Sit quietly with your hands folded

.....wherein two college-graduates take on the almighty Federal Gumint.
Yesterday (Thursday, July 22, 2010) we had an appointment with Geneva Social Security.
This was because over a year ago Social Security, in its infinite wisdom, changed my wife’s benefit-start date to one month before she actually retired.
By so doing they decided her income was too high for 2006, making her average monthly income too high.
Well of course it was. She hadn’t retired yet, so for January she was getting full pay from her full-time job.
She retired January 31, 2006, which was one month after her 62nd birthday, January 2, 2006.
In consequence they decided she didn’t get Social Security for January and February after her birthday; she had started benefits in March of 2006 (first deposit April).
For that we got a credit.
They also decided her monthly benefit was too high due to the changed start date, so we owed money.
Credit minus amount owed equalled a credit to us of about $950.
(That amount was credited to our checking-account by electronic deposit, just like our Social Security benefits.)
We also were notified her benefit-amount would be reduced.
My wife protested. She wrote a long letter and did various spreadsheets.
She had been advised by Social Security to start benefits in March to avoid factoring her income from her full-time job.
She also would get income in February, her accumulated vacation-pay.
Social Security would start in March to avoid that factoring in.
We were trying to follow instructions. It wasn’t like we were pulling a fast-one. Social Security was flip-flopping.
Her protest was filed in July of last year at Geneva Social Security, with a promise it would be faxed to proper authorities for consideration.
A year passed.
“We’re working on it,” we kept being told.
Finally a letter appeared, saying her benefit-start date would be changed back to March, and therefore we owed $1,700.
“WHA.....?”
Our appointment was at 2 p.m.
Driving there takes an hour — I was the taxi-driver.
We arrived at 1:50, and were asked to check in.
We were given a stub without a number.
Apparently the numbered clients are to jaw with the clerks at the window; heavily separated by bulletproof glass.
Our appointment was more serious. We would get trotted out back.
An hour passed.
People were seeing those clerks on entry. The place wasn’t busy.
They started at #170 when we arrived, and were up to #193 after an hour.
“Well, back to Square-One,” a client said.
“Our stub doesn’t have a number,” my wife said.
We were told to wait. —At least I had magazines to read.
I had considered taking this laptop, but expected Geneva Social Security wasn’t a hot-spot.
Without Internet I couldn’t do e-mail, and had nothing else “computer” to do.
My reaction was these people seem to have forgot who they’re working for; we taxpayers.
2 o’clock became 3 o’clock. We were finally called in.
“I don’t know where to begin,” my wife said.
“Is it about your overage?” the rep asked.
“I started benefits when I did to avoid my full-time income factoring in,” my wife said.
“But your income for the year exceeds the limit,” we were told.
“But I was told the year I retired my income was looked at one month at a time.”
Sit quietly with your hands folded.
We’re being railroaded, but after 66 years I know how these things go.
It’s a war of intimidation until one party capitulates.
I also know that if I say or do anything at all, it gets perceived as bullishness.
Far be it I challenge the all-knowing minions of the Federal Gumint.
This may be a stroke-effect; that I always sound exasperated.
I grandstanded before the stroke when I thought I was being stomped on, but it seems to have gotten worse.
I’ve learned to shaddup and let my wife do the talking.
My wife had brought along her HUGE pile of documentation, plus her strange missives from Social Security.
“I just gets murkier and murkier.” Her words.
Around-and-around we went, every sentence on the rep’s part ended with “okay?”, as if we’re supposed to acquiesce, and thereafter shaddup.
I was tempted to shout “No, it’s not okay.”
Spreadsheets got forked over.
“Can you show where we say it’s not income per year?”
An earlier letter got taken out from the massive pile, and the appropriate clause read.
“This most recent letter isn’t a response to your protest. It’s just an indication your benefit-start date will get set back.
I don’t see your protest in our system.”
CAPITULATION ALERT!
The end is in sight.
The almighty Federal Gumint has caved.
I can see some invisible bureaucrat in a faraway gumint cubicle saying “We’ll fix them! We’ll just set back her benefit-start date, in which case she owes $1,700.”
“I see you have full documentation,” the rep said.
“We both have college degrees,” I said; first thing I’d said at the appointment — at least a half-hour had passed.
“Yeah, thanks to my husband,” my wife said. “He kept everything.
Those pay-stubs weren’t in a shoebox.
Spreadsheets were easy.”
The rep went into another room to copy all the documentation.
I looked at my wife and said “blog-material.”
After about 15 minutes the rep returned,
“I’ll enter your protest into our system myself,” she said.
We walked out.
Suppose it’s some poor Granny that’s not ‘pyooter-literate and threw out all her original pay-stubs?
Why should someone have to be college educated to deal with our Federal Gumint?
Reminds me of our income-tax instructions.
Ya need to be a lawyer to make sense of ‘em.
So much for serving the taxpayer.
“Tough!
The fact you threw out the originals is your problem; and you should get computer-savvy. We are!
And maybe you shoulda gone to college.
Pay up!”

• My wife of 42+ years is “Linda.”
• “Geneva” is a city at the north end of Seneca Lake, a large Finger Lake in western NY. (The “Finger Lakes” are glacial lakes in central and western NY, that look like a large hand came down from above and left an impression on the land. Actually they were carved by receding glacial ice.) —Geneva is about 30-35 miles east of where we live.
• I had a stroke October 26, 1993, and it slightly compromised my speech.
• “‘Pyooter” is computer.