This month I turned seventy so I started to collect Social Security. The Social Security Administration sent me a "What You Need To Know..." booklet (SSA Pub. Num. 05-10077, ICN 468300, dated 3/2013). A person can usually get the Social Security payment sent to a foreign country but on page 12 was a list of countries where they will not send the payments (it is not clear if that means checks, electronic transfers or both).
The countries are Azerbaijan, Belarus, Cuba, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, North Korea, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. The publications say that "exceptions can be made for certain eligible beneficiaries in countries other than Cuba and North Korea".
The list has a few surprises. Cuba and North Vietnam were expected but Iran was overlooked, probably because we don't do bank transfers there at all. All of the former Soviet republics except for the three EU-member Baltic States are on the banned list- with the exception of Russia and Armenia. This suggests that Russian banking is trustworthy in a technical sense. Armenia is a U.S.ally and has a large and politically powerful diaspora living mainly in California and New England. I suspect there are quite a few U.S. retirees there. Vietnam is also a bit of a surprise; we have pretty good relations with the place today. Is there some sort of fraud associated with the place that I don't understand? If you have any knowledge, let me know
Except for Cuba and North Korea this appears to be an anti-fraud list. I'm a bit surprised that Belarus and Ukraine were on the list in 2013. I'd definitely like to know how the list was created and why.
One other comment. There is well known and massive Social Security and VA benefits fraud in some places overseas. The Philippines is the best known case. None of the recipients ever dies- they live well past 100. Basically when people die it is never reported and there is a great deal of pressure on the U.S. from the immigrant communities not to ask for proof that the person is still alive. This isn't just a U.S. problem. When the oldest person in Japan died a few years ago the press went to the home of the second oldest... and found the person was long dead. It turned out that much of the press reports that "many Japanese live to be 100" were false; It was really 70 year-olds simply not reporting that the 90 year-old grandma had died so they could keep collecting the modest retirement income..
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
3 Ukraine as of April 2nd
Not much to report. The next big event will be the election being sponsored by the U.S. and the EU. If it is fair, and if the Russian-leaning parts of the Ukraine participate, there is a fair chance that the crisis will slowly wind down.
The western press is now beginning to use the word "annexation" instead of "occupation" to describe the Russian takeover of the Crimea, language which associates the event with Germany in 1938 but also accepts it as a fact on the ground. Recent reports of Russian soldiers on the border "ready to invade" seem wildly overblown but the careful statements by the NATO military commander on potential responses seem about right. Everybody is still acting carefully and responsibly.
One other minor tidbit. About a week after the original Russian takeover there was a confrontation at the major Crimean airbase. Russian troops seem to have realized a bit late that there was a functioning antiaircraft battery very near the airfield that could easily shoot down incoming Russian planes. So Russian troops took control of the actual missiles but when they tried to occupy the headquarters building the Ukrainian soldiers rebuffed them. The fact that a very real Ukrainian antiaircraft system was operating right next to the primary landing field being used for Russian reinforcements says two things; first, that the original operation was not done with any pre-planning- it was a direct response to the overthrow of the Kiev government by the demonstrators; second, the Ukrainian and Russian militarys early-on realized that any accident that led to the death or injury of a soldier could blow up the situation, something both sides wanted to avoid.
According to recent Ukrainian estimates roughly half of the Ukrainian soldiers and sailors in the Crimea have chosen to go with the Russians, which gives some hint of how divided the loyalties of Russian-speaking Ukrainians are.
The western press is now beginning to use the word "annexation" instead of "occupation" to describe the Russian takeover of the Crimea, language which associates the event with Germany in 1938 but also accepts it as a fact on the ground. Recent reports of Russian soldiers on the border "ready to invade" seem wildly overblown but the careful statements by the NATO military commander on potential responses seem about right. Everybody is still acting carefully and responsibly.
One other minor tidbit. About a week after the original Russian takeover there was a confrontation at the major Crimean airbase. Russian troops seem to have realized a bit late that there was a functioning antiaircraft battery very near the airfield that could easily shoot down incoming Russian planes. So Russian troops took control of the actual missiles but when they tried to occupy the headquarters building the Ukrainian soldiers rebuffed them. The fact that a very real Ukrainian antiaircraft system was operating right next to the primary landing field being used for Russian reinforcements says two things; first, that the original operation was not done with any pre-planning- it was a direct response to the overthrow of the Kiev government by the demonstrators; second, the Ukrainian and Russian militarys early-on realized that any accident that led to the death or injury of a soldier could blow up the situation, something both sides wanted to avoid.
According to recent Ukrainian estimates roughly half of the Ukrainian soldiers and sailors in the Crimea have chosen to go with the Russians, which gives some hint of how divided the loyalties of Russian-speaking Ukrainians are.
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