Social Security recipients can now get monthly payments on a prepaid debit card. The Direct Express Debit MasterCard is being rolled out in 10 states by the Treasury Department and Dallas-based Comerica Bank. It’s an alternative to paper checks and direct deposit. But as with every financial product, there is some fine print. Here’s what you need to know about the Social Security prepaid debit card. See details here:

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The claimant’s file is among a stack of more than 762,000 disability cases pending nationally in the Social Security Administration. The agency has been plagued with a growing backlog in the past decade as it struggles to handle more retirement and disability cases. The problem has been compounded by shrinking staffs, archaic record-keeping and ineffective management, according to a report issued in December by the Government Accountability Office, a congressional watchdog agency that tracks government spending.

On average, people wait 512 days for their disability case to be processed. In Milwaukee the wait is about three-and-a-half months longer, according to the agency.

“It is just bureaucratic red tape,” said Hintz’s attorney.

Since Hintz first applied for disability three-and-a-half years ago, Social Security has lost his file, transferred it around the state or just let it sit idle, according to Hintz and his attorney.

When the Public Investigator asked the federal agency why the South Milwaukee man’s file would need to be transferred back to Milwaukee – thus likely putting him at the back of the line to receive a hearing – Social Security acknowledged the problem. See full story here:

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From today’s New York Times: Party elders and analysts who have seen many a politician fall victim to the jinx of Social Security, which was signed into law 73 years ago Thursday, say they are not surprised.

“All you have to do is open your mouth and you’re dead meat,” said Bill Frenzel, a former Republican congressman from Minnesota who is now a Social Security analyst at the Brookings Institution. “If you say you might have to raise payroll taxes, the no-tax crowd jumps all over you. Say you might have to decrease benefits, and the AARP and the Democrats will kill you.” See article here:

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Today’s Oregonian reports: Americans seeking Social Security’s disability benefits find themselves stuck in a morass of bureacracy that often takes years to navigate. Social Security officials say they’re working hard to remedy the backlog. But they acknowledge it’ll be years before they bring it under control. Meanwhile, claimants suffer and sometimes die waiting for a disability check.
Patricia Heimerl landed her first job in high school, bought a house at 22, and worked the last eight years of a long office career at Intel. She paid her bills, built a retirement account and, like most Americans, watched as Social Security took its cut from every paycheck. Read on…Portland has a wait of over 600 days for a hearing.
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