The Social Security Administration has a website that promises information about office closings updated "every 10 minutes." This is what it says right now:
Due to severe weather conditions impacting the Mid-Atlantic and other parts of the country, offices in New Jersey, Maryland, Washington D.C., Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, and Dallas, Texas are closed or had delayed openings today, March 5, 2015. Please check with your local Social Security office to find out about office delays and closings in your local area.Why does this website promise something it doesn't come close to delivering? If you're a claimant or someone like myself who does business with the agency, what do you do? You try calling the local office but you can't get through which means nothing because you usually can't get through. You have no idea whether you're supposed to go ahead with whatever you have scheduled with the agency. During the last set of weather closings in my area, attorneys drove over an hour each way to attend hearings that weren't held!
My advice is that Social Security should take down this website until it's ready to deliver on its promise of frequently updated information on office closings. This should be doable.
Hey, I got an idea. Just pretend it doesn't exist and "Govern Yourself Accordingly". It is an offered service, not a required service. Take responsibility for your own life for a change.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that claimants/reps who do not show because they are "taking responsibility" risk having a dismissal/show cause order issue if their voice mail message gets "lost"
ReplyDeleteWhat do you expect from a government-run operation? Seriously, folks.
ReplyDeleteIs there a POMS out there that covers this?
ReplyDeleteyou really think an ALJ won't accept significant weather as good cause? or that the AC wouldn't immediately zip that case right back down to ODAR if some rogue judge didn't find good cause? give me a break.
ReplyDeletequit concern trolling.
@3:58 - I think this depends on whether there is a POMS on point.
ReplyDeleteIf so given the commentary in the POMS discussion section, such a POMS is potentially binding on all adjudicators such that it may not be discretionary to permit good cause if such information is not posted to this particular website.
"Govern yourself Accordingly"??? How about SSA acting responsibly by disseminating information to the public--it is a tax-supported government agency!
ReplyDeleteDear Government-govern-yourself-according-worker,
ReplyDeleteWe know that "The Social Security Administration has a website that promises information about office closings updated "'every 10 minutes.'" The trouble is that we know that website only exists because SSA wants to "appear" responsive, and friendly to assuage budget-constrained closings. But the point of the article is "how lame is this website?" It doesn't do anything. What is the image conveyed?.... An agency that gives lip service to responsive and friendly.. and cannot deliver. [Just the opposite of its intent to provide useful content.]
I would like you to show me anything that SSA "promises" Check the weather channel. And if I do dismiss hte case, which I will, the appeals council will send it back as soon as someone files the appeal. It is just that easy, Folks.
ReplyDeleteGiven the above comments, I am convinced that we need a POMS on point.
ReplyDelete3:58, 1:59 here. I'm not "concern trolling". Dismissals are disposition gold. I got news for you, ALJs or management do not care if they come back. The poor claimant's have to suffer because regardless of what those in the red ringed building say, numbers rule.
ReplyDelete"Can't get through"?
ReplyDeleteHere's how it works. As soon as the decree comes down from above, (it's not a local management decision) that the office will be closed or have a delayed opening, a delagated employee immedItely updates the phones, so you'll hear the notice as soon as you call in.
Sometimes the decree doesn't come down until the last minute. We employees are just as frustrated as you when this happens.
Efficient offices call reps the day before if it's expected that there will a closing/ delay
If the phone message isn't getting updated, then that is a local office problem
When our office closes early, we are typically notified 5 to 10 minutes in advance.
ReplyDeleteSo the ALJ @ 5:52 says he/she will just casually dismiss the case if the claimant or rep doesn't show for the weather? That is incredibly callous. If the AC does remand it, the new hearing might not be held for another 12+ months. Meanwhile the claimant and their family will just continue to suffer. There is a real person behind those electronic files...
ReplyDeleteI feel Lucky.:) My wife is an ALJ so I know immediately when local ODAR is closed.
ReplyDeleteThe website is USELESS!
My hearing was yesterday, the office closed because of the snow storm we had. Can any one give me a good idea of how long I will have to wait till they fit me back in. I did a few search on the web but can't find any info on on hearings with similar circumstances.
ReplyDeleteGovern yourself accordingly. Sounds like and ODAR to me. Replace them all with adjudicators at 1/3 the salary. Let them govern that accordingly. One of a long list of attitudes that made me become a "former SSA employee"
ReplyDeleteumm, at least for ODAR offices and field/district offices in my neck of the woods, closings ARE at the discretion of local mgmt. that's why some areas make good decisions and report them in a timely manner, and others don't--they have differing quality of mgmt ;)
ReplyDelete9:08, my dismissal rate is in excess of 25% for no shows, so it is hard to believe that the claimants are suffering so. Every hearing slot that goes unused also denies needy claimants an opportunity for relief, no?
ReplyDeleteTo 11:12: We are still re-scheduling hearings from a snow storm during the second week of February; they will be now be held in March, April, and May. How quickly yours is rescheduled is partly dependent on the schedule of your representative (if you have one). Representatives often need 2-3 months lead time to find an open spot in their schedules. It will also depend on the judge's schedule and the availability of a hearing room, hearing reporters, vocational experts, etc., all of which are also pretty fully booked on a regular basis. In our office, you would be looking at a few weeks to a few months until your new hearing date. I hope this helps.
ReplyDeleteReally? 20 anonymous replies? Really???
ReplyDeleteOne of the points here is that SSA is wasting personnel, time and money keeping up (or not) a website, money that could be used elsewhere to actually help claimants. Another is that when SSA creates something like this website, if they are not prepared to keep it accurate and up to date, then don't do it at all. You can't tell everybody "hey, get the info here and rely on us for the most current data" and then fault the claimant or counsel or experts for doing what SSA asked them to do - rely on information that is posted here. And then there are safety issues for the severe weather for all the people who need to travel in adverse conditions.........
It's basic tort law. You don't necessarily have an obligation to do something, but if you undertake to do something you have to do it in a non-negligent fashion.
What's negligent? It isn't ideal or even useful, but they are accurate when they say "offices in x, y, and z states are closed or delayed today." Also, don't forget that the decision to delay/close is a local one, so that decision has to be funneled up through multiple levels before it ever gets to the national folks who are in charge of that website (as it exists now). They could maybe tweak things so that local mgmt can put that info somewhere such that it can be placed on the main website more quickly...
ReplyDeleteThe number provided for the SSA office I had to be at on Tuesday morning was SSA's 800 number. When I left home for the field office (for a VTC hearing), SSA's website said nothing about the office being closed or having a delayed opening. Once I arrived at the locked field office, I called the ODAR handling the hearing and was told all its VTC hearings that day were cancelled. Of course, by that time, the bad weather had already started.
ReplyDelete