if you’re reading this blog you see the title says Social Security benefits,
If you have no idea what that is, you should! I’m sitting here in Thailand but writing a blog intended for an American audience.
Maybe millions of people in the United states receive a Social Security benefit. That includes me. Millions more add to their Social Security saving. every paycheck. So this important!
The greatest president the United states has ever had was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. After the trauma all over the world from World War Franklin Delano Roosevelt did several things to helped the veterans of that war, Americas middleclass, and older people at that time. This has come to be called a “safety net” for people in their old age and people that are poor, and people who did not save or earn money.
Here we are in 2023 and the Social Security system has been under examination and even under attack ever since World War II. It’s a long story with many chapters, but right now I’m having some personal experiences which will be explained in this bog
And there will be another blog to follow because there is definitely a bigger story to share.
I have Social Security I’m retired. I’m old. My Social Security benefit is important to me. That can be true for many many many Americans.
Let’s get started. Oh and share this with others. As many others have told you, we need more “traffic so Google will find us.
I wanted help from the Social Security Administration. Just like my previous stories about dealings with a credit cards, banks, etc, things I wanted to do with my Social Security were not big deals.
But now they seem to be turning out to be a big pain in the ass. And that is a reason for you to listen up and share this with others.
First, I wanted SSA to make sure they had my most recent address. Who knows? Maybe they want to mail something to me and maybe it would be important. So, what did I do? The Bangkok American Embassy and Consulate is one of the largest in the world.
And, in fact, the US Philippine embassy is also quite large (don’t forget the Philippines became effectively a colony of the United States after Spain lost the Spanish American war.) Many people in the Philippines speak English. I think there are many Americans who have chosen to retire in the Philippines just as many have chosen to retire in Thailand.
Knowing that, I picked up the phone, almost sure there would be representation of the Social Security Administration in the US embassy in Bangkok. That is when my first surprise slapped me right in the face.
Of, course the SS Administration was always known to be located in the Bangkok U.S. embassy. But no more! When I called seeking the Social Security Administration, Instead I got a phone message. It said that the Social Security Administration is no longer in Thailand. And it has moved to Manila Philippines wow wow! double wow! When I have “American Citizen” issues, normally, I would take a bus to Bangkok go to a hotel that’s not expensive, and make an appointment to go to the embassy and I can walk there. Not anymore.
The phone message told me that the Social Security Administration had moved to the Philippines months ago. That phone message gave me a telephone number to call in the Philippines. OK that’s a start.
So, I called that special number in the Philippines, at my long distance expense, and I got a new message from the Philippine embassy that told me that if I wanted to make an appointment to meet with the Social Security Administration there, I had three ways to do that
1) Send an email with the email to use.
2) call another phone number they provided.
Or
3) Visit by going to the physical address of the US consulate in Manila
if you’ve been reading the Angry Old Man website you can probably guess that was a big shock to me. It seems that no one ever mails anything anymore but it me so I did send them a letter. They replied via e-mail and told me I should contact them electronically in order to get an appointment. Ha ha ha ha.Yikes! . Does it have be an appointment? -in the Philippines?
Just like my dealings with the Schwab bank. The phone number SSA gave me seemed like the better choice.
When you call that number you get recorded instructions that you have to call only on Tuesday or Thursday mornings Filipino time (an hour different than Thai time) that seemed easy enough.
But no no no no! My wife and I called that number 5 or 6 times and no one ever answered I think we were following the instructions correctly. But still no one ever answered what are they thinking? Is that somehow our fault.
This caused me to yell at my wife which, I do sometimes. And I said damn it woman! Get on the Internet for us and find out how much it will cost us to visit Manilla, Philippines? Plane – 12,000 THB for two, two nights in a modest hotel, and some taxi fees. ( about $475 dollars)
And that’s exactly how this issue stands now.
We have learned that if we deal face to face with people, things go smoother we might correct answers, and everybody seems to be happy, especially us.
But calling and calling to make an appointment using a number provided and receiving no answer, is frustrating.
And being willing to go to the Philippines to meet the Social Security Administration staff may be worth it, and maybe not. Will we be under pressure to stay additional days or to bring additional documentation which was at hand back in Thailand?
But the whole process stinks. I want to give the Social Security administration my current address because as I moved from the US to Thailand, I’d like to get my mail if they want to tell me something. I’ve been married now for several months. SS benefits have an option called “spousal benefits”. And now that I’m married my wife can have a modest benefit too. If you read my previous blogs about my struggle with Schwab bank, you can understand that maybe I would want my benefits from SSA to go to a different bank. There is nothing on the Internet that tells you how to do that.
Is this such a big deal? Does it warrant an airplane trip to the Philippines? I used to go to the Philippines to scuba dive but now it seems like it’s my only way to solve these three seemingly simple questions about my Social Security benefits.
I know there are millions of people in the United States, either getting a Social Security pension or contributing to a future Social Security pension, who would like to hear about this.
Many US citizens people are surely shocked that the Social Security Administration serving Thailand U.S. citizens has been switched to another country! Why?
And I want everybody that reads this blog to remember that maybe Social Security Administration offices or other government offices THAT you depend on COULD disappear from your reach, -not to another county, like, me, -but not so easy for you.
That’s my story, just as I’ve shared other stories I have experiences on this Angry Old Man.info website. And I think a lot of people, often older people, often people struggling with modern technology should come in droves to see what the Angry Old Man.inf has to offer. You will find four ideas that might help.
