A Plan To Help The Social Security Trust Funds

       From E&E News:

House Natural Resources subcommittee will take up several public lands bills during a hearing this week, including a contentious proposal to redirect revenues to shore up Social Security.

The “Land and Social Security Optimization (LASSO) Act,” H.R. 34, would redirect 10 percent of public land revenues into the Social Security Trust Fund.

The bill, from Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) and more than a dozen GOP co-sponsors, would not allow public land access prices to be raised in connection with the initiative. …

     Apparently, it’s only about $2 billion a year, which is not enough to make a significant dent in the problem, but it may be a sign of what’s ahead — plans to divert current federal revenue streams to the Social Security trust funds. Right wing groups don’t like the sound of this since they think they finally have Social Security cornered. They’re rubbing their hands in glee at the prospect of forcing major Social Security cuts such as means testing. I guess everyone has to have a dream even if it’s crapping on other people’s retirement so billionaires can get ever greater tax cuts.

Seven Year Sentence For Former Social Security Employee

      From Texas Border Business:

HOUSTON – A former Social Security employee has been ordered to federal prison for aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to steal government funds.

David Lam, 46, Pearland, pleaded guilty June 5, 2025.

U.S. District Judge Sim Lake has now ordered Lam to serve 84 months in federal prison to be immediately followed by three years of supervised release. At the hearing, the court heard about the complex nature of Lam’s scheme and how it involved dozens of fraudulent applications. Lam also used his access to personal data, which was necessary for his actual job duties, to facilitate his embezzlement and theft. Lam was further ordered to pay $3,346,280 in restitution.

Lam was an operations supervisor and claims specialist for the Social Security Administration office in Houston. …

Over 100 Million Online Accounts

      From a press release:

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is announcing that over 100 million Americans have created personal my Social Security accounts. This marks a major milestone in the agency’s digital-first transformation to increase accessibility, expand service, and improve the overall customer experience for the public. …

Who Could Argue?

       From Fortune:

For all the talk about Social Security being in crisis, what hasn’t been stressed enough is the leadership crisis. From December of 2023 to until the current leader’s Senate confirmation of May 6, a parade of four commissioners and acting commissioners cycled through the position. These chiefs departed fast in part because they got frequent hammerings in Congress over the agency’s poor phone and face-to-face service to beneficiaries. 

Enter Frank Bisignano. The Jamie Dimon protegee had a storied career in banking, and was appointed to lead SSA last spring (he has since added the job of IRS CEO to his resume, which you can read about here.) 

But the changes he has quickly enacted at SSA—drawing heavily on his time in the private sector—are real, and they’re impressing even the Administration’s fiercest critics.  … 

No matter what your political party, few could argue that an agency in need of efficiency finally has a leader at the top who is moving the needle. 

What Happened?

      From Money.com:

It seemed too good to be true. A $60,000 deposit from the Social SecurityAdministration landed in a woman's bank account with no explanation, as if she had won the lottery without buying a ticket.

But is this a real windfall, or has she been caught up in a grand mistake? And more importantly, what should she do with the money? …

The woman who received the money is unemployed and receives Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), her 22-year-old child explained in the post. About three months prior, the mother's monthly SSDI payment doubled. The family was already waiting for an explanation of that increase before the $60,000 deposit arrived. …

"They said that every six months they were supposed to review her account and adjust if needed but never did that in the 23 years she was on disability," the post reads, adding that the representative also mentioned a back payment for an issue related to dependents. …

This highlights a long-standing problem at Social Security — the money usually arrives well before the explanation of the money. Sometimes no award certificate ever arrives. 

More SSA Employees Assigned To Answer Phones

      From Government Executive: 

The Social Security Administration is shifting more employees to its phone line, a move that employees say risks adding to backlogs and processing times for the public as employees who typically handle those workloads are reassigned to take calls.

Employees who receive and process retirement and disability claims, manage the agency’s technology and work in the agency's finances unit will be answering SSA’s phone line after only hours of training. The reshuffling comes after SSA pushed out over 7,400 employees last year, according to newly released government data. That total eclipsed the Trump administration’s intended target of shedding 7,000 SSA workers, a target it announced a year ago.

That loss of workers included 1,387 contact representatives at the SSA, which is now fielding applications for replacements at several locations around the country.  …

Reassigned employees said it made little sense to answer calls for individuals awaiting information about the status of their claims and benefits while removing the people responsible for processing those claims and benefits. 

“Why are we being forced away from the backlog of appeals and cases and forced onto the phones to take calls from people wondering what the status of their claim is and where their back benefits are?” one reassigned employee asked. “We are the workers who process the claims they are waiting for.” …

Sound Familiar?

      From Government Executive:

The Internal Revenue Service is asking seasoned employees without any direct tax experience to perform entry-level tasks of answering phones and processing tax returns, a step impacted staff call unprecedented as the agency scrambles to prepare for filing season. 

The reassigned workers, who are being detailed out on an involuntary basis, are coming from the IRS human resources and, potentially, the IT departments. Some employees reported that supervisors first asked for anyone who had experience in the front-line fields to consider the roles, but they ultimately chose many individuals with no prior experience working directly on tax issues. 

The details come as IRS has dramatically slashed its workforce, cutting more than 20,000 employees—or more than 20% of total staff—in the last year. The divisions seeking internal staffing support have seen similarly significant losses to their workforces and have struggled to rebuild in time for filing season, according to a new report from the IRS inspector general.  …

RTO Criticized

      From Federal News Network:

… GAO [Government Accountability Office]tracked SSA telework from July 2019 through May 2025 and found a sharp cliff after the White House memo [limiting telework] Telework hours fell from 35% of total hours in January through March 2025 to 13% in April through May 2025, a telework hours drop that matched the new posture. That speed matters because SSA employees had built their lives and budgets around flexibility.

Agency leaders told GAO that telework acted as a recruitment lever during a tight labor market. In a fiscal year 2023 new hire survey, more than half of new employees said telework ranked as a very important factor in applying and accepting the job. Managers also described candidates who expected hybrid schedules as a baseline benefit, especially in high-traffic metro areas.

Retention signals flashed even before the decree. GAO reports that around 37% of SSA respondents to the 2024 employee viewpoint survey planned to leave within a year. Among those planning an exit, almost half said telework or remote options in their unit shaped that decision. Frontline staff singled out newer hires and retirement-eligible experts as the most ready to move, since both groups value lighter commutes and focused work time. GAO then warned about skills gaps in mission critical roles, right as SSA pursued a 50,000 employee target announced in a February 2025 agency workforce plan aimed at cutting costs. …

Trump’s administration framed the return push around supervision and fairness, echoing language from the January 2025 guidance memo. GAO’s SSA findings show the hidden trade: Forcing the same schedule on every job drains the very talent that the public relies on for timely benefits decisions. A smarter approach uses job-based eligibility, transparent metrics and targeted onsite time for training, mentoring and complex customer work. Agencies that build that system keep their best people longer, save money and deliver service with steadier staffing. …

Auditor’s Report

      As has been the case for quite a few years, the Social Security Administration hired an outside auditor, Ernst & Young this time, to audit its books and operations. The report is not a ringing endorsement of agency operations, although the problems didn’t just start a year ago. Implementation of the audit recommendations is out of the question due to lack of funding.

A Poll

He Only Got Probation

      From MyNewsLA.com:

A former employee of the Social Security Administration district office in the Antelope Valley who admitted stealing over $25,000 from beneficiaries was sentenced Thursday in federal court to probation and restitution.

Dion Bright Jr., 34, of Lancaster, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Fernando Olguin, who ordered restitution in the amount of the theft along with a year’s probation.

Bright pleaded guilty in July 2025 in downtown Los Angeles to a misdemeanor count of theft of government property.

As part of his job duties at the SSA field office in Lancaster, Bright would use a database to access claimants’ records to process claims for the aged, blind or disabled, and for workers who lost income due to physical or mental impairment.

During the scheme, from September 2022 to June 2023, Bright accessed beneficiaries’ SSA records, changed their mailing addresses so that they would not receive notices that their account information had been revised, and rerouted their benefits to a U.S. Bank account he controlled, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. …

Office Closures Today Due To Security Threat

      I am hearing that many Social Security offices around the country were ordered evacuated today due to some unspecified security threat. I don’t recall ever hearing about anything as widespread as this.

     Does anyone know details on this?

Irony Is Dead

      A post by Social Security on “X”:

Today is Data Privacy Day! We are committed to protecting individual privacy and securing the personal information made available to us when you visit our website. Learn how we protect your personal information: ssa.gov/agency/privacy…

I Don’t Like The Sound Of This

      From  new entry in Social Security’s operating manual, POMS:

We created a new POMS section titled, "Addressing Anomalous Electronic Annual Wage Reporting Activity" in response to an increase in irregularities observed in electronic wage reporting. …

SSA may delay processing or decline to process anomalous wage reports. When anomalies are detected that, in SSA's judgement, warrant investigation, SSA will suspend processing some or all electronic reports from the submitter and contact the submitter to initiate an investigation. …

SSA may also refer a matter to OIG for possible investigation. Technicians should report suspected cases of fraud to OIG via Allegation Referral Intake System (ARIS). …

     This may be nothing but it looks to me like the start of a new immigration enforcement mechanism, trying to find employers of immigrants and harassing them. That’s better than what ICE is doing in Minneapolis but it still involves Social Security in immigration enforcement which is not its mission.  

     By the way, as someone steeped in administrative law, I’m noticing a complete lack of due process, which is the sort of thing that could quickly shut this down.  You just can’t harass employers and their employees like this badly without giving them an opportunity to be heard by a neutral adjudicator.

Senators Have Questions

      The Chairman and Ranking Democratic leader of the Senate Finance Committee are asking for answers from the Social Security Administration on the recent admissions from the agency on the improper sharing of confidential information outside Social Security, possibly including sharing with nongovernmental partisan entities.

     No hearing has been scheduled. A actual hearing might have to involve Bisignano and Republicans don’t want him facing live questions. 

Bisignano’s Other Job

 

    The New York Times has a piece on Frank Bisignano’s time as “CEO” of the Internal Revenue Service that touches a bit on Bisignano’s position at the Social Security Administration. There’s no such position as CEO of the IRS but he’s leading it anyway. Here’s a brief excerpt from the piece:

… He works at the I.R.S. roughly two days a week, commuting from his home in New Jersey to Washington in his private plane, according to five people familiar with his schedule.

“I run two large organizations,” Mr. Bisignano said. “I don’t divide my time. On any given day, for example at 11:15 today, I will have an S.S.A. call, and at 12:30 I will have an I.R.S. call. They’re just two big divisions I run.” …

     Two days a week at the IRS. How often is he present at his Social Security office? Probably not that much. I think we know which job he regards as his day job.

Not Much But Better Than Nothing

      From AARP:

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a major spending bill on Jan. 22 that would give the Social Security Administration (SSA) an additional $50 million for customer service for the remainder of fiscal year 2026, which runs through Sept. 30.

The bill now heads to the Senate. It must be approved by both houses of Congress and signed by President Donald Trump by Jan. 30 to avert another government shutdown. …

GAO Says Cuts In Telework Threaten Social Security

      From Government Executive: 

The Social Security Administration is at risk of “losing many staff in the near term” in part as a result of the decision to largely ban telework across government, the Government Accountability Office said in a new reportFriday. 

According to GAO, telework had already been in decline at SSA when President Trump returned to the White House and issued a presidential memorandum banning telework in most instances in the federal workplace.  … 

Among those survey respondents stating that they planned to leave in the next year, almost half indicated that their respective work units’ telework or remote work options influenced their intent to leave the organization,” GAO wrote. “SSA officials told us these staff were likely considering leaving for more work or remote work opportunities, citing employee exit survey results and anecdotal discussions with managers . . . As a result, SSA was at risk of skills gaps in key occupations.” …

Throughout the report, GAO describes efforts by SSA leadership to downplay the impact of telework on its recruitment and retention issues, only to be contradicted by interviews with frontline workers, who stressed the importance of the workplace flexibility. … 

This Affects Few Cases But It’s A Sign Of The Financial Strain At SSA

      From a recent update to Social Security’s POMS manual:

The DDS [Disability Determination Services] has always had jurisdiction for getting consultative examination on Railroad (RR) claims. Due to fiscal processing limitations, the Federal Disability Determination Division Chicago (FDDD) is no longer able to pay for MER requests for RRB Dual Eligibility (D/E) claims. As a result, we need to reach out to the local DDS via an assistance request for that DDS to request and pay for MER. When using our prior legacy system we only reached out to the local DDS to request and pay for CEs. This process and POMS update only applies to RRB D/E claims. The local DDS does not adjudicate the claim …

     Make DDS pay? They’re not exactly rolling in dough themselves. Where I am DDS is already struggling to come up with enough money to pay for medical development in cases over which it has jurisdiction. 

DOGE Handling Of SSA Data About What We Expected — Highly Illegal

      From Politico:

Two members of Elon Musk’s DOGE team working at the Social Security Administration were secretly in touch with an advocacy group seeking to “overturn election results in certain states,” and one signed an agreement that may have involved using Social Security data to match state voter rolls, the Justice Department revealed in newly disclosed court papers.

Elizabeth Shapiro, a top Justice Department official, said SSA referred both DOGE employees for potential violations of the Hatch Act, which bars government employees from using their official positions for political purposes.

Shapiro’s previously unreported disclosure, dated Friday, came as part of a list of “corrections” to testimony by top SSA officials during last year’s legal battles over DOGE’s access to Social Security data. They revealed that DOGE team members shared data on unapproved “third-party” servers and may have accessed private information that had been ruled off-limits by a court at the time. …

Shapiro, a longtime DOJ veteran, said it’s not yet clear whether either of the two DOGE team members — who are not identified in her filing – actually shared data with the advocacy group, which is also unidentified. But she said emails “suggest that DOGE Team members could have been asked to assist the advocacy group by accessing SSA data to match to the voter rolls.” …

Shapiro also revealed that Steve Davis, a senior adviser to Musk and DOGE’s team, was copied on a March 3, 2025 email that included a password-protected file containing private information of about 1,000 people contained in Social Security systems. It’s unclear, she said, whether Davis ever accessed the file. And Shapiro said current SSA employees have been unable to access the file to determine precisely what it contained. …

A Poll

 

Put A Stake Through Its Heart

      From The Fulcrum:

We reported in the Fulcrum on November 30th that in early November, disability advocates walked out of the West Wing, believing they had secured a rare reversal from the Trump administration of an order that stripped disability benefits from more than 800,000 older manual laborers.

The public record has remained conspicuously quiet on the matter. No press release, no Federal Register notice, no formal statement from the White House or the Social Security Administration has confirmed what senior officials told Jason Turkish and his colleagues behind closed doors in November: that the administration would not move forward with a regulation that could have stripped disability benefits from more than 800,000 older manual laborers. According to a memo shared by an agency official and verified by multiple sources with knowledge of the discussions, an internal meeting in early November involved key SSA decision-makers outlining the administration's intent to halt the proposal. This memo, though not publicly released, is said to detail the political and social ramifications of proceeding with the regulation, highlighting its unpopularity among constituents who would be affected by the changes. …

For advocates, the lack of formal withdrawal is both reassuring and unsettling. Reassuring because every signal from inside the agency still points to the same conclusion: the rule is dormant. Unsettling because the decision that affects hundreds of thousands of vulnerable Americans exists only in private assurances, not in public commitments. As one advocate put it, 'We were told it was dead. But nothing is dead in Washington until it’s buried.' …

     We’ll be able to tell this is officially dead when it’s removed from the Regulatory Agenda but that’s only updated quarterly and I don’t think there’s been an update since we were told this is dead.  In any case, in theory, this could come back quickly if they really wanted to bring it back but it’s really radioactive. There have never been more than a few ideologues who wanted the change. I think I know enough about this subject to say definitively that all hell would break loose if this plan were adopted.

Charming Fellow

      From USA Today:

A man caught on video verbally berating a security guard and yelling racial slurs outside a Social Security office in an Atlanta suburb has been arrested, police say. …

Robert Burke, 65, was identified as the man at the center of a viral video showing him being escorted from the Social Security office as he threatened to physically harm the security guard. …

Burke is heard telling the security guard to "take a shot (expletive)" and saying he would "beat the (expletive)" out of him.

"I'm a (expletive) citizen," Burke continues, and then he refers to the security guard, who is Black, using a racial slur repeatedly.

As he walks into the parking lot, he yells back to the guard "What are you going to do, it's free speech" before continuing to use expletives and slurs. …

While this may have been the most explosive encounter, employees of the Social Security office told police Burke had been a problem before and had caused previous disturbances at that location. …

Status Of SSA Appropriation

      The Congressional Research Service has issued a report on the status of Social Security’s appropriation for the current fiscal year.  Technically, it’s about the agency’s Limitation on Administrative Expenditures (LAE) but, in effect, it’s about the appropriation. The report is as dry as dust but, like all appropriations matters, it’s vitally important. Here’s a table from the report:

Annual LAE	FY2025 Enacted	FY2026 Commissioner's Budget	FY2026 President's Budget	FY2026 House Committee	FY2026 Senate Committee	FY2026 Enacted
Dollar amount	$14,299	$14,793	$14,793	$14,793	$14,893
Dollar difference relative to FY2025 enacted	—	+$494	+$494	+$494	+$594
Percentage change relative to FY2025 enacted	—	+3.5%	+3.5%	+3.5%	+4.2%

Low Pay For Frontline Employees

      From Federal News Network:

More than half of the Social Security Administration’s frontline employees are earning less than what’s necessary to afford a basic standard of living in their communities, according to a new report.

Released Wednesday by the Strategic Organizing Center, a research partner for the American Federation of Government Employees, the report found 54% of the 36,000 frontline SSA employees represented by AFGE were paid less than a living wage for their geographic region. A living wage is the minimum income needed for an individual to afford the minimum standard of living in their community. …

U.S.A.! U.S.A.!

      From The Economic Times of India:

… According to a global comparison conducted by HR and payroll specialists at Moorepay, the United States ranks outside the top 10 when it comes to how well Social Security payments cover basic living costs, as per a report by The Express. …

The study showed that several countries far exceed the U.S. in how much their pensions cover living costs. Kuwait ranked first, with pensions covering more than 566% of basic expenses. Bahrain followed at 253%, while Luxembourg, Italy, and Finland also ranked high, each covering more than double the average cost of living. 

Other countries rounding out the top 10 included Spain, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and Germany, all of which surpassed the U.S. in pension strength relative to living expenses. …

A Bipartisan Bill — Amazing

      From a press release:

Today, House Social Security Subcommittee Ranking Member John B. Larson (CT-01) released the following statement after House passage of S. 269, bipartisan legislation that allows the Department of Treasury’s Do Not Pay system to use the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) death records in order to help stop erroneous payments to deceased individuals. After today’s passage, the bill goes to the President’s desk to be signed into law.  

Importantly, the bill contains a provision to prevent the Social Security Administration from meddling with death records to target residents. Last year, the Trump Administration was caught using the Social Security Death Master File to pressure thousands of immigrants with legal status to leave the country, effectively marking them as dead and cutting off their access to the financial system. At the time, Ranking Member Larson decried this abuse of power and called on Congress to act. S. 269 adds explicit protections to the law to prohibit SSA from recording a death unless the individual is actually deceased.  …

“Financial Hardship And Emotional Distress”

      From Follow-up on Claims Denied Because Claimants Were Not Insured for Benefits, a report by Social Security’s Office of Inspector General:

… This audit is a follow up to our 2016 review of Retirement Claim Denials Because of Lack of Insured Status.  

Generally, to be insured for retirement benefits, a claimant must have 40 quarters of covered earnings and have attained age 62. SSA employees should not deny a retirement claim if the claimant is not insured for benefits at the time of filing but will become insured within 4 months and evidence of the earnings is available.  

We obtained the records of 450,209 retirement claims filed between May 2014 and June 2023 that SSA employees determined the claimants lacked insured status. From this, we identified 4,077 claimants who may have been insured because they had 40 or more quarters of coverage in the year of filing. Of the 100 claimants in our sample, SSA employees denied retirement claims for 43 who alleged lag earnings when they filed their claims, were fully insured, and entitled to retirement benefits but employees did not consider their lag earnings. Despite reminders issued to employees after our prior review, employees denied the retirement claims because they determined the claimants lacked insured status; however, the claimants had lag earnings when they filed their claims.  

Based on sample results, we estimate, from May 2014 to June 2023, employees denied retirement benefits to 1,753 claimants who were insured for benefits. Of these, 1,347 claimants were entitled to over $3 million in retirement benefits.  

Without controls and processes to ensure employees identify, review, and document lag earnings, SSA will continue denying millions of dollars in retirement benefits to claimants who should be receiving them. Depriving retired individuals of the benefits to which they are entitled could have a significant and harmful effect on beneficiaries, including financial hardship and emotional distress. …

     This problem is not limited to retirement claims. I’d say it’s more common in disability claims. 

Which Is His Day Job?

      From Tax Notes:

IRS CEO Frank Bisignano is positioned to lead the tax agency through the next filing season and beyond, according to observers.

After seeing seven different commissioners — including one who underwent a full-length confirmation process — the IRS ended 2025 with a leader whose position didn’t exist two months ago. …

Scams Way Down Since 2020

      Social Security’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) has issued a Quarterly Scam Update. It says it’s the 18th such update but it’s the first time I’ve seen it. 

     The report shows that Social Security scams reached a peak in 2020 but went way down in 2022 and have stayed much lower. Maybe the Trump Administration will claim credit for the reduction.Surprisingly, at least to me, those under the age of 50 were the most likely to be scammed but older people showed larger losses.

Social Security Planning To Nationalize Claims Taking

      From Federal News Network:

The Social Security Administration is rolling out nationwide systems in the coming months that will impact how the agency schedules appointments for initial claims and triages its workload to employees.

SSA employees told Federal News Network that they’re used to processing claims submitted locally, but will soon tackle a nationwide inventory of cases.

Employees are wary that these changes will introduce more complexity to their workloads, as well as a higher risk of overpayments that SSA would have to claw back.

“Someone who applies in California could be speaking to an SSA rep in Maine,” one SSA employee said. …

[A] SSA employee said staff were briefed on these changes this week. The employee said staff submitted multiple requests to management seeking clarification on these points, but were told to “worry about today, not tomorrow.” …

Doing Less With Less

      The Strategic Organizing Center, which I’m unfamiliar with, has issued a report on the state of service at the Social Security Administration. It’s a discouraging read. Staffing is down and it’s far from uniform. Some states and areas within states have lost far more than others. I’d give you some excerpts but it seems to be set up to block copying. Read the original.

Bisignano With Newly Sworn In Deputy Commissioner Arjun Mody

  

From Twitter (X)

Former Social Security Running For Office

     From News From The States:

Lauren Reinhold, a longtime federal employee at the Social Security Administration, was swept up in Elon Musk’s DOGE purge of federal employees. Colin McRoberts, a professor at the University of Kansas business school, was inspired to run for office after attending Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall’s contentious March 1 town hall in Oakley.

Both Reinhold and McRoberts believe they can overcome the long odds Democrats have faced in the district by taking aim at Mann’s willingness to support an unpopular Republican agenda.

“We were promised: ‘Things are going to be better for you.’ And I’m just one person, but they certainly were not better for me,” Reinhold said.

“I was lied to. I was told my prices would be lower,” she added. “I was told that things would be better for my kids. I was told they would fix health care. And it’s been a year, and none of that’s happened.” …

Live View Of Social Security Employee At Work

 

An Agency Response

      Social Security has a response to the “fake news” Washington Post article about the deterioration of service at the agency published by the Daily Caller, a far right wing publication. (The Daily Caller was the best you could do?)  It amounts to saying that if you just rely on what is presented in Social Security’s press releases, you have to admit that things are getting better and better. “Who are you going to believe — me or your lying eyes?”

It's Over

 

Happy New Year