Long waits, waves of calls, web crashes: Social Security is breaking down

[jas007]

2 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Yes Trump did do that in the state of the union address.

Which begs the question yet again. Did Trump know that was a lie or is he simply a total moron that actually believed that? Of course we know that the entire maga fascist brand has learned that they can lie without consequence and it actually helps them. They're eating the cats! They're eating the dogs!

Political theater. The Lefties are equally guilty with their scaremongering.   

 

Does any of it matter, at the end of the day?  Perhaps at election time.  But the election is over, at least for this Trump term. 

[LiamB80]

12 minutes ago, placeholder said:

Thank you, traveler from the future.

I sussed you out on your first comment to me Mr Yahoo links. I was right too. 

[Yagoda]

9 minutes ago, placeholder said:

Or you can remain willfully ignorant. Up to you.

Spoken by a man that believes in the Russia hoax.

 

Its too boring, Ill wait for your next topic "Trumps Tarriffs Hit Hard, Nail Clipper Shortage, Pandemic of Ingrown Toenails"

[placeholder]

19 minutes ago, LiamB80 said:

I sussed you out on your first comment to me Mr Yahoo links. I was right too. 

From the oblique way you are citing your past comments, they must be baseless or nuts or both. Of course, you could prove me wrong by actually citing them. Somehow, I don't think that's going to happen. You've got nothing.

[placeholder]

21 minutes ago, Yagoda said:

Spoken by a man that believes in the Russia hoax.

 

Its too boring, Ill wait for your next topic "Trumps Tarriffs Hit Hard, Nail Clipper Shortage, Pandemic of Ingrown Toenails"

Deflecting as usual. That's because you've got nothing.

[placeholder]

25 minutes ago, jas007 said:

Political theater. The Lefties are equally guilty with their scaremongering.   

 

Does any of it matter, at the end of the day?  Perhaps at election time.  But the election is over, at least for this Trump term. 

A massive falsehood is political theater?  Got some news for you. There will be a midterm election in 20 months. And even though Republicans  apparently believe that Congress is a mere appendage to the Presidency, the Constitution definitely does not uphold that belief.

[Yagoda]

3 minutes ago, placeholder said:

Deflecting as usual. That's because you've got nothing.

Yeah your right I should probably spend my time obsessing over the SS Admin web site and phone tree. Thats like standing around the DMV. Hope Elon gets them next.

 

I think Ill grill some pork chops

[John Drake]

19 hours ago, placeholder said:

The Social Security Administration website crashed four times in 10 days this month, blocking millions of retirees and disabled Americans from logging in to their online accounts because the servers were overloaded

 

Probably a lot of people like me. I login to My Social Security just about every other day to make sure my account is still listed as active and the next payment is still scheduled. 

[PeterA]

8 hours ago, LiamB80 said:

Actually that's incorrect. There's people over 140yo collecting SS, illegal aliens collecting social security disability, also legit social security numbers used by companies that employ illegal aliens to try and fool E-verify. A top to bottom audit is needed. It's pretty simple, you either support DOGE or you support corruption. 

Another  garbage in garbage out comment. When  you don't understand what is reported, you make cumb comments like this. 

[Captain Flack]

A post breaking forum rules has been removed.

 

@LiamB80 discuss the topic, not other posters, if you have an opinion.

 

This is an open forum and I will not allow you to attempt to censor someone else based on your assumptions of their nationality.

 

Rules 9. You will not post disruptive or inflammatory messages. You will respect other members and post in a civil manner. Personal attacks, insults or hate speech posted on the  forum or sent by private message are not allowed.

 

10. You will not post troll messages. Trolling is the act of purposefully antagonising  forum members by posting controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages with the primary intent of provoking other members into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal on-topic 

 

 31. You will not publicly discuss other members or post any member's personal information 

[jas007]

26 minutes ago, placeholder said:

A massive falsehood is political theater?  Got some news for you. There will be a midterm election in 20 months. And even though Republicans  apparently believe that Congress is a mere appendage to the Presidency, the Constitution definitely does not uphold that belief.

For sure, there will be midterm elections. There always are.  And yes, the balance of power in congress can matter.  That's always the case.  So, if it makes you feel any better, it's all political theater for political purposes. Swaying an election one way or the other.  Just so you realize the "facts" and the "truth" may not much matter. 

Propaganda can be a powerful tool, as can control of the media. 

[jvs]

5 hours ago, frank83628 said:

No, but It doesn't mean they are not either, that is exactly what Musk & DOGE are doing,  sorting out any mispayments, corruption or Fraud.

a link posed earlier says it estimated at 1% ot the 1.6t yearly payments, even that is a tonne of waste. 

1 % is a very low number.

I am quite sure that there are areas that are a lot higher!!

You are looking at a number but the percentage of mispayment (not fraud) is very low.

 

[Purdey]

What will happen to those who paid into social security for many years? Can the government just take their money? 

[SLOWHAND225]

6 hours ago, placeholder said:

Thanks for the obvious attempt at deflection. The fact is Musk made massively wrong and dishonest claims about social security fraud. Not only that, Doge has actually slashed 20% of the fraud inspectors working for social security.

 

So you're upset that Musk hurt you because he, used improper descriptors. Gotcha 
You can't claim they were dishonest because you simply don't know. 

He got rid of 20% of the ineffectual workforce, they are going to finally swap to a software program that works instead of the bug ridden program they've been trying to use. Thats long overdue and when its done they can cut another 5%  
The savings from just having software that works will be significant.
The first SS# was issued 89 yrs ago, so then why do they have software installed that is supposed to kick out anyone over 115yrs old ? Because people are re using SS#'s pretty simple concept to follow. Sadly the software is junk

While the fraud may be low if you look at the percentage, because SS is such a huge program that % is a monster number in terms of dollars.

You claim to be a smart guy though so you knew all of this already, didn't you ?

[NoDisplayName]

3 hours ago, jvs said:

Apparently that is what you believe,as long as that makes you happy,go with it!

 

Disney just spent something like $280 million plus another $200 million advertising on woke Snow White.  First weekend ticket sales of $43 million.  Lowest live action first weekend ever, even lower than live action Dumbo.

 

3 hours ago, placeholder said:

 

Both of you would do well to read the technical explanation about Cobal  in the excellent article linked to by Hawaiian.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/if-cobol-is-so-problematic-why-does-the-us-government-still-use-it/

Or you can remain willfully ignorant. Up to you.

 

 

Yes, as a former programmer I readed it...

And yes, indeed, I learned to code, thus am not dependent on social security for my retirement.  My monthly benefits will be for hookers and blow.

 

However, the sheer volume of COBOL code that needs modernizing is daunting. Estimates range from 220 billion to 800 billion lines of COBOL code still in use today. Decades of accumulated code, inconsistent programming styles, a lack of documentation, and inconsistent standardization make understanding and porting these systems difficult.

 

That doesn't say it can't be done, only that the system is so outdated and backwards it would be challenging, especially for the current crop of DEI hires.  Nothing a platoon of Indian H1-B's couldn't handle after they clock out from their shifts at the seventy-leven.

[NoDisplayName]

1 hour ago, Purdey said:

What will happen to those who paid into social security for many years? Can the government just take their money? 

 

Hint:  they already did.

[NoDisplayName]

..........as of September 2015, the agency automatically stops payments to people who are older than 115 years old.

 

 

Oh, no, Trump's cutting social security!  Granny's gonna starve.

 

Wait, what?  2015?  Obama did that?....................Never mind.

[JAG]

13 hours ago, hotsun said:

Back in 2023 i asked why the service was so bad in the social security building, the security guard simply whispered to me, “its the illegals”

 

13 hours ago, amexpat said:

OH,  so if a maga security guard said it.......

 

12 hours ago, Dan O said:

Really, you expect people to believe this?

It is definitely proven!

 

After all, everyone knows - it is the brown peoples fault!

[uncletiger]

13 hours ago, amexpat said:

Make me think you are a maga cult member. You probably read nothing outside the echo chamber. 

 

I read a lot outside the echo chamber. Intentionally. Which is how I know you are stuck *IN* the echo chamber.

 

MAGA isn't a cult. But supporting the deep state/globalist criminal syndicate against humanity definitely is.  It takes a lot to break a cult member out of the brainwashing from the globalist cabal.

[Mike_Hunt]

I was on the website, and it works just fine. 

 

https://uptime.com/upstatus/ssa.gov

[placeholder]

 

5 hours ago, SLOWHAND225 said:

 

So you're upset that Musk hurt you because he, used improper descriptors. Gotcha 
You can't claim they were dishonest because you simply don't know. 

He got rid of 20% of the ineffectual workforce, they are going to finally swap to a software program that works instead of the bug ridden program they've been trying to use. Thats long overdue and when its done they can cut another 5%  
The savings from just having software that works will be significant.
The first SS# was issued 89 yrs ago, so then why do they have software installed that is supposed to kick out anyone over 115yrs old ? Because people are re using SS#'s pretty simple concept to follow. Sadly the software is junk

While the fraud may be low if you look at the percentage, because SS is such a huge program that % is a monster number in terms of dollars.

You claim to be a smart guy though so you knew all of this already, didn't you ?

Improper descriptors? His figures are massively wrong. 

The workforce is ineffectual? You know this how? Because the same guy whose claims keep on getting exposed as fake --so frequently exposed that he now has stripped his claims of any codes that might allow observers to check the veracity of his claims.-- claims that these workers were incompetent?

And I'll go with the programmer who says it isn't junk - in fact in some ways its pretty awesome. You would know this if you had read the very informative link offered by Hawaiian.

And who claims SSA isn't catching fraud and keeping it low? Elon Musk?

[placeholder]

4 hours ago, NoDisplayName said:

 

Disney just spent something like $280 million plus another $200 million advertising on woke Snow White.  First weekend ticket sales of $43 million.  Lowest live action first weekend ever, even lower than live action Dumbo.

 

 

Yes, as a former programmer I readed it...

And yes, indeed, I learned to code, thus am not dependent on social security for my retirement.  My monthly benefits will be for hookers and blow.

 

However, the sheer volume of COBOL code that needs modernizing is daunting. Estimates range from 220 billion to 800 billion lines of COBOL code still in use today. Decades of accumulated code, inconsistent programming styles, a lack of documentation, and inconsistent standardization make understanding and porting these systems difficult.

 

That doesn't say it can't be done, only that the system is so outdated and backwards it would be challenging, especially for the current crop of DEI hires.  Nothing a platoon of Indian H1-B's couldn't handle after they clock out from their shifts at the seventy-leven.

Social Security has consistently been starved of funds. So where was that money supposed to have come from?

And claiming that it would be confounding for the crop of DEI hires...thanks for the reflexive bigotry. You got some figures on the actual composition of programmers. 

In fact, the problem isn't DEI hires. It's that the old guys who know COBOL are mostly retired. You think that just possibly they predate DEI. And Is there a cohort of young Indian programmers out there who know COBOL?

[placeholder]

6 hours ago, jas007 said:

For sure, there will be midterm elections. There always are.  And yes, the balance of power in congress can matter.  That's always the case.  So, if it makes you feel any better, it's all political theater for political purposes. Swaying an election one way or the other.  Just so you realize the "facts" and the "truth" may not much matter. 

Propaganda can be a powerful tool, as can control of the media. 

They clearly don't much matter to you. But reality has a way of catching up to big lies like Trump's about Social Security.

[placeholder]

10 hours ago, Yagoda said:

You mean the systems that were already outdated run by folks schooled in 80s technology that was already failing. The system that was paying out to dead folks. Got it.

How many dead folks? millions and millions like Trump claimed? 

 

"On Tuesday, Trump said at a press briefing in Florida: “We have millions and millions of people over 100 years old” receiving social security benefits. “They’re obviously fraudulent or incompetent,” Trump said.

“If you take all of those millions of people off social security, all of a sudden we have a very powerful social security with people that are 80 and 70 and 90, but not 200 years old,” he said." 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/20/trump-social-security-payments-dead-people

 

In 2023, 73,815 centenarians were Social Security beneficiaries

https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/statcomps/supplement/2024/highlights.html#:~:text=The number of beneficiaries aged 85 or older increased by,centenarians were Social Security beneficiaries.

[placeholder]

7 hours ago, LiamB80 said:

I sussed you out on your first comment to me Mr Yahoo links. I was right too. 

😄😄😄

[NoDisplayName]

25 minutes ago, placeholder said:

the problem isn't DEI hires. It's that the old guys who know COBOL are mostly retired.

 

Ezzackly!  The old guys who knew their way around a procedure division have all gotten their golden slide-rules and retired, leaving the new crop of token, diverse DEI checkboxes.

[Peabody]

16 hours ago, Jingthing said:

There are zero people over 140 collecting SS. You've bought into the maga fascist lies. As far as undocumented people using SS numbers, that's  hilarious. They're paying into the system that they will never be eligible to collect from. We're talking billions of dollars annually. They actually help the system rather than hurt it.

Government sources' recent estimate was 82 billion in tax and SSA contributions, with 28 billion going to SSA alone every year, which they will never collect. 

[NoDisplayName]

31 minutes ago, placeholder said:

I think I read about your vote in the New York Times. If I hadn't, then I wouldn't believe it. But whether I believe it or not, that's a very lame defense of your comment.

 

Gosh, you're right!  Voting straight democrat is so very bigoted against republicans.

 

[Jingthing]

14 minutes ago, Peabody said:

Government sources' recent estimate was 82 billion in tax and SSA contributions, with 28 billion going to SSA alone every year, which they will never collect. 

Yes, which of course is unfair to the undocumented people paying that and it's hardly right for such an important thing as SS so to be helped in that way, but it does paint the absurdity of the maga xenophobes complaining about the undocumented being a burden on that system. 

[placeholder]

4 hours ago, NoDisplayName said:

 

Gosh, you're right!  Voting straight democrat is so very bigoted against republicans.

 

Straw man much? Whether your claim is true or not, it's completely irrelevant to the fact that your DEI statement was bigoted given that the COBOLexperts we're working years before there was such a thing as DEI.