Social Security's Music On Hold Makes Some People Want To Dance

     From Parade.com: 

’80s star Eric Roberts knows how to make the best out of a boring situation.

The actor, who is best known for roles in films like King of the Gypsies, Star 80, and Runaway Train, competed on Dancing with the Stars during season 33 with his partner, Britt Stewart. While the pair reached 10th place on the beloved competition series, it’s safe to say that Roberts, whose sister is beloved film legend Julia Roberts, is number one in his dancing role at home. The actor joined his wife, Eliza Roberts, to take a few spins around the room as they waited out the hold music while calling the Social Security Administration. Sitting on hold? Maybe stars ARE just like us. ...

“It’s a two-hour wait,” said Eliza, who admitted she wanted to do some dancing that night. However, we don’t think that’s what she had in mind.  ...

Shutdown Not Sustainable

      From Wired:

As the U.S. government shutdown stretches into its second month, agency leaders at the Social Security Administration (SSA) are becoming increasingly worried about how the key government department, which provides benefits to roughly 70 million Americans, will continue to operate.

WIRED obtained meeting notes from a Thursday SSA call for the administration’s field offices, where over a thousand managers from around the country spoke with field operations chief Andy Sriubas about the acute and damaging effects of the government shutdown. During the call, managers spoke candidly about staffers who can no longer afford to drive to work and a crisis of confidence in the agency.

“People are coming to me saying they cannot put gas in their car and they cannot afford to come to work anymore, and they'll need to get other jobs,” said one employee on the call. “Pretty soon they won't be able to afford to work at the agency.” ...

Another employee tells WIRED that some field offices have set up food pantries to help colleagues who are on the brink. “People are angry and … betrayed,” they added.  ...

Employees are also struggling with a daunting workload and a backlog of cases. On the call, Sriubas said that he had spoken with SSA’s general counsel, who said that just because SSA’s workload was “excepted” didn’t mean the agency had to do it. “So we can decide not to do it,” said Sriubas. “So if [the shutdown] does go into next week, I ask folks to start thinking about what are the workloads … to say, look, we're just not doing that going forward until the shutdown ends.” ...

“I’ve Lost My Free Will, And Now You’re Trying To Give Me A Lollipop”

      From the Washington Post:

Brace yourself before you call the Social Security Administration, as several million people do each month.
The average wait time is 68.9 minutes.
On the line, your experience will consist of a repeated 5-minute segment of announcements and better-than-usual hold music.

Go ahead, listen. Don’t worry, you can take yourself off hold at any time. …

Because the internet can still be a place that connects you to your curiosity, some people go in search of the full song and its lyrics that float over the melody.  …

Imagine that — a piece of music that breaks free in small ways from our DOGE-enhanced existence. So we went to East Harlem to meet the musician behind it and played him the Social Security hold loop, on speaker.

“That’s horrible!” David D’Alessio howled. He sat with his face in his hands, at his kitchen table.
It was the first time he heard his song — his life’s credo — used as off-the-shelf hold music.
 He felt trapped, imagining himself as a caller. “I feel like I’m being punished,” D’Alessio said. “I’ve lost my free will, and now you’re trying to give me a lollipop.”

D’Alessio, 54, is an independent musician who put out three albums during a career of over 30 years.  …

He was 35 and had just had a bad breakup. “I was pretty dark about what I was doing, where I was going, who I was,” D’Alessio said, “You know ... the whole nine.” He was stuck.
That’s when “Throw Yourself In Front of It” emerged. First came the melody — the same one piped through millions of phones now. … 

By 2014, he figured it was time to make money from “Throw Yourself in Front of It.” D’Alessio recorded an instrumental version with drums, bass and layers of vocals. That was posted online in a music catalogue for purchase, as the company writes, by “visionary music supervisors in TV, film and advertising.”  As copyright lawyers would put it: the use of D’Alessio’s instrumental version was offered online, non-exclusively, in perpetuity, to anyone who would pay an up-front licensing fee. …

Slowing Down In Woodlawn

      From WBAL in Baltimore:

With the government shutdown in its 36th day on Wednesday, businesses around government facilities are feeling the effects. Businesses near Woodlawn's Social Security Administration are seeing a decline in customers since the shutdown as some federal employees are either furloughed or working without pay.

Pioneer Pit Beef usually sees a line out the door. Not during the shutdown, though. 

"This is why you see today we have no line here," said Jesus Cruz, the restaurant's owner. "Normally this time, lunchtime, we have a lot of people waiting in line. We have about 15 to 20 people waiting in the line before we even open.”

Cruz said his business has decreased by as much as 40% due to the absence of its main customers: federal workers at the Social Security Administration.”Only a few of them come here," Cruz said. "Maybe one or two a week, and they let us know that the rest of the people are off from the department." ...

     By the way, let me say how much I appreciate the sacrifices of those working without pay as well as those furloughed. You deserve better. The nation deserves better. 

How Close Are We?

     Social Security employees are about to miss another payday due to the government shutdown. Commercial aviation is being affected by air traffic controllers and TSA employees calling in sick. The Trump Administration is threatening to not pay furloughed federal employees for the time during the shutdown.j

     There are reports of localized problems at Social Security but nothing extensive. Everybody has their breaking point. The perfunctory email shown here won’t help much, if any. How close are we to major problems at Social Security?     

  

How SSA’s Databases Will Be Misused — Even Leland Dudek Says So

      From Pro Publica: 

This year, when states began using an expanded Department of Homeland Security system to check their voter rolls for noncitizens, it was supposed to validate the Trump administration’s push to harness data from across federal agencies to expose illicit voting and stiffen immigration enforcement. 

DHS had recently incorporated confidential data from the Social Security Administration on hundreds of millions of additional people into the tool, known as the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, system. The added information allowed the system to perform bulk searches using Social Security numbers for the first time. ...

Experts say adding Social Security data to SAVE could help election officials verify, en masse, if voters are U.S. citizens, but it shouldn’t be used to make final determinations that people aren’t citizens.  

That’s because multiple audits and analyses have shown that SSA’s citizenship information is often outdated or incomplete, especially for people who became naturalized citizens. With the 2026 midterms about a year away, Caren Short, director of legal and research for the League of Women Voters of the United States, said she fears the expanded use of SAVE will lead to errors. ...

Still, Leland Dudek, acting SSA commissioner until early May, told ProPublica he doesn’t trust that DHS will accurately flag noncitizens as officials try to cross-match data and files from multiple systems. 

“They are probably going to make some massive mistakes,” he said. ...

That's Nice

      From the Coosa Valley News:

As the effects of the ongoing government shutdown continue to ripple through local communities, one Rome [Georgia] restaurant stepped up this week to show appreciation for federal workers feeling the pinch. Marco’s Pizza, operated by local franchise owner Claude Corbin, provided lunch to employees at the Social Security Office in Rome as a gesture of support and solidarity. ...

Happy Dia De Los Muertos

 

Image created by Chat GPT

User Fee To $123

      Social Security is publishing the full list of cost of living adjustments in the Federal Register on Monday. You can read the list today. One that is of particular interest to some readers of this blog is the maximum user fee charged to attorneys representing Social Security claimants. Beginning in December it will be $123.

Après Moi Le Déluge

      From Government Executive:

…  Shares in Fiserv, a financial technology company that processes credit and debit card payments on behalf of businesses and financial institutions, fell more than 40%, or $30 billion in market value, on Wednesday, after CEO Mike Lyons withdrew earnings forecasts originally issued by his predecessor, Bisignano. The stock price fell another 7.1% Thursday.

According to trade publication PaymentsDive, Lyons said that Bisignano’s earnings targets “would have been objectively difficult to achieve, even with the right investment and strong execution.” But instead, Fiserv had in recent years deferred needed investments and cut costs in pursuit of shoring up short-term profit margins. …

Happy Halloween

 

Image created by Chat GPT

Disability Determination Slowing Down Due To Government Shutdown

     I'm hearing from North Carolina Disability Determination Services (DDS) that they have no more funds to pay for consultative medical examinations and are having some trouble paying for those which have already been held. They also lack funds to obtain existing medical records on clients. These problems will progressively slow disability determinations in this state. I imagine that the circumstances are much the same in other states.

The Commissioner Has A Serious Problem Related To The Company He Used To Run

      From Financial Advisor:

Social Security Administration Commissioner Frank Bisignano’s move into government couldn’t have been better timed, helping the former Fiserv Inc. chief avoid hundreds of millions of dollars in losses from the company’s plunging stock price. 

After the former Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. executive was tapped by President Donald Trump this year to lead the SSA, he agreed to resign from Fiserv and divest his stake, including common stock, options, restricted stock units and performance equity grants. Bisignano, 66, was also named CEO of the Internal Revenue Service earlier this month. 

Following his resignation, the restricted stock and a portion of the performance grants vested, giving him more than 3.2 million Fiserv shares worth roughly $594 million when he was confirmed to his role in May.  

Bisignano sold Fiserv stock between May 16 and July 1, according to ethics filings. Based on the average share price during the period, the shares would have fetched roughly $530 million. He later confirmed in a filing that he had completed the divestment.  

The same shares today are worth just $229 million—meaning that selling earlier in the year avoided losses of about $300 million. 

Accepting the government role gave Bisignano another valuable perk. In May, he was granted a certificate of divestiture, deferring capital gains tax on the Fiserv sales provided he invested the proceeds in approved assets such as Treasury bills or broadly-based mutual funds. 

Bisignano didn’t respond to messages seeking comment. 

More than half of Bisignano’s potential losses would have come Wednesday, when the payment company’s shares suffered a record plunge of more than 40% after it slashed its full-year earnings outlook and delivered third-quarter results well short of analysts’ estimates. 

     Did the serious problems at Fiserv only begin AFTER Bisignano left? That seems unlikely on the face of it. Was Bisignano aware of the problems BEFORE he left? That seems likely. If he knew of major problems, why hadn’t he told investors?  If he knew, why was he selling stock based upon inside information? 

     The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would ordinarily investigate this sort of thing but this is the Trump Administration. Nobody in the Trump Administration gets investigated. However, they can’t stop shareholder litigation and I would expect that soon. Bisignano will have to answer questions under oath. 

     By the way, Bisignano needs two lawyers, one for the possible securities litigation and the other for possible criminal charges. Trump won’t be in office forever. Unless he gets a pardon, Bisignano could face criminal charges later. 

     This seems like it could be  a serious distraction to a man with two jobs.

      Update: The litigation has already begun.

     Further Update: Here’s an explanation of what is being alleged:

… Fiserv faces a federal securities class-action lawsuit in the Southern District of New York that accuses the company of inflating growth figures for its Clover payments platform. The complaint alleges Fiserv forced merchants on its older and more affordable Payeezy system to move to Clover while claiming that growth came from new customers. Those migrations allegedly artificially boosted short-term revenue and transaction volumes forecasts which in turn hid slowing organic expansion. When many merchants decided to switch to lower-cost rivals such as Square and Toast, Clover’s performance faltered. According to the lawsuit, former CEO Frank Bisignano told investors in 2023 that 90% of Clover’s revenue growth would come from new merchants and just 10% from existing clients, even as the company moved roughly 200,000 Payeezy merchants to Clover through mid-2024. That shift helped lift Clover’s 2024 revenue to $2.7 billion on $310 billion in gross payment volume, but by early 2025, gross payment volume growth slowed to 8%, down from 14%-17% the year before. …

Read About The Wonderful Work Bisignano Is Doing

       There’s a Bisignano puff piece in the Washington Examiner, I suppose that it will please the paid shills commenting here. Does anyone, even on the right, take the Washington Examiner seriously. It’s self consciously a propaganda outlet. No, it’s not a right wing equivalent of the Post. It’s almost a caricature.

     By the way, I don’t mean to demean Bisignano too much. In his own way, he’s probably trying to be a good guy. It’s just that he’s working in a horrifyingly incompetent and dishonest Administration that barely hides its contempt for Social Security. He’s far more devoted to puffing up Trump than running a competent agency. I don’t understand why anyone thinks Trump is deserving of blind loyalty but Bisignano is not alone.

Terrible Service

From the Washington Post: 

Hours-long wait times. Endless looping music. Useless robot messages. 

Millions of seniors and disabled people call Social Security’s 1-800 number every month. What they experience is often maddening. … 

The Trump administration has said it is improving Social Security customer service and dramatically cutting wait times to build on a phone experience that callers have complained about even before Trump. But the agency’s public reporting doesn’t count the time people wait for callbacks from humans, and nearly three dozen callers who spoke with The Washington Post or let a reporter join their calls said their experiences have not matched the agency’s claims. … 

 In response to this story’s findings, SSA spokesman Barton Mackey said that “there have been significant advancements in customer service” over the past five months. “Cherry-picked instances may meet the goal of a preconceived, negative narrative, but they do not accurately reflect the experiences a vast majority of Americans have when interacting with SSA,” he said in a statement. … 

Once callers get their estimated wait time, they might get offered a callback. The agency says 19.3 million calls were handled by callbacks this year, up from 6.8 million the previous year when the option was first introduced.## One Social Security worker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said the feature appeared helpful at first but has since deteriorated because of understaffing. Many of those she has called back don’t answer the phone because it has been hours or even weeks since their initial call, she said. ...

     The article gives many concrete examples of the difficulties that callers face. 

How Well Does AI Answer The Phone?

      From Grada3:

… When Social Security beneficiaries call the SSA’s helpline, they’re greeted by a friendly virtual voice that says, “How can I help you today?”. So now, instead of waiting on the telephone line for a human assistant, the bot tries to understand what you are asking and will direct you to assistance.

This “digital-first” strategy appears to be a significant advancement on paper as it uses artificial intelligence to answer basic enquiries, free up human personnel, and provide assistance more quickly. However, the experience has not been easy for a lot of callers.  …

Even though this was meant to improve the system, there are many Americans who are struggling to adapt to the new system.

1. Sometimes, the AI might misunderstand you

There are many callers who reported that the bot sometimes doesn’t understand the basic questions or even sends them to the wrong department for help.

2. Fewer Humans Are Available to Help

The SSA has been reducing the number of staff in local field offices and sometimes if the bot can’t help, it might take a fairly long time to reach an actual person.

3. Complex Problems Still Need Real People

The SSA deals with personal and complex issues and sometimes this requires human assistance instead of help from a bot. …

Attack On Field Office In Virginia

     From WSET:

The Social Security office in Lynchburg [VA] was the target of a threat of violence on Friday. …

According to law enforcement at the scene, a message was left at the site, threatening to "come back and shoot you all up."

The office facade was also visibly egged, and something on the sidewalk outside the building had been set on fire. We haven't been able to confirm what exactly was lit on fire, but the wall has what appears to be smoke damage running up the side. …

New Staff Assignments

Sent: Friday, 24 October, 2025 13:00

Subject: Disability Adjudication Personnel Announcement

To: All DA Employees

It is my privilege to announce that Jim Parikh, currently the Assistant Deputy Commissioner for Disability Adjudication, is now the Head of Disability Support for Disability Adjudication. Within Disability Support, the following leadership changes will take effect, along with the establishment of the units that will comprise our newly formed organization:

Jennifer Thompson, currently the Regional Management Officer for Southeast, is now the Acting Executive Director for Disability Innovation.

James van der Schalie, currently the Associate Commissioner for National Disability Determinations, is now the Executive Director for Disability Solutions.

Hank McKnelly, currently the Associate Commissioner for Hearings, is now the Executive Director for Disability Governance.

Jeffrey Kirkwood, currently the Executive Director for Appeals, is now the Executive Director for Disability Compliance.

LeRoy Weeks, currently the Assistant Associate Commissioner for Office of Management, is now the Executive Advisor for the Flexible Support Division (FSD).

In Appeals, Lucinda Davis, currently Deputy Associate Commissioner for National Disability Determinations, is now the Head of Requests for Review. Claudia Postell, former Deputy Commissioner for Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity, is now the Head of Civil Actions. …

2.8 % COLA

      The Social Security Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) for 2026 is 2.8%.

Conflict Of Interest?

      From the Baltimore Sun:

Congressional Democrats are investigating whether Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano knew — and should have disclosed — that his company stood to benefit from a huge contract overseeing a debit card program serving millions of recipients of Social Security and other programs, The Baltimore Sun has learned.

The Senate Finance Committee’s Democratic staff, led by Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, is exploring whether Bisignano knew during his confirmation procedures that the firm, Fiserv, had bid — or was planning to — on a pending 5-year Direct Express contract, which distributes government benefits to about 3.4 million Americans via prepaid cards, a committee spokesperson said.

Another Democrat, Connecticut Rep. John Larson, told The Sun that Bisignano’s “connection to Fiserv certainly raises questions about Treasury’s new contract. Especially as he moves to end paper checks for monthly benefits, which could push hundreds of thousands of Americans over to Direct Express, he has a responsibility to be transparent about any potential conflicts of interest.” …

The contract was awarded to Fifth Third, an Ohio-based bank, and began on Sept. 9, according to the company’s news release that day naming Money Network Financial, LLC as the program’s manager. Money Network Financial is a subsidiary of Fiserv, the company Bisignano headed as chairman and CEO until stepping down on May 6 to take over the federal agency. ….

Deputy Commissioner Nomination

      From a press release:

U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) announced the Committee will hold a nomination hearing on Wednesday, October 29, 2025, at 10:00 AM ET to consider Arjun Mody to be Deputy Commissioner of Social Security …

     Mody has been the Senate Republican Conference staff director.  He’s also been a lobbyist and served on the Trump transition team,

I Suppose This Means That Trump Would Rather End Medicaid, Medicare And Social Security Than Negotiate With Democrats

      From Newsweek:

President Donald Trump warned Tuesday that if the Democrats don't approve funding, there are dangers to the future of Social Security and Medicare. 

Trump said at a press conference that when he asked Democrats for feedback on the funding bills, one said, "It means death." 

"There's nothing about death," Trump said. "Theirs is death because they're going to lose Medicaid, they're going to lose Social Security, they're going to lose Medicare, all of those things are going to be gone becausethe whole country would be bankrupt, and you're not going to have any kind of medical insurance." …

     This is Donald Trump’s Administration in a nutshell — governing through threats and intimidation while denying any responsibility for the consequences.  Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are just “Democrat”programs that he and his party won’t mind destroying? This is lunacy.

Workplace Flexibility During Shutdown At Issue

      From Government Executive:

The Social Security Administration is denying its employees working amid the ongoing government shutdown access to days off and other workplace flexibilities, even as some struggle to afford their commute to work, union officials say. 

Guidance from the Office of Personnel Management governing federal employees’ pay and benefits during appropriations lapses, last updated Sept. 28, stipulates that while scheduled leave is cancelled at the start of a government shutdown, agencies should grant excepted employees, who are forced to work without pay until funding is restored, access to episodic telework or be temporarily placed in a furlough status if they need time off. … 

But Jessica LaPointe, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 220, which represents employees at SSA’s field offices and teleservice centers, said the agency appears to be categorically denying requests for telework or time off, instead placing workers in absent without leave status. Employees placed in AWOL status will be denied backpay for the time they miss and carries the potential for discipline or termination. … 

Guidance from the Office of Personnel Management governing federal employees’ pay and benefits during appropriations lapses, last updated Sept. 28, stipulates that while scheduled leave is cancelled at the start of a government shutdown, agencies should grant excepted employees, who are forced to work without pay until funding is restored, access to episodic telework or be temporarily placed in a furlough status if they need time off. 

“An excepted employee may be excused from duty for intermittent periods during a shutdown furlough,” OPM wrote. “While excused from performing excepted duties, the employee will be placed in furlough status unless the employee elects to use paid leave . . . However, if an excepted employee needs to be absent from work for brief periods, agencies are encouraged to explore the use of workplace flexibilities such as alternative work schedules and telework to accommodate the employee’s need to be absent. If use of workplace flexibilities is not appropriate for the situation, excepted employees must be furloughed for any brief absence or allowed to request paid leave.” 

But Jessica LaPointe, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 220, which represents employees at SSA’s field offices and teleservice centers, said the agency appears to be categorically denying requests for telework or time off, instead placing workers in absent without leave status. Employees placed in AWOL status will be denied backpay for the time they miss and carries the potential for discipline or termination.
“This is notice that you have been placed on Absence without Leave (AWOL) for 8 hours . . . when you failed to report for duty,” stated a memorandum that one employee received, obtained by Government Executive. “You have been placed on AWOL because you were not on duty as scheduled and you were not on approved leave to cover the period of your absence. Although AWOL itself is not a disciplinary action, it may be used as the basis for disciplinary action . . . As I have reminded you, it is important that you come to work when scheduled, remain on the job, and perform the essential functions of your job.” 

In a statement, an SSA spokesperson contested AFGE’s allegations as “inaccurate.”
“SSA is following long-standing guidelines for how requests for episodic telework, annual leave and sick leave are handled,” they wrote. “There is also a process for employees to follow if they request to be placed on furlough status, which is unchanged. SSA offices remain open and continue to serve the public.” 

But that doesn’t track with what is happening across the agency, LaPointe said. The union has seen an increase in denial rates for episodic telework since the shutdown began, and she said management has added new requirements to requests from employees to be placed in a leave or furlough status. …

Office Closures

      From Newsweek:

 Several Social Security offices have been closed today amid the larger government shutdown. ...

In California, the Madera Social Security office is unable to provide in-person service until 1 p.m. local time.

Meanwhile, in Montana, the Havre office is only able to provide telephone assistance until further notice due to the shutdown.

New York is facing several disruptions, with the East Bronx location unable to provide in-person services until 10 a.m., and Canarsie and Corning locations only providing phone assistance until further notice.

The Pennsylvania office in Wilkes-Barre is only offering phone assistance on Monday, while Bloomsburg and Reading offices have generally reverted to phone service instead of any in-person options until further notice.

In South Carolina, the Spartanburg office will only be providing phone service on Monday, and the Dallas Fair Park office in Texas will be offering the same service instead of in-person capabilities.

In West Virginia, the Logan SSA office is only available by telephone.

In Wyoming, beneficiaries relying on the Cody office will need to use phone services until further notice. ...

     Some of these have to do with local conditions which might occur anytime. Some of these have to do with the reduction in staffing at Social Security. Some of these have to do with the government shutdown.  When people aren't being paid, they're not as enthusiastic about showing up for work when they're not feeling so well.  

Doing The Right Thing

     From the Washington Post:

Charles Borges, then chief data officer for the vast Social Security Administration, was alarmed last when he learned that members of Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service had copied a mainframe database containing the personal information of hundreds of millions of Americans, including names, birthdays, addresses and more.

The discovery prompted Borges to file a whistleblower complaint in August, telling Congress and the Office of Special Counsel that the cloud server where the database was uploaded had little oversight and was vulnerable to attacks by bad actors. 

The result: He said the Trump administration’s reaction to his complaint caused him to feel isolated and subject to a hostile work environment, prompting him to resign and give up a decades-long government career and dream job. … 

Borges is not the only Social Security official to raise concerns about the safety of data under the U.S. DOGE Service, which was launched by billionaire Elon Musk to cut costs across the government. 

Former acting Social Security commissioner Leland Dudek — who was elevated to that role by the Trump administration after showing loyalty to DOGE — said in an interview that Borges’s worries, as documented in his whistleblower report, are both “appropriate” and “accurate.” Dudek, who said he is on paid administrative leave pending a full separation from Social Security, said the type of cloud server that DOGE used is not sufficiently protected for such personal information and has been a well-known problem for years. 

“That absolutely has been the problem with that environment since I’ve been with the agency, that it is too little secured,” Dudek said. Borges, he continued, is “absolutely right.” …

If Bisignano Signs Off On This, He’d Better Hope For A Pardon Before Trump Leaves Office

      From the Wall Street Journal:

It’s An Idea

      From the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:

The Social Security retirement and Medicare Hospital Insurance (HI) trust funds are approaching insolvency, with both trust funds expected to be depleted in just seven years. Without action, retirees face an automatic 24 percent benefit cut in 2032, while Medicare hospital payments would be cut by 12 percent. Restoring solvency to these trust funds will require slowing benefit growth, lowering health care costs, increasing revenue, or some combination.

The Social Security and Medicare trust funds are financed primarily by a 15.3 percent payroll tax on wages, split evenly between worker and employer, with the 12.4 percent Social Security tax applied only to the first $176,100 of annual wages in 2025. Proposals to boost revenue often involve increasing the tax rate or the tax cap.

This Trust Fund Solutions Initiative white paper suggests a new alternative – replacing the employer side of the payroll tax with a flat Employer Compensation Tax (ECT) on all employer compensation costs.1 While workers would continue to pay payroll taxes, employers would instead pay an ECT on all wages (with no tax cap) and all fringe benefits such as employer-sponsored insurance and stock options.

Karen E. Smith at the Urban Institute modeled this proposal using the DYNASIM model.2 Using that analysis, replacing the employer payroll tax with an ECT would:

• Raise $2.5 trillion over a decade and 0.7 percent of GDP over 75 years.
• Close two-thirds of Social Security’s shortfall and half of Medicare’s gap.3
• Alternatively, close one-third of Social Security’s shortfall, one-eighth of Medicare’s shortfall, and fund a 1 percentage point cut in payroll taxes – improving solvency while reducing taxes for the bottom 60 percent of workers.
• Extend Social Security solvency by two decades to 2055 and modestly extend Medicare solvency – with further extension if combined with other reforms.
• Increase progressivity, generating revenue mainly from the highest earners.
• Support stronger economic growth than alternative revenue options.
• Improve horizontal equity, efficiency, and simplicity; slow health care cost growth; and avoid viability and revenue stability concerns of alternatives. …

Lawsuit Over Service Breakdowns

      From Fedscoop:

A nonprofit legal group is calling on the Social Security Administration to release records on recent internal changes and “customer service breakdowns,” alleging it has caused widespread service disruptions for millions of Americans under the Trump administration. 

In a lawsuit filed in a federal court in Maryland on Monday, Democracy Forward said SSA did not respond to multiple records requests for details on the agency’s workforce reductions, cuts to phone services and the elimination of customer service metrics on the agency website that took place this year. 

These changes, according to Democracy Forward, prompted longer wait times, payment delays and “confusion for beneficiaries in vulnerable situations,” the lawsuit stated. The group said it filed various Freedom of Information Act requests over the summer regarding these incidents, but SSA did not hand over determinations or release the records.  …

Another Thing The SSAB Did Before Closing Up Shop -- Trust Fund Buildings

     This is from a letter to the Chairs and Ranking Members of the Senate Finance Committee and House Social Security Subcommittee from the Social Security Advisory Board (SSAB) (footnote omitted):

In light of efforts to reduce the federal real property footprint, the Social Security Advisory Board (Board) writes to highlight a unique issue for the Social Security Administration (SSA) regarding property acquired with money from the Social Security trust funds.

The Board believes that any proceeds from the sale of trust fund acquired property should go to the trust funds. Trust fund dollars are for Social Security program purposes only and have been intentionally set apart from general revenues by Congress. The Board therefore encourages Congress to direct all revenue from the disposition of trust fund properties to the trust funds.

     By the way, I think that SSAB has closed its doors but I haven’t seen proof that it’s happened. 

COLA Announcement Pushed To October 24

      Newsweek reports that the announcement date for the 2025 Social Security Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) has been pushed back from October 15 to October 24.

The Absurdity Of It All

 

Image produced by ChatGPT

There’s Always A New Scam

      From a press release:

The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the Social Security Administration (SSA) is warning the public about a new government imposter scam. This scam comes in the form of an official-looking letter identified as a “certificate” on fake U.S. Supreme Court letterhead using forged signatures of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. This high-pressure scam urges individuals to cooperate with the named SSA official, pressuring them to send money or share personal information.

The scam letter is personally addressed to the recipient and claims they are a primary suspect in connection with legal proceedings and criminal charges. The letter may use the real name of an SSA executive and claim that the proceedings “are conducted with the oversight of Attorney General Raúl Torrez” of New Mexico. The letter further claims that according to findings from SSA and the incorrectly named “Drug Enforcement Agency,” the recipient may have been subjected to identity theft, noting that their Social Security number (SSN) has been compromised. The letter states that SSA will issue a new SSN. …

BLS Recalling Staff So Social Security COLA Can Be Computed

      From CNN:

The Bureau of Labor Statistics is calling some staff back to work to prepare its closely watched inflation gauge, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) report, despite the government shutdown, a Trump administration official told CNN.

The latest CPI data was previously scheduled for release on October 15. It’s unclear whether the report will still be released next week or delayed amid the shutdown. The Trump official told CNN that the data would be published before November 1, since that is the deadline to publish the annual increase for Social Security payments. The September CPI data is needed to calculate that adjustment. …

A View Of The Future

      From the Washington Post:

Kinsley Kilpatrick put on a convincing show.

During visits to Atlanta VA Medical Center, the Iraq War veteran arrived in a wheelchair, claiming multiple sclerosis had paralyzed his arms and legs. By the time he turned 35, the onetime athlete said he could barely move from the neck down, leaving him dependent on others to eat, dress and bathe, according to court records.

Obligated to help a former soldier in need, the Department of Veterans Affairs began paying Kilpatrick $7,900 a month in tax-free disability benefits in 2015, the records show. The federal government also gave him $20,000 for a specially equipped Jeep Cherokee to make it easier for his wife to take him to medical appointments.

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The hoax lasted for three years and might have continued indefinitely, if not for a whistleblower who sent VA proof that Kilpatrick was lying: videos of the Army veteran backflipping on a trampoline, prancing around a sports field like a ballerina and swan diving into a playground ball pit. ...

    Why would I be posting this story about VA on the Social Security News blog? This sort of story gets planted when you want to cut a program. You could easily get the Post to do a similar article about Social Security disability and use it to justify making it harder to get on disability benefits and to stay on them. In fact, I imagine that's coming. 

    I can't say how common fraud is at VA but I'm sure that a few vets caught faking it doesn't mean that the program has lax standards. There must be well over a million vets drawing VA benefits. It's inevitable that there will be at least a few crooks among them. Coming up with a few cases like this one prove nothing about the overall program but can sway many members of the public and members of Congress.