Patty Duke Turns 65, Applies Online for Social Security and Medicare benefits

After years of telling peo­ple they can apply online for Social Secu­rity in their paja­mas, Patty Duke has taken her own advice. Duke, who turns 65 today, applied online for retire­ment and Medicare ben­e­fits from home at www.socialsecurity.gov.

“I had no idea this would be such a momen­tous occa­sion,” said Duke, who for three years has vol­un­teered her time pro­mot­ing Social Security’s online ser­vices in numer­ous Pub­lic Ser­vice Announce­ments (PSAs) and media inter­views. In a new online video, Duke puts char­ac­ter act­ing aside and shows every­one what hap­pened when she and her hus­band Mike Pearce sat down at the kitchen table, turned on their lap­top, and applied for her retire­ment and Medicare benefits.

“All of us at Social Secu­rity wish Patty a very happy birth­day,” said Michael J. Astrue, Com­mis­sioner of Social Secu­rity. “She’s a Hol­ly­wood leg­end and an Amer­i­can trea­sure who reaches a very impor­tant mile­stone today. True to form, she is the one giv­ing us the birth­day present by show­ing her fel­low baby boomers the eas­i­est way to apply for benefits.”

In 2009, Duke reprised her roles as the iden­ti­cal cousins, Patty and Cathy Lane from the Patty Duke Show, for a series of PSAs pro­mot­ing Social Security’s online ser­vices. In 2010, Duke teamed up with the sur­viv­ing Patty Duke Show cast mem­bers for an addi­tional set of spots. Ear­lier this year, she teamed up with enter­tain­ment icon George Takei to encour­age peo­ple of all ages to “Boldly Go” to www.socialsecurity.gov. In the three years since Duke has vol­un­teered her time with Social Secu­rity, mil­lions of peo­ple have vis­ited the agency’s web­site and the per­cent­age of online retire­ments has more than doubled.

“While I just applied for retire­ment ben­e­fits, I’m not retir­ing from being a Social Secu­rity spokesper­son,” Duke says. “I urge my fel­low baby boomers to go online to www.socialsecurity.gov. If you’re not sure how to get started on the com­puter, ask a loved one to help you out. I did, and it was so easy.”

Posted by Social Security on Dec 22 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.