WELCH, W.Va. — Veronica Taylor doesn’t know how to turn on a computer, let alone use the internet. The 73-year-old can’t drive and is mostly housebound in her mountainous and remote West Virginia community, where a simple trip to the grocery store can take an hour by car.
New requirements that Social Security recipients access key benefits online or in person at a field office, rather than on the phone, would be nearly impossible to meet without help.
“If that’s the only way I had to do it, how would I do it?” Taylor said, talking about the changes while eating a plate of green beans, mac and cheese and fried fish with a group of retirees at the McDowell County Senior Center. “I would never get nothing done.
The requirements, set to go into effect March 31, are intended to streamline processes and combat widespread fraud within the system, according to President Donald Trump and officials in his administration.
They say that’s why it’s vital for people to verify their identity online or in person when signing up for benefits, or making a change like where the money is deposited.
But advocates say the changes will disproportionately impact the most vulnerable Americans. It will be harder to visit field offices in rural areas with high poverty rates. Often these are the same areas that lack widespread internet service.
Many Social Security field offices are also being shut down, part of the federal government’s cost-cutting efforts. That could mean seniors have to travel even farther to visit, including in parts of rural West Virginia.
Donald Reed, who runs a local nonprofit that operates two senior centers, said he has serious concerns about the policy change, and how it’ll affect the people his group serves.
“I’m not anti-Trump — let me say that,” he said. “I think the general public greatly supports looking for waste in government. I do not think the general public understands the consequences of the current actions of the government.”
Poor, rural areas could be hardest hit
One in three people live in poverty in McDowell County, once one of the nation’s largest coal producers. Around 30% of the population receives Social Security benefits and 20% lack broadband access. People already face huge challenges in accessing basic needs like food and clothing.
Non-profit groups like The Commission on Aging receive money from the federal government to provide rides to the grocery store, medical appointments and free lunch at the county senior center, and could in theory add a stop to the local Social Security office said Reed, who is the group’s director.
But the transportation grant money is already not enough to meet the need. Last year, Reed ran out of money during the last three months of the fiscal year and had to dip into the Commission’s savings. This year, he said he won’t be able to do so.
Then, last Friday, he found out the Commission had lost an almost $1 million grant he expected, again because of the federal government’s cost cutting.
He had planned to use the money to rebuild one of the two county senior centers, an aging 1980s-era doublewide trailer with limited seating.
“Once the money’s gone, you know, the money’s gone,” he said.
A flurry of new rules, hard for seniors to follow
Seniors at the center gather each weekday for lunch. Usually, they might play bingo or cards. On this day, because of the presence of a reporter from The Associated Press, the conversation turned to politics.
Many are Trump supporters. Every county in West Virginia supported Trump in three presidential elections.
Yet all agreed that the recent flurry of executive orders had been difficult to follow, especially since the county’s last local newspaper shuttered, and they weren’t sure what effect they’d have on their lives.
