The Social Security Administration provides “my SSA” so any citizen can check their Social Security information, to make sure they’re going to have income in future years. However, the SSA has now imposed the requirement, from August, 2016, that you must also have a cellphone to access your own information. (If you don’t believe me, check out this site.)
Not only must you have a cellphone, they will send you a unique code, via text, (so not all cellphones will work, because not all cellphones have text capability) that you must enter after you’ve tried to log on, before you can get at your own information!
As of data from 2015, fully one-third of all American adults do NOT have a cellphone!
We need to STOP this NONSENSE by making the cellphone OPTIONAL for those who don’t want it, and for those who chose not to (or cannot) use a cellphone. (How many deaf people have a cellphone? Wouldn’t that be an oxymoron?)
Not everyone has a cellphone (my spouse does not), but the SSA is demanding that you MUST have one to access YOUR OWN SSA ACCOUNT INFORMATION!
Please help yourself, and your family members by challenging this stupid, overreaching design by the bureaucrats at the SSA that will disadvantage you and your family, all in the name of “security.” Write to the Social Security Administration at their eMail Address for Website Feedback.
Please also send a copy of your informative letter to your Congressional Representative and Senator, to get them to stop this insane act of imposing on citizens something on citizens the “saves face” for the the government, but at the expense of excluding millions of elders from accessing their own information about their Social Security Benefits
SUCCESS!
Today, SSA announced they were going to make this an optional feature, and not demand every visitor to MYSSA have a cellphone. Here’s a link to one story about it.
For those of you who understood the problem, I appreciate and applaud your actions.
--Carol Anne
I received this email from the SSA this morning, which is individual notification that they took our feedback seriously, and have made the feature option, and they are working on a better, more universal means to be introduced later.
The SSA eMail (emphasis added):
On July 30, 2016, we began requiring you to sign into your my Social Security account using a one-time code sent via text message. We implemented this new layer of security, known as “multifactor authentication,” in compliance with a Presidential executive order to improve the security of consumer financial transactions. SSA implemented the improvements aggressively because we have a fundamental responsibility to protect the public’s personal information.
However, multifactor authentication inconvenienced or restricted access to some of our account holders. We’re listening to your concerns and are responding by temporarily rolling back this mandate.
As before July 30, you can now access your secure account using only your username and password. We highly recommend the extra security text message option, but it is not required. We’re developing an alternative authentication option, besides text messaging, that we’ll begin implementing within the next six months.
We strive to balance security and customer service options, and we want to ensure that our online services are both easy to use and secure. The my Social Security service has always featured a robust verification and authentication process, and it remains safe and secure.
We regret any inconvenience you may have experienced.
There is no requirement that you access your personal my Social Security account as a result of the steps we are taking. However, when you do access your account, we encourage you to sign up for the extra security text message option. You can access your account by visiting www.socialsecurity.gov/....