The Senate Finance Committee has scheduled a hearing at 10:00 on March 25 on the nomination of Frank Bisignano to become Commissioner of Social Security.
Mar 18, 2025
Social Security Pays $58 Million In EAJA Fees In FY 2024
Each year the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) compiles a report on Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) awards. EAJA shifts the costs of attorney fees for representing Social Security claimants in many cases appealed to the federal courts. The government has to bear the fees. The latest report for FY 2024 shows Social Security having the largest EAJA burden of any agency, 9,563 awards totaling more than $58 million. Just imagine what the costs would be without the Appeals Council.
By the way, you have to wonder how much longer ACUS will be around.
Mar 17, 2025
“Improvise Your Way Out”
From the New York Times:
When Eleanor H., 66, called the Social Security Administration last month seeking details about her retirement benefits, she didn’t expect to comfort the representative who answered. The woman started sobbing.
“I asked her what was wrong, and she said she and her co-workers were informed by email to accept a taxable $20,000 payout or risk termination,” said Eleanor, who lives in New Jersey (she asked to use only her first name out of privacy concerns).
The rep still answered all of Eleanor’s questions. “Through her tears she said, ‘What am I going to do?’” …
[I]n recent weeks, the Trump administration, led by Elon Musk’s crew of cost cutters at the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has taken its chain saw to the agency’s operations. …
Michael Astrue, a former agency commissioner appointed by President George W. Bush, said it appeared that Mr. Musk has imported the strategy he used when he bought Twitter, “where you go into some place established, level it and then figure you’re going to improvise your way out,” he said, speaking at a briefing on Thursday held by the National Academy of Social Insurance. “It’s extremely destructive.” …
Jason Fichtner, who held several positions at the agency, including deputy commissioner and chief economist, put it even more bluntly at the briefing. “It’s more like a drunk operating a wrecking ball,” he said. …
Mar 16, 2025
A Sunday Press Release
Sunday, March 16, 2025
Social Security Provides Update about its Death Record
Social Security announced today that more than three million deaths are reported to the Social Security Administration each year and explains that the agency’s records are highly accurate. Of these millions of death reports received each year, less than one-third of 1 percent are erroneously reported deaths that need to be corrected.
Deaths are reported to Social Security primarily from the States, but also from other sources, including family members, funeral homes, Federal agencies, and financial institutions. In a 2008 audit report, the IG noted that “SSA receives most death reports from funeral homes or friends/relatives of the deceased. SSA considers such first party death reports to be verified and immediately posts them to the Death Master File.”
Instances when a person is erroneously reported as deceased to Social Security can be devasting to the individual, spouse, and dependent children. Benefits are stopped in the short term which can cause financial hardship until fixed and benefits restored, and the process to prove an erroneous death will always seem too long and challenging.
If a person suspects that they have been incorrectly listed as deceased on their Social Security record, they should contact their local Social Security office as soon as possible. They can locate their nearest Social Security office at www.ssa.gov/agency/contact/. They should be prepared to bring at least one piece of current (not expired) original form of identification. Social Security takes immediate action to correct its records and the agency can provide a letter that the error has been corrected that can be shared with other organizations, agencies, and employers.
If the Trump Administration is going to pretend there are millions of dead people receiving Social Security benefits, they shouldn't complain about reports concerning the real people who aren’t receiving the benefits they’re due because of errors in the Death Master File.
Hasn't Worked Before, Won't Work Now
Lawrence Glickman writes about the long, long history of calling Social Security a "Ponzi scheme." Repeating this lie endlessly for almost 90 years doesn't make it true. It just points out how pathetically ineffective the argument is. Accept reality. The right wing has no conceivable path to eliminating Social Security or even significantly changing it, apart from what it's doing, defunding its administration, and that will ultimately prove to be horrendously unpopular as I think even they know. They just feel so strongly about this that they're willing to do a suicide charge.
Mar 15, 2025
Mar 14, 2025
Will You Have A Desk? A Parking Place? Childcare?
From: ^Human Resources Internal Communications <Human.Resources.Internal.Communications@ssa.gov>
Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2025 5:01 PM
Subject: Bargaining Unit Employees - Return to In-Person WorkA Message to All Employees
Subject: Bargaining Unit Employees - Return to In-Person Work
On Monday, January 20, 2025, President Trump issued a Presidential Memorandum (PM) requiring all employees to return to work in-person full time. This message serves as your official notice that your telework agreement will be suspended effective March 16, 2025, with all employees expected to return to work in-person full time on March 17, 2025.
The Office of Personnel Management Guidance on exempting military spouses from agency return to work plans only applies to employees who are homestationed (i.e., are working from their residence under an approved homestationing agreement). For that reason, employees who are military spouses with existing telework agreements must also report onsite to their official duty station full time beginning March 17, 2025. Employees must return any agency equipment taken to their telework location to their SSA office location. Employees who have signed up for VSIP are exempted.
Reminder: As shared in the March 3, 2025 Non-bargaining Unit Employees - Return to In-Person Work and Cancellation of Expanded Flexible Bands HRIC, the Office of Human Resources will send more on placement of employees with homestationing agreements into onsite official duty stations in the near future. Employees with homestationing agreements should continue to hold for further guidance.
The return to work in-person does not currently apply to employees under approved reasonable accommodations (RA) authorizing telework, temporary work at home by exception (WAHBE) agreements for medical reasons, or temporary compassionate assignments (TCA). In addition, employees in the Office of Hearings Operations and Office of Financial Policy and Program Integrity may remain in their current telework posture.
If your location has a space limitation issue, your supervisor will notify you to provide the next steps. As a reminder, any episodic telework is granted on a case-by-case basis and only in situations where the requested telework will benefit the agency.
Any expanded flexible bands are cancelled as of March 17, 2025 as well. Employees must follow the flexbands in agency policy (see Personnel Policy Manual S610_3) or their collective bargaining agreements.
We understand that this transition will require an adjustment to employee work/life arrangements. Supervisors should be liberal with the approval of leave over the next 4 weeks to accommodate the changes. We encourage employees to review the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) the agency has prepared on return to office topics. The Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is also available to you using Access Code: ssaeap or 1-877-549-9528.
Gracias, Indeed
From the New York Times:
A private equity investor who is one of Elon Musk’s closest confidants has taken a new role in the Social Security Administration, a development that could be politically combustible given the program’s popularity with voters and Mr. Musk’s apparent intent to make major changes at the agency.
The investor, Antonio Gracias, who has served on the boards of Mr. Musk’s businesses Tesla and SpaceX, has started a job at the administration as part of the Musk-led cost-cutting effort known as the Department of Government Efficiency, according to documents seen by The New York Times and two people informed about his appointment.
Of the more than 50 people who have joined Mr. Musk in Washington, almost none have as extensive a history with him as Mr. Gracias. The men met around two decades ago and in that time, Mr. Gracias has become one of Mr. Musk’s most trusted advisers. ...
The involvement of such a close ally with the Social Security Administration suggests that Mr. Musk has made overhauling the agency a priority; in recent weeks, the tech billionaire has regularly talked about supposed fraud inside the system. Two weeks ago, he referred to Social Security as “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time,” and this week he claimed that fraud in the program and other major entitlement spending was “the big one to eliminate.” ...
Trying to privatize Social Security was such a big success for George W. Bush, why shouldn't Trump go for it?
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