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10 thoughts on “After Hours: Why is the Social Security Administration Cheating Elderly Widows?(Podcast)”

  1. Glad you brought this important issue to light. I believe Mr McAdams was speaking only to widow(ers) filings in this instance but it got quite confusing since after the passing of The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, the filing process for living vs widow benefits changed. That new process is termed as ‘deemed’ filing and the new process is determined by whether you turned 62 before or after 1-1-2016. This new change did not apply to widow(ers).
    Deemed filing applies to retirement benefits, not survivor benefits so if these filers were processed under the new ‘deemed’ procedures, then yes, they were incorrectly filed and should have been advised as such when they filed. Overview here:
    https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/claiming.html

  2. I married a man 25 years older than me in 1972. He passed, unexpectedly, in 1973 after 11 months of marriage. I checked in 3 states SS offices. Was told each time that when I took SS I had to choose his or mine and COULD NOT SWITCH. when I finally took SS (at age 69), the man handling my case asked why I wasn’t taking Henry’s SS since the early 1960’s. He told me that I should have been receiving his SS until I decided to take mine – exactly the opposite of what 3 offices in 3 different states told me. I lost a ton of $$$

  3. We watched your segment on SS cheating widows. I tried to find the form on the Million Widows March.com website but nothing came up for that website. I tried going thru the Forbes story and the PBS story but no link was there. Not even going to John MCAdams could I find a link. We have many widows in our church that we could talk to about this if we could find the form. Would you be able to find it and attach it to an e-mail to me? Thank you.

    1. Sharyl Attkisson

      Thank you for watching Full Measure! I hope my story will allow you to get the assistance you may need.

      Here is the link to the form that can help widows or their families figure out if they are part of the group that’s been cheated.

      It’s at https://millionwidowmarch.com. Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the document for links to assist you.

  4. I too am having difficulty with the SSA. I delayed taking my SS late by 9 months. As per their website every month that you delay increases your SS amount. However, it is calculated annually, Meaning the 6 months that I delayed in 2021 before taking SS is added to my check in 2022 and the SS owes me a lump sum for the six months in 2021 that they didn’t give me the full amount. I would imagine that this should all be worked into their computer programs, so I’m wondering if something is more systemically wrong. I have called SSA three times, first time never heard anything back after taking all my info, second time I called the local office in my state and never heard back, third time I called the state office back since I had the name of the person who had helped me before, I asked to speak to a supervisor and he said “no” and hung up on me. To his credit, he did call me back but led me to believe that it was going to be fixed but nothing has happened. I’m now reaching out to my senators. More investigation of the SSA would be interesting. If I am having this problem, I would think others are too.

  5. Sharyl, the link to John,s form and web sight will not open ! Trouble opening your link also.! Thank you both for trying to help,

        1. I also went to John’s web sight and tried the links he posted all did not open. All that appears saying about:blank. Thank you!

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