Social Security: Website offers hunt for valuable eggs

Eggs long have been a symbol of new life in the spring.

In America, the Easter egg hunt finds its roots in the 1700s when German immigrants brought the tradition to Pennsylvania. Today, the traditional egg hunt thrills children everywhere.

We at Social Security would like to serve up our own Easter egg hunt. Instead of eggs, we challenge you to hunt for our most popular online services. Our online services are almost as easy to find as they are easy to use.

Let us lead you in the right direction: Begin your hunt at www.socialsecurity.gov. Here are some of the good eggs worth discovering.

• The Retirement Estimator provides an instant, personalized estimate of your future benefits. In just minutes, you can have a nice ballpark figure of what to expect in future benefits.

• The Online Retirement Application lets you complete your application for Social Security retirement benefits in as little as 15 minutes.

Better yet, you can apply from the comfort of your home or office at a time most convenient for you. There's no need to drive to a local Social Security office or wait for an appointment with a Social Security representative. It's so easy.

• The Online Medicare Application allows you to apply for Medicare benefits if you're age 65 but not yet ready to start receiving retirement benefits. It takes less than 10 minutes to sign up for Medicare.

• Apply for Extra Help with your Medicare prescription drug plan costs. The Extra Help is worth about $4,000 a year. To qualify for the Extra Help, you must be receiving Medicare, have limited resources and income, and reside in one of the 50 states or the District of Columbia.

• Get a replacement Medicare card if you already receive Medicare and you can't find the card you were issued.

• Request a proof of income letter that verifies your Social Security benefit information, including Medicare and SSI benefits.

• Get answers to our FAQs. Getting an answer to our most frequently asked questions is as easy as finding the big question mark on our home page.

Also on our website, you'll find such treasures as links to publications, videos and our Facebook and Twitter pages. The more you search the corners of the website, the more good eggs you'll find.

Start the egg hunt now! You'll find all the eggs in one basket: www.socialsecurity.gov.

Submit questions to local Social Security Director Martin Coffey by writing to Business Editor Dave Flessner, Chattanooga Times Free Press, P.O. Box 1447, Chattanooga, TN 37401-1447, or by emailing him at dflessner@timesfreepress.com.

Upcoming Events