Alternative Work Schedules Ending

From: ^Human Resources Internal Communications <Human.Resources.Internal.Communications@ssa.gov> Sent: Monday, October 5, 2026 3:48 PM 

Subject: Ending Alternative Work Schedules 

A Message to SSA Employees Subject: Ending Alternative Work Schedules 

Effective Monday, November 16, 2026, SSA is ending alternative work schedules (AWS), including 4/10 and 5/4/9 schedules, agency wide. All employees will transition to a standard five-day workweek. 

The American people depend on SSA to deliver on its mission every day, and that mission depends on a workforce that is present and available throughout the week. AWS, which allow employees to complete their work hours in fewer than five days, reduce staffing on the days employees are off. The cumulative effect across the agency is significant and impacts our service to the public. Every SSA employee, whether or not they work directly with the public, is part of how we deliver on our mission. A consistent five-day workweek strengthens our ability to deliver the service the public expects. 

Employees currently on a 4/10 or 5/4/9 schedule may continue that schedule until Friday, November 13th. After that date, all employees will work a five-day schedule beginning November 16th.Instructions will be forthcoming on how to ensure employees are transitioned to the standard work schedule timely. 

Thank you for your professionalism and your commitment to the public we serve. 

Chief Human Capital Officer

This Doesn’t Look Quite Right To Me

      From the National Law Review:

MySSAgent's free Google Chrome extension is the first browser extension for one-click Social Security earnings-statement retrieval, as of October 1, 2026, based on public product documentation. It has been available since July 2026.

The client signs in to their own my Social Security account at ssa.gov. The extension adds a "Send to MySSAgent" button to the statement page. One click sends the official earnings record into MySSAgent, and a full claiming analysis is ready in minutes. There's no file to download, nothing to upload, and nothing to re-type. MySSAgent never asks for a Social Security number. …

From the client's official record, the analysis covers every claiming month from age 62 to 70, including spousal and survivor benefits. With the household's income entered, it also shows the Medicare IRMAA bracket at each claiming age. Every benefit figure comes from a deterministic engine built on the Social Security Administration's published formulas. …

      This looks like it could be something from the Social Security Administration but it’s not. I have a couple of questions: Does this look too much like an official government site? Did this setup require cooperation from Social Security? It looks like it might be a security issue.

     If you do much Googling on Social Security subjects you find many, many articles and websites dealing with that eternal question, “What is the right age to file a claim for Social Security retirement benefits?” It seems to be a subject that fascinates those with an MBA or related training. In the real world, however, claimants mostly make the decision based upon their need for the money. They don’t have the luxury of delaying claiming benefits. Besides, they can have the money now while they’re still able to use it. I’m sure there’s a subset of claimants who worry about this question but it’s small. Just look at the low percentage of claimants who wait until age 70.

SSA Refuses To Cooperate With State DDS Audit

      From WIS-TV:

A new state audit is raising questions about South Carolina’s ability to address delays in the disability benefits process, highlighting the complicated relationship between state and federal agencies that share responsibility for reviewing disability claims. … 

According to a report released by the Legislative Audit Council, the agency responsible for reviewing disability claims has lost more than a third of its disability examiners since 2021. Auditors found a 35% reduction in examiner staffing between January 2021 and June 2026, with workforce shortages likely contributing to processing delays. The report also cites employee turnover, pay concerns and the loss of telework opportunities as factors making recruitment and retention more difficult. … 

The audit was commissioned after state lawmakers sought answers about lengthy disability claim delays and growing backlogs. However, auditors say they were unable to fully determine how long applicants are waiting or identify the primary causes of delays because the Social Security Administration denied access to key claims-processing data requested during the review. … 

And He’s Modest Too!

      From the Baker Orange:

On Sept. 23, Baker [College] gave an honorary degree to alumnus and commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA) Frank Bisignano. A graduate from the class of 1979, the first recipient of a Baker bowling scholarship and raised in a multigenerational immigrant household, Bisignano’s Baker story goes far beyond Baldwin City.  …

“If you work really hard, you get lucky,” Bisignano said. “I’m sorry it’s a short one, but it’s true!” …

Few Baker graduates can call themselves a former All-American bowler as well as the chief executive officer of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), but Bisignano described how they’re not so unrelated. 

“I learned how to deliver under pressure all the time,” he said. “If you need three strikes to win by a pin and you’re the team’s anchor, that’ll teach you how to deal with things.”  …

“Great athletes make hard plays look easy; great leaders make complicated problems look simple,” Bisignano said. …

Vance Angry About Illegal Immigrants Receiving Social Security Benefits

      From The Economic Times:

US Vice President JD Vance delivered a fiery message during a discussion about illegal immigration and Social Security benefits. Vance argued that encouraging people who are in the country illegally to claim Social Security benefits would undermine the program rather than protect it. “If you are encouraging illegal aliens to sign up for Social Security and steal Social Security benefits, you're not protecting Social Security, you're destroying it,” Vance said.

     Of course, illegal aliens are already ineligible for U.S. Social Security benefits so there would be almost none of them receiving benefits. Maybe Trump needs to issue an executive order slamming immigrants and forbidding them from receiving Social Security benefits. An imaginary solution to an imaginary problem. 

Many Errors In Disabled Adult Child Cases

      From a report by Social Security’s Office of Inspector General:

… The Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance program provides benefits to wage earners and eligible family members in the event a wage earner retires, becomes disabled, or dies. Child benefits under this program include benefits for minor children, students, and disabled adult children.

SSA initially processes most disability claims through local SSA field offices and state disability determination services that make disability determinations for SSA. 

We reviewed a random sample of 100 claims from a population of 5,237 child’s insurance benefits claims that were filed from January 2023 through November 2025 that SSA initially denied because it determined the claimants were not disabled. 

Of the 100 initial claims we reviewed, SSA correctly denied 49 for child’s insurance benefits based on medical eligibility requirements. When SSA subsequently approved the 49 claims, it correctly paid the claimants. However, SSA did not correctly deny, pay, and/or document decisions for the remaining 51 claims. 

 SSA employees incorrectly denied 11 claims. Based on our sample, we estimate the Agency incorrectly denied about 600 claims.

 SSA employees did not document whether they completed all required actions when they requested required forms orevidence from the claimants before they denied eight claims. Based on our sample, we estimate this occurred in about 450 claims.

 SSA employees did not correctly pay benefits to 32 claimants after they subsequently found the claimants were disabled and approved their claims. Based on our sample, after SSA approved the claims, we estimate employees did not correctly pay about 1,100 claimants, resulting in underpayments of approximately $1.2 million. Additionally, based on our sample, we estimate SSA employees properly paid about 340 claimants; however, the Agency did not establish the correct dates they were entitled to Medicare benefits.

We could not determine why employees made these errors.

I Can’t Wait

      From MSN:

The Trump administration has built a tool powered by artificial intelligence that its developers promise will serve as a “concierge” to the federal government, as it attempts to modernize the relationship between citizens and the state. 

 

“Instead of forcing citizens to search through the endless maze of tens of thousands of terrible government websites,” President Trump said at a Tuesday event launching the website, “you’ll now have one front door for every single question.”

 

Joe Gebbia, co-founder of Airbnb and head of the White House’s National Design Studio, said the online portal will function as a new digital front door to the federal government. He said the technology—in time—will serve as the final destination for all federal constituent services, setting a standard “you’d expect of a superpower.” 

 

Renew a passport or start Medicare enrollment. Reserve a federal campsite or check on the status of federal student loans. Eventually, all of those tasks, and more, Gebbia said, can be started and completed, on America.gov. ...

 

 Version 1.0 of the product will launch Tuesday, said General Services Administrator Edward Forst, whose agency will provide what he described as “the ongoing backbone” of the technology as more advanced iterations are released. ...

     The hubris of people like Gebbia knows no bounds. They just can’t comprehend that government operations are vastly more complex than anything they’ve ever dealt with in the private sector. Other than as a collection of links this project will have essentially zero ability to help the public interact with Social Security in the foreseeable future.

ERE Down

      I am hearing reports that Social Security’s ERE system that allows attorneys representing claimants access to their clients’ files and the ability to upload medical and other records is down this morning. I don’t know whether it’s working for agency employees.