Aberdeen Seniors Say Social Security Delays From Shutdown Would Cause Hardship

Chuck Doty, of Edmund Street, lives on $18,000 per year from Social Security.

At 64, this proud baby-boomer pays his property taxes, cares for two grandchildren and takes care of all of his other family responsibilities with this small sum.

But if the federal government shuts down at midnight, checks could be delayed. According to a Feb. 18 analysis from the Congressional Research Service, "The lack of funds for some (Social Security Administration) employees’ salaries, for example, may impinge eventually on the processing and payment of new entitlement claims."

That doesn't worry Doty too much.

“We live within our means,” Doty said. “We don’t eat at McDonalds or fast food. We go to restaurants maybe three times per year and if you drive by my house you’ll find my truck home a lot more than you used to. With the price of gas I’d just as soon combine trips and do more at home.”

Doty is a former helicopter pilot who left the military in 1971 and then went to work at Fort Meade doing accounting for the officer’s club, golf course and base daycare. After two years, he took a job in plastic manufacturing where he worked from 1976 to 1993. After that he opened a computer networking business that took him comfortably into retirement.

Doty has had an interesting, albeit frugal, life, but he understands that he is the exception.

“We live a life that’s pretty austere,” Doty said. “Hopefully people have been thrifty enough to have money saved up so they don’t become destitute.”

Not everyone has been as fortunate.

Katarina Vymetalik of Northeast, who was visiting the Aberdeen Senior Activity Center on Friday, said she hasn’t been so lucky with savings.

Vymetalik says she is much older than 65, though she won’t say her exact age, and is still working while collecting her Social Security. But she needs both incomes.

“How can you retire on pennies?” Vymetalik asked. “I have family to take care of. I have grandchildren. When you live on pennies you can’t live on less pennies.”

Dorothy Mitchell of Northeast, who was also visiting the senior center, said she is 56 and receives Social Security disability insurance because she suffers from a mental illness that prevents her from working.

If the government shuts down, Mitchell said she fears that she would suffer.

“I couldn’t support myself because my social security disability pays my rent, my food bills, all my bills,” Mitchell said. “It would be devastating to me."

Mitchell takes pride in her years in the U.S. Air Force where she she said she was promoted to the rank of E5 in four years. But she left the service when her enlistment was up rather than make it a career.

Mitchell taught electronics in Mississippi, Massachusetts and Maryland after leaving the military.

“I can’t teach anymore because its too stressful and I have bi-polar disorder,” Mitchell said. “That’s why I get SSDI.”

Oliver Dorsey, 62, who works at the senior center, is in a similar situation.

“I had a stroke back in 2004, so it qualified me for Social Security disability,” Dorsey said.

Both Doty and Dorsey said they believe the Obama administration and the Republicans should stop trifling with people’s lives.

“For the money they’re getting paid, they need to do their jobs,” Dorsey said.

Doty agreed.

“They’re doing nothing but playing games,” Doty said.