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.

Advances For My SSA Accounts But Problems Persist

      From NextGov/FCW:

… The Social Security Administration hit its target of reaching 105 million 'my Social Security' accounts — an online portal Americans use to access services — by the end of the month, an agency spokesperson told Nextgov/FCW on Friday. The agency now aims to reach 110 million by the end of next September, per a strategic plan released in August. 

But that 110 million goal is far less lofty than the target SSA Commissioner Frank Bisignano told Congress about last year: 200 million online accounts by the end of 2026.

The SSA spokesperson said the agency continues to strive for 200 million my Social Security account holders, but they did not offer a target date. …

Adults generally interact with SSA in very specific moments of their lives, which explains much of the tepid adoption in the younger age bracket, Arabella Crawford, a civic tech consultant and Tech Viaduct contributor, told Nextgov/FCW. Those moments include turning 65, being diagnosed with a disability or changing their legal name, she explained. …

Many [potential claimants] are also not technologically savvy, lack internet access or have disabilities that make it difficult to use technology …

Clients ran into issues using my Social Security accounts’ digital identity verification services, she explained. For example, some clients found it difficult to use video proofing on ID.me — a digital identity validation service used across several agencies — while others had to wait for the government’s in-house option, Login.gov, to send codes through the mail, she said. …

How Much Money Is Paid To MEs And VEs?

      Social Security has posted data showing how much is being paid to each individual or entity providing testimony for the agency as Vocational Experts (VEs) or Medical Experts (MEs) at hearings on disability claims.

     Let me note a couple of things. First, the entities probably include more than one VE or ME. Somebody correct me if I’m wrong but I think some of the VEs and MEs let an entity handle the paperwork for them in exchange for a cut of the fees. Second, don’t take these numbers as gospel. Social Security also posts numbers on payments of fees to attorneys and law firms representing claimants before the agency. I deliberately don’t post links to these numbers since they have always contained inaccuracies that were obvious to me. I know the rough size of some firms and the numbers given for those firms align poorly with what I know. I don’t know about the VE or ME numbers.