Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests we are discussing issues associated with Social Security. I'm doing this as an ALERT, not to freak people out. I've been accused in the past of engaging in fear-porn or whatever, not what's going on here. I'm doing this ALERT to alert people so that they are aware. Now one, as I'll get into here in a moment this does not appear, and I state this again, this does not appear at this time to directly impact what one would think of as a standard social security recipient. But there are changes that have been brought online regarding Social Security, specifically changes brought online by Department of Homeland Security sort of in conjunction with the Social Security. This reminds me a little bit of IRS and Department of State cooperation regarding taxes, unpaid taxes, and revocation of US passports; I've discussed that in other videos at length. This reminds me of something similar, but the revocation of US passports associated with tax delinquency - and you can thank basically Nancy Pelosi for this one - it was a long time coming. I've been out here almost 20 years and when I first got here there wasn't anything like that. Again, as I've discussed in other videos, one could see their US passport revoked for things associated with delinquency in child support etc., but as far as taxes went, no, it just wasn't in the cards up until about 8 years ago, 9 years ago.

In any event, the reason I'm making this video is so folks are vigilant because this could have an impact, although I do not believe it will have an impact immediately today. I don't think most people watching this video are going to be impacted by it. I don't want to freak people out, but this is a big development and much like we saw the evolution of again revocation of US passports associated with having over $50,000 in delinquent taxes, that didn't happen overnight, and that wasn't the policy when I first got out here. So let's jump into this and then I'll sort of analyze it as we go. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from finance.yahoo.com, under the headline: US Government passes surprising tracking rule for millions of Social Security recipients. Will your travel be monitored? 

Really quickly before I quote, I've had people sort of ask, “I may not need to avail myself of a lawyer, but I appreciate your content. Is there any way we can support you; we know you're not monetized.” Well my better half and I set up a restaurant here in downtown Bangkok, the name is Pancake Palace, as the name implies, breakfast anytime, as well as American Diner style food. If you're interested, you can come check us out, again breakfast obviously, we have even got an English breakfast set. We've also got hamburgers, cheeseburgers, buffalo wings; we've got grilled cheese sandwiches, hot dogs, chilli dogs. If you're interested, come on by; links are in the description below. 

That said, let's jump into this. Quote: "A quiet regulatory update by the Social Security Administration (SSA) could spark fresh concerns about the government's increasing use of surveillance tools to monitor ordinary Americans. In early January, the SSA updated its Evidence of Foreign Travel - Foreign Travel Data Application to increase scrutiny of foreign travel by Americans receiving benefits group me a foreign travel by Americans receiving benefits." "Scrutiny of foreign travel by Americans receiving Social Security benefits." Quoting further: "This change allows the agency to use travel data collected by the Department of Homeland Security which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. The update impacts millions of Social Security beneficiaries, as well as people receiving support from the Supplemental Security Income program (1)." Quoting further: "In other words, Americans who receive retirement benefits or support based on needs, life circumstances or disabilities, could be impacted by this tightened surveillance." 

Now, if you read that article and I urge you to go over to Yahoo if you're interested in this, and folks again, Do Not Freak Out about this. This is not changing fundamental aspects of Social Security because again it seems to be targeted at needs-based benefits. This is from Google's AI; we will throw this up on screen. Specifically Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a federal program that provides monthly cash assistance to adults and children with disabilities, as well as adults aged 65 and older who have very limited income and resources." Then it goes below there and under the Social Security vs. SSI: Unlike standard Social Security Retirement or Disability Insurance (SSDI), SSI is strictly a needs-based program and does not require a prior work history."

So, again the Trump Administration - and we've seen this in the Visa pause associated with Immigrant Spousal Visa  benefits where they are saying, "oh we're pausing visas because we are retooling our adjudicatory framework for determining whether we think someone's going to become a "public charge", basically that they will go to the United States on a Visa and then go on welfare, which I've never seen a lot of evidence of that as it pertained to Thailand. Now other countries maybe, but here, yeah, I don't understand why Thailand is on that list, especially the oldest ally of the United States in East Asia, but okay, whatever, here we are. 

That said, that is focusing at least ostensibly on people going on welfare. Again it's politics. It's easy to explain that to the electorate. "What are you doing?" Well we are scared people are going to go on welfare over here. With this, it seems to at least for now, to be targeted on SSI, not SSDI - not necessarily standard Social Security benefits but the needs-based programs associated with Social Security. So the difference there between people receiving their benefits, and as I will point out further along in the analysis, banking facilities and things have been available for foreign nationals specifically Americans, to directly deposit their Social Security into a Thai Bank account. So again, I don't think that overnight we're going to see Social Security recipients being unable to receive their Social Security. 

What I'm saying though is is they're now starting to track people being abroad, and I'll get into further analysis in a moment. That said, quoting further: "In other words, Americans who receive retirement benefits or support based on needs, life circumstances, or disabilities could be impacted by this tightened surveillance." and that's a key word there. "Tightened surveillance" of America's own citizenry. "And it arrives at a time when the government's data handling. practices are under increased scrutiny." Well the whole Government at this point should be under increased scrutiny. Is there anything they are doing legally right now? Quoting further: "If you're uneasy about the government's ability to monitor individual activity, this update deserves a closer look." I imagine the folks that are watching this video are a bit concerned. Quoting further:

What does this change mean? The recent changes impact numerous beneficiaries under the SSA's purview. As of December 2025, the SSA paid benefits to roughly 75 million people, of whom about 11 million were under the age of 65 and collecting disability benefits, and nearly 5 million collecting SSI only." So again, of the sort of roughly 75 million, 11 million of them may be impacted by this. Again, I don't think the vast majority of retiree expats are going to be directly impacted by this now; I'll get to further analysis here in a moment. Quoting further: "Under longstanding rules, SSI and Social Security recipients must self-report foreign travel that lasts 30 days or more. If you are a citizen, you may still be able to collect Social Security while residing abroad, but SSI is strictly limited to residents of the U.S. and certain U.S. territories.

So yeah, that is the big delineation here. Understand, we're not talking about standard Social Security benefits. You have worked your 40 quarters, you worked your life, you get your benefits, those can be sent offshore. As I've discussed in other videos there are specific Bank Accounts that you can obtain in Thailand specifically for the purpose of doing direct deposit into those accounts. Notably they have certain restrictions like it's impossible to use a debit card with them and things; those are certain anti-fraud provisions associated with those type of accounts. 

But long story short, and the thing to take away from this video is they are heightening surveillance on people who are effectively living abroad and are recipients of Social Security. I remember years back a very good friend of mine - if he's watching this video, tip of the hat to him - a friend of mine actually who spent a lot of his time in Cambodia, I remember us talking about that there may come a time in the future - and we were specifically actually talking about State retirement benefits, not Federal benefits, but State, various State sort of pension and retirement benefits - that there may come a point where they were going to require people to spend a certain amount of time in the United States if they wanted to receive their benefits. And the thinking behind that being in a very Keynesian sort of paradigm, that they want them spending that money in the jurisdiction which is potentially paying it out, and that again, in a state context, me and this person were saying, it wouldn't even matter about being abroad per se, if you retire off to Florida from Connecticut, Connecticut wants to see you back up a certain amount of time. Again, I don't know that we have ever seen anything like that at the state level, but I immediately thought of that analysis when I was looking at this, because especially in light of how we saw the incremental steps that went into seeing passports being irrevocable for Tax matters, to if you go over $50,000 in arrears they'll pull your passport, basically we are there now. Well we're not there, we're there for passport revocation - that happened, I have watched that happen - I'm not going to say it's a complete apples to apples comparison, but there are similarities in the fact pattern I'm seeing with this where, okay, now DHS is sharing surveillance data on American citizens with Social Security, bearing in mind this - I don't even know what this rule is, if it's a guideline or what it is - that says and how do you even report that to Social Security? I'm not even completely sure. Now it's obvious, if you set up an account that automatically transfers your Social Security money to an offshore account, then obviously they're aware that you are receiving your money offshore. 

That said, this is the type of thing that they roll out in order to sort of incrementally ramp up rules and incrementally ramp up enforcement capabilities, to be able to fundamentally change certain aspects of an underlying system. I am not saying it's a foregone conclusion that down the road we may see them say, "look, you can't be abroad more than 30 days and receive your Social Security", that is not what is happening here now. So this is not time to panic or freak out or anything like that, but it looks like for mean's tested, needs based benefits associated with Social Security, yeah, that probably is coming down the pike directly. Whether or not it may impact all Social Security recipients in the future remains to be seen, but we will certainly be keeping folks updated on this channel as the situation evolves.