An Update For Attorneys

      A message from Social Security to attorneys and others who represent claimants (the crap at the end is some weird formatting from the original that doesn’t go away no matter what I do):

Recent Enhancements in Processing Centers: Advancing Service and Efficiency

Date: Wednesday, July 8, 2026

Dear Colleague,

We are pleased to announce some important developments from Central Processing that further our commitment to efficient, responsive service for claimants and the representative community. These changes reflect ongoing efforts to optimize operations, strengthen communication, and deliver timely, policy-compliant outcomes.

A Good News Highlights:

Centralized Oversight and Organizational Realignment: This fiscal year, oversight of all eight processing centers (PCs), including Disability Operations and International Processing, has been unified under a new chief-level organization, Central Processing (CP). CP now also manages Earnings, Workload Support Units, and Field Office Support Units, which provide essential backend support to field offices and the National 800 Number. This realignment merges similar workload responsibilities, streamlines decision-making, and enhances customer service across the agency.

Expanded Representative Call Center (RCC) Services: Building on prior enhancements, the RCC now serves as a single point of contact for representatives with cases pending in any PC. Representatives can call the RCC at 877-626-6363, and calls are automatically routed to the appropriate PC based on claimant information. Technicians are available to assist with a range of inquiries, including pending cases and attorney fee payments.

The RCC contact information is available on the following pages:

https://www.ssa.gov/representation/pct_contact_info_under54.htm

https://www.ssa.gov/representation/pct_contact_info_54older.htm

We encourage your clients to create a my Social Security account, which enables them to manage their benefits and access a wide range of essential services online.

Please share this information with your members, colleagues, affiliates, and other interested parties. We appreciate your partnership and continued collaboration as we work together to enhance service delivery within our PCs.

Sincerely, 

Mark D. Quinlan

Chief of Central Processing

AI Ready For Primetime?

      From MeriTalk:

The Social Security Administration (SSA) believes agentic artificial intelligence (AI) is ready for mission use, but agencies will only realize its potential if they pair the technology with rigorous governance, continuous testing, and modernized data infrastructure, the agency’s chief AI officer said on June 26.

Speaking at ACT-IAC’s AI Forum, Brian Peltier, SSA’s head of technology, customer data, and AI and chief AI officer, said the agency is approaching a fundamental shift in how it delivers services as AI capabilities mature alongside years of technology modernization.

“We’re on the cusp of really changing the way we operate, how we work, and how we service our customers,” Peltier said.

Agentic AI is ready to support agency missions not only because the technology has advanced, but also because agencies have spent years modernizing their underlying systems, Peltier said. Even so, he cautioned that successful deployment depends on governance, security, and operational safeguards. …

Recording The Undead

      From a press release:

The Social Security Administration (SSA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) released an audit report, Beneficiaries Incorrectly Recorded as Deceased (032311).  The audit examined whether SSA employees complied with Agency policies when correcting the records of living beneficiaries who were incorrectly recorded as deceased.  …

The OIG reviewed a random sample of beneficiaries whom SSA recorded as deceased between January 2020 and December 2024 and later removed the death records from the Numident (and thereby removing such records from the DMF).  Auditors found that, when SSA technicians corrected 45 percent of the incorrect death records, they did not document why the deaths were recorded in the first place, or why they were subsequently removed, as required by Agency policy. …

SSA To Promote Trump Accounts

      From a Social Security press release:

Today, the Social Security Administration (SSA) announced it is launching processes for parents to enroll newborns in Trump Accounts. This automatic system will help ensure that every newborn has the opportunity to benefit from a Trump Account from the start of life. …

Starting next week, Social Security will update guidance to hospitals to include Trump Account enrollment information.  SSA will assist the states to modify their existing hospital forms used by parents to apply for Social Security numbers through the Enumeration at Birth (EAB) program to include the automatic creation of a Trump Account. Future Social Security card mailers for newborns will also include information to inform parents about the benefits of Trump Accounts and convenient and streamlined ways to open an account. …

Happy Birthday America

 

Not created by SSA. ChatGPA did it at my prompt.

The Questions Had To Be Asked

      From the Washington Post (emphasis added):

To commemorate America’s 250th birthday, the Social Security Administration will issue limited-edition Social Security cards to babies born from Thursday to the end of the year.
The cards look similar to the standard blue wallet-sized Social Security cards the agency has issued for decades, but they are stamped with the “Freedom 250″ logo. Freedom 250 is the public-private initiative the Trump administration launched last year to organize events — often aligned with the administration — for the nation’s semiquincentennial. It is different from America250, a nonprofit established by Congress in 2016 to organize such celebrations.
The Social Security Administration said Thursday the agency was not paying any licensing fees for the Freedom 250 logo and that there were no arrangements to share cardholders’ data with Freedom 250. …

250 Years Ago We Decided We Didn’t Want Any Of These

 

Don’t Tell Trump; He’ll Demand To Have His Picture On Them

Mock-up of card

      From Fox News:

Millions of babies born during America's 250th anniversary celebration will receive a first-of-its-kind commemorative Social Security card under a new Social Security Administration (SSA) initiative obtained exclusively by FOX Business.

The limited-edition cards, available only to children born in the United States between July 2 and Dec. 31, 2026, will feature the official Freedom 250 logo while functioning exactly like a standard Social Security card, according to an announcement from the Social Security Administration shared with FOX Business. …