The Oklahoma City retiree says his Social Security benefits have been suspended without warning. He worries that it has something to do with where he was born and ongoing reductions in government efficiency (DOGE).
Born into an active-duty US soldier at an overseas army base, James McCaffrey says he is worried that his profits will be cut due to his foreign birthplace due to recent comments from Doge leader Elon Musk.
Earlier this month, billionaire masks pushed for massive social security cuts, calling it the “Ponzi scheme,” claiming the system is full of people receiving fraudulent benefits.
In particular, Musk claimed without evidence during an interview with the Fox business that many illegal immigrants have been given benefits and are seeking to be excluded from the Social Security role.
According to Hill, the economists have spoken about the “just absent” level of fraud.
Earlier this month, NBC News reported that former Social Security Administrator Martin O’Malley warned that Doge’s social security cuts could disrupt the interests of millions of Americans for the first time since Social Security was established.
Now McCaffrey is worried that he might have been one of their first.
There could be major changes for the Social Security Agency
Unexpected invoices and unanswered questions
McCaffrey said he began to think something was common when he received an unexpected Medicare bill.
“They were told they had to pay $740 before the 25th of this month or they were going to lose Medicare,” McCaffrey said.
That seemed strange as his Medicare payments are usually deducted from his Social Security checks.
“That’s why I called Medicare,” he said. “They waited and returned my phone and said they couldn’t handle it through Social Security payments and there were some issues with it. We spoke a bit. He allowed it when he thought my Social Security could have been interrupted.”
And that – definitely made no sense to McCaffrey.
“I thanked him for his time and called Social Security,” he said.
After being held on hold for more than two and a half hours with Social Security, he finally got a callback.
“They confirmed that my account had been suspended,” McCaffrey said.
He says that Social Security never sent him that this was happening, so we cannot be sure of the exact day that his profits were cancelled.
But he knows that it must be between the date he received his Social Security check in February earlier in the month and the date February 27th, the date written on the bill he received from Medicare.
He asked the Social Security Agent if there was anything he could do to fix it.
“She said she was going to enter some things and she wanted it to take care of it,” he said.
And by the next morning, certainly, the problem had been fixed.
These social security offices are scheduled to close this year
“I just got a quick email over the phone,” McCaffrey said. “I said my usual payments would resume in April.”
The email didn’t mention any March payments he had never received.
He took it to check his bank account.
“Well, that’s okay and dandy,” McCaffrey said. “I enjoyed it, but they didn’t give me an explanation.”
For him to get an explanation, he had to become a detective of his own.
He recalls his experience two years ago when he first went to a social security office to apply for benefits.
“The first person I spoke to at the Social Security Agency told me I’m not an American citizen,” McCaffrey said.
McCaffrey was born at a US Army base in Germany, where his father was stationed for active duty.
He has an American birth certificate – officially engraved and sealed by the federal government.
“I was in American soil,” he said. “I’m an American. She said I needed to hire an attorney and get naturalised before I could apply for Social Security.”
However, when he returned on another day with his birth certificate and passport, another employee said he had no issues.
“I got another person and presented me to him and he says, ‘I don’t need these. You’re fine. I don’t know what. She just gave me the wrong information.’ And I’ve never had any problems with anything before [Tuesday]McCaffrey said.
He then recalls what he saw on TV recently.
Doge billionaire Elon Musk spoke about Social Security in an interview with Fox Business Network.
Does Social Security exist when I retire?
In the interview, Musk suggested that non-citizens receive massive amounts of Social Security benefits without citing evidence, and called for them to be expelled from the system.
“[Federal entitlements] “It is also a mechanism by which Democrats can attract and retain illegal immigrants by essentially paying,” Musk said in a March 10 interview on the Fox business.
That made McCaffrey wonder about his own situation.
“I think they went into Social Security and stopped all foreign addresses, whether you’re in the home you were born on them,” he said.
KFOR contacted the Social Security Agency for explanation, but the news station contacted McCaffrey, although authorities declined to comment, citing confidentiality rules.
He says a Social Security Agency representative called him on Wednesday, but has yet to explain why his benefits ended.
“I wonder how many others are trying to get the same Medicare letter or how many people are trying to get,” McCaffrey said.
He worries about what happened, people who may not have the time and resources they had to regain his profits.
“I was the type of hardworking Boy Scout, I prepared,” he said. “But no, I shouldn’t have to.”
McCaffrey, 66, says there is one thing he most looks forward to about his retirement.
When is the best age to receive Social Security?
“More time with my grandchildren,” McCaffrey told Nexstar’s KFOR.
He said he made sure to save enough retirement benefits to spit out his three grandchildren.
“I went out and bought it [my granddaughter] New jacket,” McCaffrey said. “She’s excited. And her sister said, “Well, you know, she got a new jacket. Where’s mine?” I said, “I’ll get you one.”
He also looked forward to traveling more with his wife, who was approaching retirement.
But after opening the email on Tuesday, he thought all those dreams had to stop.
Social Security recipients can earn a 2.5% increase in cost of living in 2025.
“I don’t have to turn around and say, ‘Well, I have to worry about the next check,'” he said.
He also worries about people who may not share the same savings or the same financial cushions he had to retreat. “And you’re going to interrupt it for seven days, two weeks, even longer. They’re in bad trouble,” he said. “They could be outside the house. They could run out of food. I don’t know.”
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