrating when the agencies associated with disability benefits, such as the Social Security Administration and the Department of Veterans Affairs, change who can receive benefits and for what conditions. Some of our readers might be experiencing this frustration at this very moment because of a...

May 29, 2014

Social Security covers much more than just retirement

There are a number of misconceptions when it comes to Social Security benefits. While there is a tendency to only think about these benefits as what we will receive when we retire, there are a large number of other benefits as well. There are around 38 million retirees that receive Social Security income. However, there are also approximately 59 million Americans including surviving spouses, children and disabled individuals who receive Social Security payments. Even divorced spouses may be eligible to...

April 11, 2014

Are Social Security numbers poised to undergo a major change?

Without a doubt, one of the most talked about subjects of the past week has been the so-called "Heartbleed" Internet security glitch. While a technical discussion of this issue is clearly beyond the scope of our blog, "Heartbleed" has essentially exposed the online passwords of computer users for the last two years due to a flaw in a commonly utilized piece of security software. Understandably, one of the major concerns that most people have after hearing about this password exposure...

March 28, 2014

Lawsuit victory ensures vulnerable people won’t lose benefits

In a very interesting story out of the state of Oregon, the Social Security Administration found itself hauled into a federal courtroom this week to answer a lawsuit alleging that its recent actions were going to result "in the imminent suspension of life-sustaining benefits" for well over 400 people. According to reports, federal authorities recently shut down a Portland-area non-profit called Safety Net, which acted as a "payee," meaning it would manage the disability benefits (pay bills, issue checks, etc.)...

January 24, 2014

Are Social Security statements returning to mailboxes?

The Social Security Advisory Board, the governmental entity tasked with ensuring that the public understands the nation's retirement and disability systems, made a rather momentous announcement earlier this week. Specifically, the board announced on Wednesday that it was recommending that the Social Security Administration reinstate the practice of mailing annual Social Security Statements to all beneficiaries. As you may recall, the SSA suspended the mailing of the statements back in May 2011 due to what it classified at the time...

December 13, 2013

SSA seeks return of benefits from wounded vet four decades later

The unfortunate reality for the Social Security Administration is that it frequently makes headlines for all the wrong reasons. To illustrate, consider a recent story involving a wounded veteran who is now being called upon to reimburse the agency for disability benefits mistakenly sent to him over four decades ago. A 61-year-old California man, we'll call him Thomas, was seriously injured in the Vietnam War back in the early 1970s, suffering everything from femur and vertebrae fractures to bladder and...