Why You Should Try to Tape Conversations With Social Security

By Laurence J. Kotlikof

’ll get to this column’s topic — the importance of taping your conversations with Social Security, if you can — momentarily, but first I want to tell you a little about my expertise, so you know why reading Ask Larry will be worth your while.

I’ve been writing about Social Security for years. My columns have appeared on PBS NewsHour, Forbes and The Huffington Post. Paul Solman, of PBS NewsHour, suggested we write a book about claiming Social Security benefits and we did, after teaming up with Phil Moeller, a personal finance columnist with Money: Get What’s Yours came out last year and became a New York Times bestseller.

I became a student of Social Security out of necessity. I needed to help my company’s engineers program our Maximize My Social Security software. I had done lots of research on Social Security’s economic impacts on saving and retirement; that required 30,000-feet knowledge. Still, I thought there was little I didn’t know about the system’s details. Boy was I surprised when I got down to earth.

3 Dark Secrets About Social Security

Over the years. I’ve learned three very dark secrets about Social Security.

First, Social Security may be the most complex government policy yet designed by man. It has 12 different benefits, but is chock full of hidden secrets and gotchas that make collecting what you’re owed a user’s nightmare. Second, most people don’t do their homework before approaching Social Security’s 40,000 poorly trained and totally overwhelmed staff, over the phone or in the local office. Third, in my opinion, Social Security staff bats only 50 percent. Half of their answers are misleading, incomplete or dead wrong.

Which brings me to today’s topic: How to keep Social Security from ripping you off.

Social Security’s mistakes can be enormous and you can be held accountable for them.

Social Security Letter: You Owe $309,000

I recently wrote a column entitled 3 True Social Security Horror Stories. The first was about a lady who became disabled and started receiving Social Security disability benefits. She then took up writing to occupy her time. To her great surprise, she wrote a best selling children’s book in 1996 and started receiving royalty checks. As the checks came in ever six months, she’d contact Social Security in person or over the phone and each time she was told: royalty checks are earned income, so you can keep your monthly disability benefit. Click here to continue reading.