Day 181 ~ 62 in the Queue

My instead: I applied for Social Security benefits. 

As my older brother Bruce had instructed me, I could apply for Social Security benefits on line. Alrighty then. I navigated to their “dot gov” website and began to take advantage of this privilege for being 62.  

I entered the appropriate information in the fields provided and clicked! Uh-oh! A message came up that said they could not process my request because the information had discrepancies. I checked my entries and all looked good to me! I decided to call and finally got to speak to a real person after about a 20 minute hold time. She asked my name, social security number and then my birth date. Oops! That was it! My birth date on record with their office had been wrong for the last 50 years. Was this an omen? Should I wait to apply at the age of 66 when I can collect full benefits? I had pondered this for months and decided that I would enjoy the money more now in my “youth”. I would be 78 until I recouped all the money available now from 62 to 66. 

The representative on the phone would not tell me what the discrepant birth date was and then informed me that I would have to continue my application with a visit to their Belleville facility. 

And there I sat with my assigned number K16 in the Belleville Social Security office, waiting to be called to clear up this error and successfully apply for the benefits that are due me. After conferring with not one but two different staff members, my birth date was successfully changed from June 6^th to June 26^th. I was in! My first deposit will come in late August. Will this be when I become a burden to society? Hmmmm…NOT!