By Joel Dresang
As usual, weeks before my birthday, I got an email from Social Security inviting me to review my online account. But this year was different.
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Much ado has been agitating Social Security so far this year. News in the past couple of months has included:
- Plans to cut Social Security staffing by about 12%, or about 7,000 workers – with agency employment already at a 50-year low.
- Talk of closing or moving dozens of offices, widely reported, based on documents from the Department of Government Efficiency, then refuted by Social Security. (Here’s a list of office closings and delays.)
- Plans to curtail customer services available by phone, which were then rescinded.
- Reports of increased outages on the Social Security website.
Learn more
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Get online with Social Security, by Joel Dresang
Planning retirement via Social Security, a Money Talk Video with Lisa Lewitzke
Claiming Social Security: Sooner or later? by Steve Giles
Such headlines can be disconcerting for the 73 million Americans who rely on Social Security for monthly income – not to mention the tens of millions of us counting on Social Security for our eventual retirement.
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Although I trusted the email I got from Social Security, I went to the SSA.gov website to log in to my account. (It’s always safer to enter a site directly than to click a link in an email.)
But I couldn’t log in. My username, saved in my password manager, wouldn’t work. Then I saw Social Security directing me to a different website. “For step-by-step instructions on how to make the transition, watch this video,” I was instructed. (The link to the video didn’t work.)
At the new site – Login.gov – I was told to expect an activation code in the mail. I would need that code to log in to my account.
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Disruptions at Social Security – whether from government efficiency efforts or overwhelmed outmoded systems – is confusing.
Calls to Social Security are up 67% from last May, reaching more than 483,000 calls per day in March. Meantime, the agency was responding to fewer than 40% of the calls, down from more than 70% last May.
The average wait time for callers in March was 1 hour and 39 minutes, according to Social Security. That’s enough time to watch four episodes of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”
Calling Social Security has become such a kerfuffle that Kiplinger personal finance wrote an article analyzing agency data to suggest strategies for trying to get through.
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Nearly two weeks after my initial attempt, I got the letter with the activation code to get me into my account through Login.gov. To be safe, Social Security also required additional authentication to log in. It texted me a short-lived six-digit code, which at last let me see my account.
The look of the site seemed a little different at first, but soon I found familiar components, including:
- My annual earnings history, which I check for accuracy because it helps determine my retirement benefits
- Estimates for my retirement benefits, which vary depending on when I plan to start claiming them
- My potential disability benefits
- How much my survivors could expect
When I’m ready, I also can use my account to claim benefits and direct them to my bank account.
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ssa.gov/myaccount/
In its reporting on how to try to phone Social Security, Kiplinger noted, “The SSA doesn’t miss an opportunity to remind beneficiaries that the wait time for online services is zero minutes.”
For years, I have relied on my online account as a convenient way to securely access my personal information, which I use to help plan my retirement. With the estimates of how much my wife and I can expect from Social Security, our advisor can help us determine what additional cash flow we’ll need in retirement.
It’s easy to feel frustrated by apparent upheaval – in policies, in technologies, in personnel, in offices and websites. One thing I can control here, though, is access to my own information. Thanks to a little time on the computer, a couple of weeks and a 10-digit access code, I’m plugged in again. And I have peace of mind.
And, just to be safe, I have made a copy of my earnings history and benefit estimates, so I have a record.
Joel Dresang is vice president-communications at Landaas & Company, LLC.