"THE ORDEAL"

The New York Times has published a fascinating article explaining the awful bureaucracy of the Social Security Administration and why it is so unpleasant to deal with them. (You can find the entire article in the link at the end of this post).

The Times notes that Social Security had its beginning in the Great Depression. Until 1971, individual states had their own programs to assist the needy. The chairman of the Social Security Board during the 1930s, a man named Arthur Altmeyer, apparently saw these state programs as a threat to the new Social Security Administration. Altmeyer, allegedly told the states that no more federal money would be available unless the states made qualifying for benefits as difficult and unpleasant as possible.

Anyone who wanted a benefit would be made to pay a significant and unpleasant price "in time and personal dignity. " When the state programs were rolled into Social Security in 1971, Altmeyer's complications and bad attitudes came in, too.

Economists actually have a name for this. THE ORDEAL. The Goal: Make getting a benefit as nasty and unpleasant as possible. Make it take an unreasonable long time.

Anyone who's dealt with Social Security understands that it is an ORDEAL.

The New York Times article says: "Ordeals are a common attribute of programs serving the poor. Since beneficiaries cannot be charged money they do not have, policymakers impose a cost in time and suffering. Such indignities are designed to weed out those who would rather go without [benefits} than brave the bureaucratic gantlet."

Are the unthinkable delays, unpleasant investigations and intimidating processes there by accident? Or, are they all part of the Government's ORDEAL to make getting a benefit as unpleasant as possible.

I can't say for certain. I will say that if the Government wanted to make getting SSI or SSDI as unpleasant and degrading as possible, I'm not sure what they could do different than what they are doing now. Social Security is a culture that's very difficult and unpleasant to work with, and I doubt it's that way purely by accident.

https://www.ssdaz.net/the-ordeal-of-getting-ssi-benefits