From a press release:
U.S. Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, and Senator Tim Scott (R-South Carolina), Ranking Member of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, sent a letter urging Acting Social Security Administration (SSA) Commissioner Kilolo Kijakazi to immediately reopen SSA’s field offices to the public. …
Joining Ranking Members Crapo and Scott were 13 members of the Finance and Aging committees: Senators Todd Young (R-Indiana), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Richard Burr (R-North Carolina), Marco Rubio (R-Florida), Mike Braun (R-Indiana), Rick Scott (R-Florida), John Barrasso (R-Wyoming), Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), James Lankford (R-Oklahoma), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), John Thune (R-South Dakota) and Pat Toomey (R-Pennsylvania).
32 comments:
Long overdue. Open up the field offices so the population can do business with SSA. For those employees who are afraid of doing their jobs, get three jabs or quit. Your choice. Enough is enough. My bet is you wont go to work but will go to a store or restaurant. Its selective outrage. Get back to work at work. The public demands it.
I agree. This has got to end. There are many measures that can be taken to prevent the illness from spreading: masking, vaccination, plexiglass screens, etc. I am tired of DDS employees in particular indexing their time on the microwave while talking to me. Everything is taking so much longer when SSA employees work from home. If they were good at it, I might not say anything. But, they suck at working from home.
I am sure these Trump bootlickers hold a lot of sway over the ACOSS :-)
Retirement Threat Pool begins now.
Probably agree. But what about opening up the OHOs? Has there been any chatter about opening them up again. My firm has had 1 hearing scheduled around February 2022 but it was kind of rare case I heard.
Many ALJs have told me they prefer phone hearings. They get more work done. I am not too worried about having hearings except the waiting room. They may need to limit these small waiting rooms. Presumably many of the claimants have severe physical issues susceptible to Covid.
Our Do Nothing Congress who are exempt from vax mandates, who have yet to pass a budget, who haven't authorized a new debt ceiling and who haven't voted any pay raise for federal employees in an era of scorching inflation are telling the ACOSS to open the FO's.
I didn't send myself home. I'll go back when I'm told to report.
This seems strange that these were all Republican Senators. I think it is hardly likely that if asked, no Democratic Senators would have signed on. If the tis the case, why were none asked? They couldn't possibly be trying to make this into a political thing, could they?
@1:08
Nothing definitive on OHO opening. Everything is still being negotiated, and once there’s an agreement to reopen, there will be a 30-day period between agreement and reentry. Details of how things will be done once the office is reopen won’t be known until an agreement is reached. However, HOCALJs should be either back in or heading back in January 1st and will likely lead the way with in-person hearings. Not sure if it will be only their cases or if they’ll siphon off aged cases from line judges.
The senators on the letter have no standing to demand the reopening of Social Security offices and stating that Social Security is a bedrock of our nations Social Safety net.
#1 over the last decade many of these senators have voted time and time again to defund SSA. In fact SSA has become defunded as the budget in 2021 is less or about the same as 2011. Basic inflation and salary increases will show the agency needs more $$.
#2 The senators on the letter have proposed over and over to reduce benefits, reduce or eliminate COLAS's, increase retirement ages, proposed disability rules to become even more difficult as well as increase CDR's.
They do not care about Social Security or the program. The agency desperately needs to hire staff, instead of simply demanding reopen. The staffing at the field office is at critically low levels. The staff are trying to do the best they can with little manpower and retirements. I do not care what these senators have to say. They voted to defund SSA and reduce services. These are crocodile tears, fund the agency properly and service will improve.
Field offices need to reopen. Nothing can be worse than the current service provided. We could not get through to a large field office in NY until Friday this week--after many calls. A young client's mother tried leaving several VMs with the staffer responsible for handling the SSI interview last month--with no response for weeks. They never copied our office on the SSI interview letter. Also they would not allow us to schedule a set interview date. We just have to hope the mother is available when SSA finally gets around to calling. If the Feild Offices reopen, at least someone can walk in and eventually get service.
OHOs seems to be functioning just fine in comparison. I hope they keep the TEAMS video hearing system in place permanently. ALL of our hearings were done by video with the White Plains hearing office prior the pandemic, but they made us travel to Poughkeepsie for every hearing. This system works much better for all parties.
Sure, pile the old, the sick and the disabled into a waiting room usually the size of a bathroom, make them wait hours, vaccinated or not, only to spend 5 minutes with an rep. It's a tough decision... or is it? There are certainly benefits to reopening! That being said, it needs some serious consideration. No Dem's onboard? What is their stance on reopening SSA offices? I personally would only go in if required via a mailed letter, and even then I would question if it could be done remotely. One small clearing of ones' throat or a slight cough and the whole place is going to be uncomfortable.
The Senators who signed this have already ruined their reputations insofar as dealing with the Social Security Administration. Through many years of anti-SSA and anti-government worker actions and statements, it is obvious that these Senators will resent SSA workers' teleworking, no matter how well it is going.
As for reopening there are over 1000 deaths daily due to COVID and that number is rising. Omicron is an unknown danger. SSA office reopening can and should wait until the cases are going down and it is safe for us employees and the general public.
As an SSA employee I see how hard our employees are working on a daily basis. (Unlike those on the outside who can only have a peripheral understanding.)
I see it in my cases and the other SSA workers that I deal with. We are getting the job done well from home, and I'm proud of our accomplishments.
Cutbacks in overtime, and the resulting negative effect this has on backlogs, is not a good reason to force SSA workers back to the office and risk our health. It's bad enough that we don't have OT, but we should not be punished for that by ending telework.
If you think SSA is bad, try dealing with teleworking IRS employees.
Is it possible Democrats were asked to sign and chose not to? Yes. Democrats supported the teachers union over parents and students. No reason to believe they would choose claimants over government workers...
Require anyone who wants in person service to be fully vaxxed
Although I feel that an person hearing helps communicate more effectively for the claimant, there has been one benefit to the phone hearings. No more "sit and squirm" findings by ALJ's who like to say, they don't believe the doctor because the claimant "seemed to sit just fine" or "had good eye contact" or some other baloney where the ALJ feels he has X-Ray vision that allows him to perform internal physical examinations and MRIs from behind the bench. It's been a pleasure to not have to see any such baloney statements in any decisions since the pandemic began. If and when they get back to in person hearings, those ALJ "findings" are something I will hate having to see again.
If you read the entire letter, you will see why so few Senators signed it, no Democrats. . Here is what it said about the SSA reopening plan.
"Did this plan include policies for a return to in-office work for all SSA employees? If not, when does SSA expect the workforce to return to 100 percent in-office work on a full-time basis?"
Simply laughable. It is obvious that these Senators want to go even further than Saul did in cutting telework. They want to throw the telework enhancement act out the window.. The wording of the letter indicates they would prefer to force 100% of employees back to the office 100% of the time!
Could someone please explain to me why, after being closed for two years due to COVID19, SSA offices should reopen at the worst possible time, in January when we are in the midst of a terrible winter surge in COVID cases?
COVID cases are up 50% in the last month and hospitalizations are up 40%!
If SSA is going to reopen it should be in the late spring or summer when the danger has lessened. Even vaccinated employees are in danger from the Omicron variant.
If you all think the employees in Operations (the component housing FOs/DOs/PSCs) aren't being beaten like rented mules--maybe slightly less so since it's a new admin but probably not much because that harshness is held by plenty of managers low enough down the ladder--you're dreaming!
Performance management in Operations is notoriously nasty, and this is coming from someone with OHO experience dealing with the abhorrent 95% DWPI standard!
It's not enough workers, period. Sure, the lack of tech/bad tech contributed and the Brass' choices re: where to reallocate resources and adjust to COVID are not ideal because they aren't ideal top leaders, lol.
But if you think things won't get significantly worse in terms of service if none of these other factors really change and Operations employees are just ordered back into offices...you're just delusional.
I kind of can't wait for the return to offices so things can still suck in a lot of ways and y'all anti teleworkers have to conjure up some other employee-based reason for the abysmal service at SSA.
If these senators are for it, I'm against it. The GOP is the pro-COVID party. Some have even admitted that it's because more deaths make Biden look bad. Those dying are more likely to be GOP supporters, but they're willing to pay that price. The most likely reason for this letter is politics (of course - these are politicians). The SSA isn't going to listen to them, but they can pretend to be champions of the "70 million Americans who receive benefits." If offices were to reopen and people die of COVID, that's fine with them.
Hypocrisy. Period.
Front page story in NY Times today. Last week, major companies from Ford Motor to Lyft postponed January reopenings
.Due to rising Covid cases and Omicron variant.
Most companies are now saying reopening date to be determined (no firm date).
SSA should likewise announce there will be no January reopening
(And shame on the GOP Senators who signed the letter. For ignoring the bad Covid news and being willing to put SSA employees at risk)
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/11/business/return-to-office-2022.html
@601 Do you go out to shop at all and put others at risk? Do you have your food delivered and put others at risk? Everyone is at risk but since all SSA employees are supposed to be vaccinated, they are at less risk than the general population. It's long past time to reopen the offices, be that request from Republican Senators, Democratic Congressmen/women or anyone else.
Most companies are reopened or out of business. I believe Ford is still selling cars and trucks and last I checked it wasn't out of someone's home. Ditto Lyft drivers working out in the public.
I love telework but it's long past time for the offices to reopen. Sure there will be a bit of risk but there is for just about everything one does.
What is the alternative to reopening that will improve service in the short-term? As it stands now, it is extremely difficult for claimant's and their reps to contact anyone at the field offices. It shouldn't take weeks and dozens of calls to get to someone--only to be told that we need to wait for a call back from the only employee in the office that can handle a particular issue. Hiring more untrained employees to man phones is not a solution.
There needs to some strategy to improve service at field offices.
Most firms are open and have been for months. The Post Office has been open for most of the pandemic. Why do people on this blog keep citing large corporate companies delaying reopening? Where is your data showing MOST companies are delaying reopening? Also these firms are in no way analogous to SSA. They are more nimble, have better IT, and most importantly--these white collar workers were NEVER public facing. It is not their job to assist disabled and elderly Americans access the benefits they are entitled to.
Its perfectly reasonable to suggest delaying reopening until we understand the new variant. But I get the impression that there will ALWAYS be another reason not to reopen.
Can’t wait to see the confrontations between anti-maskers and security when FOs require people to wear masks upon reopening.
4:16 The NY Times story cited above indicates only 40 percent of workers have returned to the office.
"Some workers have returned to their cubicles in recent months, with office occupancy across the United States rising from 33 percent in August to 40 percent this month, "
The article also indicates reopenings are being delayed due to COVID19 surge and variants. It would not surprise me if the 40 percent office occupancy figure drops.
SSA workers are helping the disabled and elderly: I can do this better by working from home, rather than being forced back into an office to do pretty much exactly the same thing I do at home.
40% of office occupancy does not equate 40% of the workforce not in the office. These are two distinct metrics. Also this article is narrowly focused on white collar large corporate firms. Most Americans work for small and medium sized businesses. You are also leaving out millions of retail workers, food service, blue collar, and essential jobs. SAA field offices are more like essential businesses than white collar office buildings.
OHOs and SSA employees that are not public facing have a decent argument for continuing to work from home, but not Field office staff. I wish more SSA employees would recognize this. Its fine if you are personally more productive, but I cannot reach field office staff, and nor can my clients. How do you think unrepresented disabled persons are able to navigate this system?
@1200pm Reopening offices will help claimants who may come in to get things done/fixed that are more difficult to have done over the phone. But attorneys, unless they come in and very few do, will still be calling and the the group of people that now answer the phones (and many think aren't doing a good job answering/calling back) will be considerably smaller due to helping in office. I hope that's not the case but it only makes sense if one if busier with in office interviews, which normally take longer than phone ones, there will be less time to call back the public and attorneys who have left messages.
@2:06 There are some issues that are much easier to resolve if the claimant can personally show up to the office. Also, half the people that answer the phone are functionally useless for SSD claims, as they cannot provide assistance beyond the most basic of tasks--they just forward you to an upper level staff person that will never call back. Half of our calls are for attorney acknowledgements, which was much less of a problem pre-pandemic. Creating some level of automation for processing attorney forms would make everyone's lives easier.
I'm not claiming that a return to the office would be some magic cure-all, but at the very least it would help highlight where the worst problems remain. Everyone seems to agree that staffing shortages are one of the main bottlenecks--yet many do not acknowledge that it is MUCH more difficult to train and supervise new hires remotely.
Still haven't heard anything official. But heard rumors from two sources that SSA will not reopen until March 2022.
There is an article about hardships this is causing in the Washington Post today...a few misleading statements but reasonable overall
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