Yesterday, I had posted the numbers on the number of employees at Social Security, reporting that there had been a 3% decline in the past year. Actually, the decline was 1.9%. I had mistakenly posted the numbers for Social Security employment in the United States, instead of the gross Social Security employment as I had done previously. Social Security has some employees in territories such as Puerto Rico and Guam and one lone employee on truly foreign territory. (I believe that one person is employed at the U.S. consulate in Frankfurt, Germany and is completely overwhelmed. I have helped some people who have filed claims for U.S. Social Security benefits while living in other countries and the problems are almost literally insurmountable. Did you know that there is an international DDS that handles claims for U.S. Social Security disability benefits filed from overseas and that its backlogs make any other backlogs at Social Security look trivial?) Below are the corrected numbers from the Office of Personnel Management.
Social Security can take little comfort in having a 1.9% decline in employment in the past year instead of a 3% decline. The agency's workforce may decline at an even greater rate in the next year.
In the face of rapidly increasing workloads and a significant workforce reduction, how can Social Security work its way out of its backlogs? The answer is simple. It cannot. Expect backlogs to get worse.
Social Security can take little comfort in having a 1.9% decline in employment in the past year instead of a 3% decline. The agency's workforce may decline at an even greater rate in the next year.
In the face of rapidly increasing workloads and a significant workforce reduction, how can Social Security work its way out of its backlogs? The answer is simple. It cannot. Expect backlogs to get worse.
- September 2007 62,407
- June 2007 62,530
- March 2007 61,867
- December 2006 63,410
- September 2006 63,647
- September 2005 66,147
- September 2004 65,258
- September 2003 64,903
- September 2002 64,648
- September 2001 65,377
- September 2000 64,521
- September 1999 63,957
- September 1998 65,629
It appears from the figures that there were a significant number of retires in january 2007, followed by some hiring that did occur. There was then another wave of retires in august due to the early-out opportunity that was offered. Expect another drop after the January wave of retires hits. Backlogs are increasing at all levels and in all workloads, not just disability hearings. It is beyond belief that no one is screaming at press conferences that something needs to be done immediately. It is truly a state of emergency.
ReplyDeleteEveryone of the trained FBUs and the VARO in Manila all have one SSA employee.
ReplyDeletePeople outside the U.S. are screwed if they aren't close to one of the trained FBUs and have a problem. The 800# doesn't work outside the U.S. and the phone numbers listed on the Website to call OIO don't get answered.
Most if not all the people working for OIO are in a building that used to be a Sam's Club. So one building of people are covering the world. SSA needs to throw a few bucks OIO's way, but I get the feeling that SSA's thinks "you are out of the U.S. so to hell with you."