This was obtained by the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) and published in their newsletter, which isn't available online:
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I'll draw your attention to four things:
- The agency had, on average, 51,444 hours of overtime per month in fiscal year (FY) 2017, which ended on September 30, 2017, but only an average of 35,869 hours per month in October and November 2017. That's 30% less. This hurts productivity. Why the reduction in OT? It's the appropriations situation. The federal government, including Social Security, is operating on a continuing resolution rather than a real appropriation. They're supposed to be spending at the FY 2017 rate. That's already a reduction in spending power because of the effects of inflation. However, the Senate is threatening to cut Social Security's operating budget below the FY 2017 level in absolute terms. I'll speculate that Social Security is being cautious and is only spending at a rate consistent with the Senate appropriations bill. The first thing that gets cut is OT. If the agency gets the same dollar amount as in FY 2017 (which, again, is, in effect, a cut because of the effects of inflation), expect a sudden surge in overtime. In general, Social Security is addicted to OT. They can easily turn the OT spigot on and off allowing them to quickly adjust to the ever changing appropriations situation. That's no way to run a business. OT costs more. OT reduces productivity. You can only assign so much of the blame to Congress. If you're still using a lot of OT even in a bad budget situation, as is the case now, you need to hire more employees. Yes, they take time to train but you need more employees. By the way, it's not just OHO that depends on OT. There's beeen a noticeable slowdown throughout the agency since October 1.
- The senior attorney decisions have gone down from nearly nothing in FY 2017 to completely nothing in October and November.
- The number of Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) available was only 1481 as of November. Social Security likes to talk about all ALJs they're hiring. They don't like to talk about the fact that all they're doing is replacing ALJs who retire, quit, become disabled or die.
- The Office of Hearings Operations (OHO) staff is having trouble adjusting to its new name. This report is labeled "ODAR Workload and Performance Summary." By the way, seriously, don't pronounce OHO as Oh-Ho. That pronunciation has very unpleasant connotations for Spanish speakers.
Before you get upset about how much it costs Social Security to pay overtime remember, the pay is the equivalent of time and a half of a grade 10 step 1 to anyone over grade 10. I get the paid straight time for every hour of overtime I work.
ReplyDeletere: 3:15pm
ReplyDeleteSorry, but that isn't true for the majority of non-management employees in field offices and OCO/PSCs. Most of them were determined to be FLSA non-exempt quite a few years ago, meaning they get true time and a half O/T not subject to the GS10 step one limitation. As a GS 12 step 10 FO employee in a claims technical expert position, I always receive full time and a half O/T for any O/T I work.
The problem with depending upon the overtime spigot is that (especially in public contact positions) you tend to burn out rather quickly or ruin your health over time. The fact that you often can't accomplish your job without the involvement of other employees not working O/T also to an extent blunts the effectiveness of working O/T.
If positions aren't authorized you are stuck working OT and if you want to avoid layoffs when you are dealing with an unpredictable appropriations situation it makes more sense to offer OT and if the budget is cut you eliminate OT rather than positions.
ReplyDeleteNo, it's not the ideal.
Can always repeal that Obamacare that has increased the size of files and led to more informed determinations.
Way to pivot the information being presented. I have found that very few people have insurance. Which is adding to the delay in adjudicating cases as ALJ's are sending so many people out for CE's.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the annual report on health insurance coverage from the Census Bureau, the uninsured rate dropped to 9.1%, down from 10.4% in 2014. The number of Americans without insurance also dropped, to 29 million from 33 million the year before.Sep 13, 2016
ReplyDeleteand a lot of the new recipients of this private health insurance are poorer, etc. -- i.e., strong overlap with disability applicants. So even if the total number of newly insured people isn't that large, it most surely will disproportionately affect disability applicants getting Medicaid in states that expanded it and less poor folks who can now afford to purchase it with the Obamacare subsidies.
ReplyDelete