Social Security PSA

[Gravelette]

It would be smart to keep a hard copy of your Social Security earnings record, either the one they send out or get one online. Even if you are already receiving benefits, your earnings record could be "adjusted" and your benefits reduced. Not saying this will happen but it has now become possible. Might be a good idea to go back to printed bank statements as well.

[sbleiweiss]

What are you talking about? Why has it become possible? And why the bank statements?

[R.M.A]

Baloney, unless you're getting more than deserved.

[Cajun 143]

sounds like another conspiracy theory

[Gravelette]

Folks can Google this but the issue is that previously secure data is no longer secure and is subject to manipulation. This happened with the IRS, now in the last few days with SSA. Again, not saying anything bad will happen or even that anyone has bad intentions. Only that safe guards have been removed and security breached.https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/17/polit...ess/index.html

[hamm2018]

Thread Warning

please remember politics are dangerous bedfellows and can ruin allot of subjects. So, in short, remember politics/political discussions are not allowed.

[Gravelette]

^^^Yep, just trying to post some facts w/o judgement. Lot's of us older folks here.

[Mark_K5LXP]

My identity has been compromised long before now, namely by retailers and most recently my healthcare provider. I highly doubt anyone will be mucking with individual's benefits and even in the event of a change, addressing that will be no less annoying than dealing with credit monitoring, getting new cards issued or an IRS audit. Considering the apparent SS fraud that's being exposed I'm thinking there stands to be a direct benefit of helping to preserve the program overall. The elephant in the room is the projected insolvency of SS in 10 years or whatever if nothing is done about it. Well, something's being done about it. Folks I've talked with about this are critical of the method but no one can offer that what's been done up until now has been useful. Administrations as a whole are quite content raising the debt ceiling and writing hot checks for decades. They're finally running out of other people's money. Do you wait for the economy to crash due to inflation caused by debt service, loss of fiat currency status, or some market event? On the current projected path is this is inevitable. Again, maybe there's a better way - then why hasn't anyone that's been in power to this point done anything about it? My view, this is as much about exposing the fraud in the administrations as the fraud exposed in the specific agencies and departments.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

[corn18]

I like the suggestion. Good idea to have hard copies regardless of any threat level. I have a spreadsheet that does my own benefits calculation as well. Just to make sure the OASDI folks are accurate.

[ktdtexas]

I'm not sure I would rely on CNN for "facts"

[Gravelette]

Originally Posted by ktdtexas

I'm not sure I would rely on CNN for "facts"

You can choose your own news outlet Anyway, many people may not understand how closely held this info was previously. Your neighbor who works for SSA can't just browse your account. He can't see how much or little you earned. He can't see how many times your wife was married before or who is your daughter's baby daddy. Again, who knows why they want this info, what they plan to do with it or if there even is a plan. I wouldn't discount the possibility of stuff getting screwed up with amateurs rooting around in the system. Everyone's own choice what kind of documentation they want to keep.

[Bigceasar]

Anyone with a printer and a smartphone can print a perfect fake of any document. If it came down to your printed, paper records versus the government’s cache who is the Social security Administration going to believe?
Like someone already pointed out , there is almost an infinite list of people, businesses and criminal actors who already have access to everyone’s personal information. About the least profitable thing those actors could do is somehow reduce everyone’s Social Security benefits. They don’t gain anything and they would have kicked one of the world’s largest hornets nest full of murder hornets, the tens of millions of Social Security recipients who vote.

[MooseCountry]

Originally Posted by Gravelette

You can choose your own news outlet

The Babylon Bee on February 10th, 2025 had a news article about providing access in order to steal Grandma's $695 Social Security check. "Fake news you can trust."

[RVfixit]

Politics aside, I always make copies of anything financial for many reasons but mostly to have records of what I have in the event something does go wrong. We live in an electronic age and with so many breaches into computer systems and financial records, it just makes sense.

I don't make paper copies but I do keep two flash drives with my financial records that I update monthly and remove them for security reasons. This is also helpful for your spouse, significant other and kids in the case of your passing or being unable to function.

Just my two cents worth...