Social Security's ERE system that allows attorneys to access their clients' Social Security records online is down -- again. At least it can't be accessed in the normal way. This is happening more and more often.
I hesitate to post them here for fear that it will cause them to crash but there are alternative URLs for ERE that seem to work. Maybe Social Security should post them if they won't cause the system to crash any more than it has already crashed.
18 comments:
I tried to access on my computer, on my tablet and finally by my smart phone. On the computer I logged in and reached a white screen. On the tablet I received an error message: net:ERR_HTTP_RESPOONSE_CODE_FAILURE. Finally, the phone told me that I did not have access to this site.
It's not just ERE. All of our internet based applications at the FO have been down most of the day.
A month ago it was the phone systems. Now it is ERE, but to be sure ERE is a frequent failure and problem
At what point do we say to the Commissioner that she needs to take responsibility for systemic failures of the structure and business processes of the Social Security Administration and if she unable or unwilling to fire the management staff responsible for infrastructure within the Agency, then she should resign herself and find someone who can manage the Organization.
It's a rudderless ship. ACOSS is clueless and has the wool thoroughly pulled over her eyes.
We have effectively had the same management since the start of the Trump Administration and it shows. No steps have been taken to repair any of the damage done under Berryhill or Saul.
All the agency has done is slap a web based sober on the old system.
Any of you IT gurus figure out how to completely overhaul a system that affects so many lives?
Honestly, not having a computer background, how long would it take to really revamp the entire system and not miss paying anyone a check?
3:51 PM, May 03, 2022
Not being hyperbolic here, and I am not an IT person but know plenty, 6 months to two years depending on the resources dedicated to do a true fix and not just a cosmetic overhaul.
And those resources (money and experienced staffing) would need to be vast. Think billions of dollars.
Continuous systems outages, basically making field office employees unable to do a lot of their job. Meanwhile the Deputy commissioner for Systems gets OPMs meritorious executive award.
I wish Elon Musk would buy Social Security and fix it.
There was a catastrophic failure in multiple systems today. ERE was probably part of that.
I'm glad to know I'm not the only one. ERE is completely down.
ERE has lacked the funding and resources for years. Outages will occur more and more as the folks that know how to support it have moved to other projects.
A greenfield world would be nice. The problem is complexity. What if the new system built from scratch, actually came up with different benefit payment calculations then the old system? It is entirely possible. SSA has over 60 million lines of assembly and COBOL code in production. The folks that stitched those legacy systems together are long gone, or recently retired. Those 60 million lines of code, take the Social Security Act, agency POMS, and weave their way through an individuals entire earnings history - to include, in many cases their family. When coding, a developer needs to make choices, to interpret what a calculation should be, and how it should work. The developers may make choices that seem reasonable, but in the aggregate , interpret data differently then when SSA originally coded its applications. Your right. IRS has a similar challenge. When they began modernization in 1990's, IRS said it could be done in 5 years for a Billion $. IRS is still modernizing, and erey couple of years asking for another Billion or Two, on top of existing resources. So far, SSA has spent about $300 million, spread over 5 years, out of hide (existing appropriations).
Again, the Act COSS is clueless... management pretty much clicks delete when they get her messages with cute videos. She refers to her managers as the people who have been coming into the office and as of a few weeks ago had yet to schedule a meeting with them. For the most part, she has left the same upper management in the same positions... no SES switches that might bring in new ideas or sweep out the problems that upper management would like to continue to pretend do not exist... the good old boy/girl system at work... serving themselves and not the public...
They want to do more on line but are still using last century's technology. Yeah that should work out just fine.
You keep putting old people in charge and you will keep getting old ideas. You need a fresh approach with a young perspective that has grown up with tech since birth. Expecting anything to get better by having people that couldnt get a VCR to stop flashing 12:00 directing your technology is pointless.
This! I wish I could add a like to this comment!
She is letting the same people who have been running the agency into the ground for the past 5 years continue running the agency into the ground.
Nothing to do with last century’s technology. It is all due to lack of funding and resources. ERE is viewed as a system that is in operation and maintenance. These systems get the fewest if any resources for enhancements and support. They really should be viewing this as a critical operational system that accounts for over 40% of the MER volume received plus outbound requests that save the DDS time and money. This is the same for other disability systems that handle mission critical MER such as Health IT and MTF. These systems have been cut to the bone due to funding shifted to some new approaches that have yielded nothing to date and spent millions. Systems seems to forget that the care and feeding of operational systems is critical to keeping the mission running.
There are legacy developers for hire
http://cobolcowboys.com/meet-the-company/
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