Social Security goes totally electronic

[moneysense]

Today the Treasury Department will announce that all payments from the U.S. government will be made electronically to consumers. So people receiving Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, Veterans, Railroad Retirement and U.S. government benefit recipients will receive benefits either through direct deposit into a bank account or through Treasury's Direct Express debit card

This move on the governments part is said to be going to save the government a total of $303M in the first five years, $48M of which will be a savings in postage alone.

The Treasury Department, noting that there are already one million of the debit cards in use, has several mechanisms in place to make for easier adoption. First, a leisurely timetable. New recipients of Social Security and other government benefits as of March 1, 2011 will receive their benefits electronically. If you're already receiving benefits, you have until March 1, 2013 to convert (though you could choose to do so tomorrow.) A call center will be staffed to answer questions.

I can imagine that with so many "baby boomers" coming of retirement age that this will be a significant savings for the government. It will just take a little getting used to for the older people that have been recieving their checks by mail.

[DynoDollar]

We take care of our neice and use to get state funds sent electronically to a card they gave us. It does save a lot of time, money and trees with the electronic systems put in place.

My concern is for our postal service. Every year less and less mail is being delivered through our postal system causing job losses and the raise in postage.
People may not thing much about it now, but if something were to happen to our electronic systems the postal service could not handle the mail and then we'd be in a heap of trouble.
I pay most of my bills by snail mail and it only takes two to three days to go from the east coast to the west coast.

But, it is nice to know that your money (numbers) will be in the bank on time, the same time, and every month when they're suppose to be.

[pennypinch]

You took the words right out of my mouth DynoDollar. This is going to hit the postal service hard!

Thats a lot of money they are going to be missing out on and they are already struggling big time. I can see a day when we no longer have postal service as we now know it. Everything is going to be electronic. Every house will have to have internet, a pc and a printer/copier/fax. Thats just how it is going to be I think.

[BSClay]

Very awesome. It is always good to hear about saving money. I know I have been hearing years from now that social security will be bankrupt. Hopefully this will help with that issue.

[dimetime]

I am sad to see that this is going to have such a huge impact on the postal service, however the fact that this is going to save the government so much money and also the environment I have to say good.

For those who are used to getting their checks by mail and now to recieve nothing but expect it in the bank is going to be a big change for them. Though they will quickly get used to the adjustments.

Heaven knows this government needs to find more and more ways to help save this country some money, though I do hope that they also find ways to help find jobs for those who have been out of work for so long.