An office of the social security administration in Washington, DC, March 26. On Wednesday, the Social Security Administration did a backward plan on its plan announced to demand visits in person in the offices.
Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty Images
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Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty Images
The Trump administration supports more requirements in person it has announced for Americans looking for social security services that were to enter into force on Monday.
Liz Huston, White House spokesperson, said on NPR statement on Thursday that telephone services would continue for people looking for services through the agency.
“President Trump has repeatedly promised to protect social security and uproot, fraud and abuse through the federal government,” she said. “The social security anti-fraud team has worked 24 hours a day to improve technological capacities and they are now able to identify fraud on complaints filed by phone.”
Social Security officials announced last month that people applying for complaints or the search for services should go in person to a local office in the field, if they were unable to use the agency’s online verification system. The policy would have effectively eliminated the telephone services widely used for many beneficiaries.
These changes were subject to the concerns of defenders of the elderly and people with disabilities, as well as legislators. Dozens of Democratic members of the Congress sent a letter to the leaders of the agency asking them to reconsider the change, because this “would create additional obstacles” for people who are looking for services – “in particular for those who live far from an office”.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington -based left -wing reflection group pleading for “economic justice”, recently published an analysis which revealed that the travel requirement would have formed a “45 -thousand trip for some 6 million elderly”.
According to a White House official who talked about the state of anonymity to generally talk about the position of the Trump administration, the Social Security Administration has reversed the course on these requirements because the anti-fraud team “has implemented new technological capacities so quickly” that the agency can now “make anti-fraud checks on all complaints filed by telephone”.
These technological improvements said the manager in a statement, may report abnormal behavior in a person’s account, then the people who have been reported would be required to travel in person for verification.
In a press release, Max Richtman, president and chief executive officer of the National Committee to preserve social security and health insurance, described this reversal “victory for social security beneficiaries across the country”.
“The Trump administration has not changed the policy of goodness of their hearts,” he said. “They responded to public pressures. This is a victory for plea at local level and at the national level, on behalf of the millions of elderly people who depend on the Social Security Administration telephone service.”
“The Trump administration has been busy erecting obstacles to people who simply try to access their won advantages. We are happy that this barrier fell.”
Social Security Administration is currently undergoing massive changes – including generalized layoffs, regional office closings and general restructuring of tasks through the agency. These changes have worried the defenders of access to the services on which many seniors in the country count.
