Social Security Offices Close Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

Paula Liu
By Paula Liu
March 18, 2020COVID-19
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Social Security Offices Close Amid COVID-19 Pandemic
People line up outside of the Social Security Administration office in San Francisco, Calif., in a file photo. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

All local Social Security offices will be closed for in-person service starting Tuesday, in an effort to curb the spread of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus.

NTD refers to the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, as the CCP virus because the Chinese Communist Party’s coverup and mismanagement allowed the virus to spread throughout China and create a global pandemic.

The Social Security Administration said local offices will still provide “critical services” over the phone. Online services will also remain open.

“This decision protects the population we serve—older Americans and people with underlying medical conditions—and our employees during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic,” the agency said in a statement.

Local offices will focus on “specific critical workloads only,” including dire need benefit payments; severe disability, blindness, and terminal illness cases; and dire need SSI and 1619B eligibility decisions required for urgent Medicaid approval.

Dire need benefit payments include situations where people that did not receive their benefit payment, presumptive payments, or if they need their benefit payments reinstated. Critical payments will be sent by mail or an appointment will be made so that they may be picked up at a local office.

Those who already have scheduled appointments will most likely be contacted by phone to reschedule for a telephone appointment.

The agency said that people who require new or replacements social security cards or benefit verification must wait until offices open for these in-person services. However, individuals can do benefit verification online and some states allow people to request replacement social security cards online.

More than 5,000 cases of the CCP virus have been confirmed in the United States, with a total of 92 deaths as Wednesday, according to data provided by the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.

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