The Name Game

      From Parade:

The Social Security Administration just released its list of the most popular baby names of 2025, and one thing is perfectly clear: vintage names and classic monikers are in. Last year’s list of popular baby names shows a movement toward old-style names, soft vowel-heavy names, and a strong multicultural and global influence. Thanks to social media — TikTok in particular — a new baby name trend is also rising, which means throwing proper spelling out the window in favor of carving one’s own path, spelled with a “K,” naturally. …

Unique spellings of classic names are also on the rise thanks to social media influences from the likes of Khloé Kardashian and company, who have helped popularize personalized spellings of traditional names. 

What does it all mean? The current trend of personalizing classic and vintage names suggests new parents want their kids to stand out — just not too much. Names like Eliana, Theodore, Eloise, and Charlotte fit that sweet spot perfectly. 

This fresh take on old-timey names also suggests new parents are thinking ahead. While it may seem cute to name your baby something trendy and offbeat like Jicama, many parents want to give their children a name that ages well over time. 

Simply put, parents want to give their children names that will stand the test of time while still allowing them to stand out during roll call at school. …

New Caseload Analysis Report

      The Social Security Administration has finally released its Caseload Analysis Report for its Office of Hearing Operations. It’s only through  March but it’s still good to have it again. I’d like to reproduce it here but there’s a  practical problem I won’t bore you with. You can just go to the link.

     There’s a couple of new things I notice. First, the total receipts at OHO are far higher than the dispositions. Perhaps related is the fact that OHO is getting a ton of overtime. Second, there’s a new line showing “Agency Video Objections.” It’s only a handful of cases. The only explanation that comes to my mind is that they’re forcing a few people who want phone or video hearings to show up in person so ICE can arrest them but maybe it’s something different altogether. I’d be interested to know.

Some Overpayments Aren’t Worth Trying To Collect

      Social Security’s Office of Inspector General has issued a report on an investigation into the cost effectiveness of the agency’s efforts to collect small overpayments. Here’s an excerpt.

… Of the 250 low-dollar OASDI [Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance] overpayments we reviewed, SSA took actions on 50 (20 percent) that we did not consider cost-beneficial because it sent more notices to the overpaid individuals than required. Since SSA could not provide its average cost to send an overpayment notice, we applied the average cost to collect overpayments as reported in CAS during our audit period, and we did not consider it to have been cost-beneficial to recover these 50 overpayments. Specifically, we estimate SSA spent $14,492 to attempt to recover the 50 overpayments, which totaled $8,129. 

Projected to our population, we estimated SSA spent $4.6 million to recover almost 16,000 low-dollar OASDI overpayments totaling almost $2.6 million. Therefore, we estimate SSA spent about $2 million more than it would recover.  …

National Hearing Centers To Close — Also A New Chatbot At SSA

      From Federal News Network:

Decades before the current boom in videoconference platforms, the Social Security Administration launched a similar concept to address workload backlogs.

In 2007, SSA opened National Hearing Centers to have administrative law judges hear more appeals from individuals whose initial retirement or disability claim was rejected. Individuals would show up at their local hearing office to have their appeals heard, but the case would be heard on video by an administrative law judge located in one of these National Hearing Centers.

But with the vast majority of these appeals hearings now taking place fully virtually through modern-day videoconference platforms, the agency is now planning to shutter these National Hearing Centers next week, on May 18. …

SSA is also launching a Policy Assistant Tool (PAT), an AI-powered chatbot designed to give employees access to information more quickly when assisting the public. …

CGI Wins Big Contract

      From Orange Slices:

CGI beats out 3 to win $198M Social Security Administration APM, RPMT, SITES and SOHE IT Support Services task  

This leading technology and professional services company, major partner to SSA, and 2026 Elev8 GovCon honoree, secured a 2-year task order to provide Application Performance Management (APM), Representative Payee Monitoring Tool (RPMT), Shared IT and Enterprise Services (SITES), and Systems Operations and Hardware Engineering (SOHE) support for the Social Security Administration.

• Awardee Name: CGI FEDERAL INC.
• Unique Entity ID: TRKEP1HEBNS5
• Total Contract Value: $197,711,904.05
• Action Obligation: $54,389,466.75 
• Department Name: SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION  
• Number of Bidders: 4
• Award ID: 28321326FDS030046
• Referenced IDV ID: SS001760018 
• Contract Vehicle: SSA INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SUPPORT SERVICES IDIQ – Multiple
• Major Program Supported: DX APM (FORMERLY CA APM AND INTROSCOPE) PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

     I guess this is a major contract. The amount of money sure sounds like a lot to me. 

The Color Of Social Security

      From the notice of a forthcoming book:

The Color of Social Security

Race, Retirement, Disability, and Disparity

Author:

Jon C. Dubin, Rutgers University, New Jersey

Published:

September 2026 

Availability:

Not yet published - available from September 2026

Format:

Hardback

ISBN:

9781009858991 …

The Color of Social Security traces the myriad ways and interconnected social systems in which racism has been embedded into American social security programs. Drawing on American history, Jon Dubin exposes institutionalized processes undermining racially equitable receipt of retirement and disability benefits. Examples include the 1935 Social Security Act, which excluded Black agricultural and domestic workers in order to protect the postbellum Southern racial economic and political order; the 1972 Supplemental Security Income program's exclusion of persons of color in the U.S. territories, with genesis in 125 years of racialized colonial domination; 1980s criminal justice system restrictions; systemic racial bias in disability decisions in the 1990s; disability eligibility obstacles from “race-norming” in the 2000s; and the misevaluation of Black claimants with sickle cell disease under Social Security Administration regulations since 2015. While exploring these histories, Dubin offers concrete solutions to address racial inequity and create a more equitable future.

• Traces racism through multiple social systems such as in employment, criminal justice and health care, and through the SSA's own adjudicative biases
• Provides historical contextualization, policy examination, and constitutional analysis, of racial inequity in both the social security retirement/old age and disability programs
• Outlines concrete policy and legal remedies, mitigations and recommendations for inequities identified in each chapter.      

     To MAGA types who feel that the only discrimination in America is against white people, I don’t care what you think. I doubt Professor Dubin does, either. Keep your hate filled opinions to yourself or to safe MAGA spaces.

Most Popular Baby Names Of 2025

     From Social Security:

Boys	Girls
1. Liam	1. Olivia
2. Noah	2. Charlotte
3. Oliver	3. Emma
4. Theodore	4. Amelia
5. Henry	5. Sophia
6. James	6. Mia
7. Elijah	7. Isabella
8. Mateo	8. Evelyn
9. William	9. Sofia
10. Lucas	10. Eliana

The New Yorker Magazine On The Sorry State Of Affairs At Social Security

      The New Yorker magazine has posted a long article on the sorry state of affairs at Social Security. Here’s one paragraph from the piece:

… Every previous Administration had launched pilot projects and fiddled with the system, but they had given managers like Jean sufficient notice and resources to train their people. Bisignano’s S.S.A. appeared to lurch from one initiative to another. Last February, it had discussed, then denied discussing, the possibility of cutting the workforce in half. It had eliminated, then partly reinstated, the option of making direct-deposit changes by phone. It had said that it would stop issuing public-policy updates, except via X, then continued to send e-mails and publish news on its website. It discouraged walk-in service, then told field offices to make the option available. It instituted a strict clawback policy for accidental overpayments, then reverted to a gradual one that gave beneficiaries a financial buffer. Changes made in response to doge’s accusations of fraud, waste, and abuse were abandoned: there was no good reason to block employees’ access to news sites, no need for redundant “I.D. proofing.” The Administration listed field offices for closure, then delisted them, though some rural outposts, in Iowa, Montana, and West Virginia, offer only phone service owing to the loss of staff. The agency is on a “slow march to implosion,” Jean said. “We’re living in a world of nobody knows anything, and nobody has any details about anything.” …

          There is this coda tacked on at the end of the piece:

 The New Yorker is committed to coverage of the federal workforce. Are you a current or former federal employee with information to share? Please use your personal device to contact us via e-mail (tammy_kim@newyorker.com) or Signal (ID: etammykim.54).