Social Security is a welfare program (since all the funds given to it was spent long ago), so the government can set whatever rules they want, and do as they please.
“...And these government employees earn six figure salaries...”
And are nearly imposable to fire. They can do whatever they want. It’s not like the agency has any competition from the private sector. There is no chance of them going out of business so the employees don’t care.
Check with your Senators, too - if they're redstate friendlies.
These jons are largely welfare jobs. Its a way to give people who are idiots in special protected groups welfare claiming its pay for doing work.
Look at who makes up these govt welfare jobs around you.
They are mostly on the lower end of the Bell Curve. Government-sponsored dunces who’d otherwise be on welfare - if that hadn’t run out already.
I’ve not had any problems with them.
1. Keep copies of all paperwork.
2. Call you congressman.
You will not get to speak to your congress critter personally, but the government gives him money for a fairly large staff, and one of the things his staff does is help constituents with problems with government agencies.
The correct staffer will not answer the phone, but sooner or later you will get to talk to the correct person, or maybe even just get to send an email. But the staffer has the power and experience to get results.
Prepare yourself by thinking about what outcome you want (no, having the SS idiot flayed alive is not one of the possibilities). Ask for a reasonable outcome favorable to you but not humiliating to Social Security.
I have only done this twice in my life, but it has worked like a dream both times. Seemingly impossible problems just melted away like ice in a blowtorch.
I have found both grossly incompetent petty bureaucrats of the worst, most caricatured sort, and very helpful, normal people there. You might try a phone call, and if you feel like you’re banging your head against a brick wall, wait a while and try again, to see if you get someone else. It can be maddening, and we deserve better.
I am a bookkeeper for a construction company and for a church.
I have concluded that SSA and IRS are uncommonly disorganized and make a lot of mistakes. A lot.
A roomful of 3 year olds are more dependable and trustworthy.
The amazing is not that it is so screwed up, the amazing thing is that it works at all.......................
Keep trying.
I always get highly competent and extremely helpful SSA reps on the phone when calling for assistance. I think they are great, quite honestly.
In your case they probably should have included a form letter in your packet stating they are returning your original documents for your continued maintenance, and a thank you for temporarily providing them proof of citizenship and address verification documents. I’m sure they return thousands of documents to all different households all day long. One thing for certain for us though, they know their stuff and its wonderful to get such great subject matter expertise when calling SSA.
It’s not just them. I swear every company I deal with has a bunch of high school dropouts working in sales, order management, fulfillment and logistics. I ordered a replacement wireless communicator from my alarm monitoring company back in February. They sent me the wrong product. After SIX calls, they FINALLY sent me the return shipping label they promised me in March. I finally got a UPS confirmation that they correct product is in transit. I had to threaten to leave them and told the woman I wanted to escalate this to an executive.
At least with a company you have a decent chance of getting a human being to answer and work with you.
We have our own on-going problem with the IRS that just won’t end.
Seven.
They now scan the originals and return them. There is a phone number to call.
So you sent in a SSA form along with a bunch of documents. SSA received them, almost certainly copied into some sort of electronic repository, and the original documents were returned to you.
Your form was either processed, in which case you’ll be getting another letter shortly, or was placed in a queue to be processed, usually in the order in which it was received.
The worst thing I see here is that they failed to provide you with a return cover letter. That’s not exactly cause for pearl clutching, and certainly not the histrionics in your post.
They were just returning your documents, seems like normal procedure as that was also my recent experience.
Try the old Northam regime’s incompetent Virginia Employment Commission. Some don’t know the difference between “overpayment” and “never paid” re being unemployed.
Now you know one of the reasons Republican Youngkin won the governorship, Lt. Gov. And State’s Attorney General positions plus much of the state legislature.
When my Canadian wife and I were working on getting her permanent resident alien status, we submitted all the paperwork properly, and were sent all the materials back claiming our marriage license was missing. THE MARRIAGE LICENSE WAS INCLUDED IN THE PACKET THEY SENT BACK!
We DID get traction from our Congressman’s office (they were trying to send us back to square one because THEY sent notice to an obsolete address when we gave them THREE MONTH NOTICE of our move. Congressman Manzullo’s office was excellent and fast.
We also did better when we went down to the office in person. When we went to one office early on, the older woman at the window, who seemed to be punishing everyone in her line tried with us, proudly telling us that some rules had changed and we had to start again. My wife was disheartened. I asked for a supervisor, a professional black woman one-half “V. Vanderhoof’s” age looked at our paperwork, and told the hostile old clerk that because our date stamps were earlier, we were under the old rules. We were indebted to her calm, wise and correct intervention.
That worked as well as it did because we went to the office. The Social Security office isn’t fun, but usually SOMEONE there knows something.
What is your question?
They don’t have time to explain to everyone who sends them stuff what is happening. You got the originals back because they made copies of everything. Sonds pretty conscientious to me.
You are wasting your time worrying about it.
SSA promised a SS card. Five years ago. They’re still promising