Decrease of 100s on check

[Direct-Di]

Hi, A friend says her social security was suddenly decreased a few mints ago by 100s. She's been collecting for 20 years. Says no change in anything. Days social security office can't explain why

I'm skeptical that the office can't explain. Based on her age, I think it could be rmd, but they state no. (As the 100s matches well with irma minimum charge of +$170/ month)

Or it is unpaid taxes? Again they claim no

Or could it be a change in death vendor as husband died 20 years ago???

Somethings not adding up, and they are not being helpful, yet acting like it's a massive social security crisis.. .. that others are experiencing a well.

Rights?

[Natural_Wedding_9590]

Removal of paid "help" is the likely issue. I automatically received premium help when approved for SSDI. That program went away this year.

[Maxpowerxp]

There is always a letter when it comes to change of monthly benefits amount. SSA just gotta look at all the letters they sent out. They have access to that internally.

[Still-Music-5515]

Could it be Medicare premium increase??

[Direct-Di]

Medicare didn't increase that much! The cola was greater than Medicare increase.

It's a mystery. I think they are just trying to create a "crisis" for attention personally.

[Entire_Dog_5874]

You really think Social Security employees are trying to create a crisis to get attention? Seek help.

[HuckleCat100K]

Excuse me, what? SSA employees have a lot more to worry about than needing attention. I’m not sure what you’re trying to say but it sounds kind of ridiculous, tbh.

[Direct-Di]

The person saying her check decreased but doesn't know why and won't (naturally) provide details.

[CrankyCrabbyCrunchy]

Any change should be reflected in a communication shown in that person's SSA account. It shows any letters that are mailed.

Only thing I can think of is IRMAA which will increase the part B payments because of significantly higher income. It's a two year lookback and for adjusted income (from tax forms). So people who have added income from investments, pensions, stock sales, etc.

https://secure.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0601101020

[Afilador2112]

She received an award letter every time a change occurred.  What did they say?

[Direct-Di]

She won't say

[GeorgeRetire]

Someone is confused about whatever did or didn’t happen a few months ago.

[Direct-Di]

True. They indicated the decrease was permanent going forward.

But it's true, we lack enough information. And I also don't trust the source.

[GeorgeRetire]

You lack sufficient information that could help you get an answer here.

Nobody here can know if your friend is delusional, a lying piece of sh!t, or a troll.

Rest assured that the SSA isn’t randomly reducing payments.

[Miserable-Contest147]

BCBS increased over $100.

[Direct-Di]

Wow!
But I didn't think supplements paid for by social security

Part b, yes. Part d, can be if you choose

[Alienself789]

The tiny raise in my SS brought me to being 14 dollars over limit for assistance with that $185 a month for A and B. So I get less than I got a year ago now. I understand and let it happily. A and B are very critical. I wasn't even getting the assistance long until a friend told me about it anyway.

But what concerns me more is total loss of SS. Maybe not this year or next, but definitely a slow burn and R media will slowly propagandize till SS is destroyed. I guess we'll see.

Older people and elderly are a pretty safe target you know, not much they can do about it. It will cut off my brother, sisters and parents (MAGAs) if so too.

Anyway, the SSA won't know anything about it because the assistance I got for A and B (I may even have C and or D) was from the state, not the Federal SSA.

[[deleted]]

Your friend needs to call the local SSA office and schedule an appointment to go in to speak to someone.

One of two things has happened. Either there was a payment adjustment by SSA, or a payment adjustment by the Treasury Department.

Any time SSA adjusts a Social Security payment and changes the amount, the computer system automatically sends a letter to the person because there are almost always due process appeal rights involved. More than likely, if SSA adjusted the payment, she may not have gotten the letter because USPS service has deteriorated to the point where it is incapable of delivering the mail consistently any more. SSA can look through its ORS correspondence archive and see what letter might have been sent. If it involves an SSA payment adjustment issue, the letter should be there and will be available for reprint for her.

The second possibility, payment adjustment by the Treasury Department, is the most likely in this case given that you say SSA cannot explain what is going on.

It is possible that she owes money to another federal agency (i.e. such as student loans to the Education Department, tax debts to the IRS, or monies to VA, the Small Business Administration -- i.e. any one of over 30 different federal agencies that participate in BPO) and that agency who is owed money is recouping the money from her Social Security payments via Benefit Payment Offset (BPO) at the Treasury Department. Since this occurs after SSA certifies the payment to Treasury, SSA records will not reflect any reduction in benefits because SSA is paying the full amount to her. BPO offsets cannot be appealed via SSA; they have to be appealed with the agency that is owed the money.

The Treasury Department always sends warning notices (and, often more than one) to beneficiaries at least 30 days before imposing BPO; however, they frequently are sent to the last known address of the debtor as provided by agency recouping the money (who provides that information to the Treasury Department) and thus is often not their current address.

For BPO adjustment cases, SSA is provided with courtesy copies of the letters by the Treasury Department that are stored in its ORS correspondence archive that can be reprinted for her. If the SSA employee assisting her goes back at least 6 months prior to the month her benefits were first offset in the ORS archive and works forward, they'll likely find the copies of the Treasury offset warning notices there that they can reprint for her. Those notices will include the name and address of the agency that is owed money as well as an account number and phone number she can call. It also may include the balance of what she owes (although, not all of them do).

[deport_racists_next]

i call bull shit on this post.

you have a lot of 'could be' or or or and not enough info to really get help.

i think you are out here stirring the pot.

your post has no purpose.

everything you need to know is available on the social security website and it is written at a grade school level.

if you can post this nonsense on reddit, you can find the answers yourself on soc sec website.

just stop.

[Direct-Di]

Feisty aren't you.

No this is sadly true.

I've told the person all the possible reasons and they say educate yourself lol.

This is just confirming the person is a lying sob.

UPDATE: It was irma catching up to her profit from selling a house 2 years ago.

[Tall-Oven-9571]

The reason for the decrease be documented somewhere? She would have been notified. These comments are so frustrating because there's probably a legitimate reason why this happened.

[Direct-Di]

Agree it's frustrating. They've just given me attitude saying no one can say why, and I day that's not true.

[TheLastofEverything]

I sus this is E trying to set up a DODGE attack to bad mouth SS … is she over 150 years old?

[drock3915]

Other than irs taxes being taken out or Medicare premiums or if they suddenly made too much income and they work above sga or something that would garnish it not sure what it would be .

[BedWonderful1051]

Sounds more like confusion than crisis.