BLS And SSA

 

    You’ve probably heard that the President has fired the Director of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) after receiving a disappointing report from BLS on job growth in the U.S. He claimed that the Director had “rigged” the report to hurt him. There is now clear reason to fear that future job growth reports will be manipulated or outright falsified to please the President. Job growth is certainly important to Social Security. The more jobs, the more FICA money coming in to the Trust Funds. However, statistical reports on job growth themselves aren’t important to recipients of Social Security benefits. However, other statistics generated by BLS are — the cost of living numbers. The President has claimed that the Trump tariffs won’t increase inflation. Will BLS now be willing to issue reports showing a significant increase in the cost of living? The President would probably be more upset at significant increases in the cost of living than with disappointing job growth numbers. Will he insist that the books be cooked to show low inflation even if that’s not what’s happening? If he does, Social Security’s Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) will cheat Social Security recipients. That wouldn’t be popular.  So, what’s happened at BLS is pretty important to Social Security. Keep an eye on it.

Taking An Early Victory Lap

      Commissioner Bisignano was on Fox Business channel this week talking about all his accomplishments at Social Security. 

What Do You Think?

 

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"Backdoor For Privatizing Social Security"

     The Trump Administration's Treasury Secretary has said straight up that the current Administration is creating a "backdoor for privatizing Social Security."

Now It’s Optional?

     From Nextgov/FCW: 

… That public filing outlined a regime where callers would have to log into SSA online to get a one-time code that would prove their identity in order to get help with those four transactions. Since the spring, the agency has required users to supply that pin to change their direct deposit information over the phone. 

Now, an SSA spokesperson says that it will update the document “to clarify that the use of the Security Authentication PIN (SAP) feature is entirely optional.”

“We are encouraging my Social Security accountholders to use the enhanced SAP feature to quickly and securely verify their identity when calling the National 800 Number,” they said, noting that the existing processes to verify identity will remain on the agency’s phone line. 

The agency had estimated that the policy requiring people to verify themselves with a PIN would send over three million people to SSA field offices, but the spokesperson told Nextgov/FCW that “beneficiaries and my Social Security accountholders will not be required to visit a field office if they do not choose to use the SAP feature.” …

Huge New Workload For Field Offices

     From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is overwhelming its local offices by forcing millions more people to seek in-person service while cutting thousands of staff who provide that help. These offices, which primarily serve seniors, people with disabilities, and bereaved families, helped nearly 32 million visitors last year. But under a new policy set to take effect in August, beneficiaries will be forced to take millions of unnecessary trips to field offices, where they will face longer waits for appointments and slower processing times.

As of mid-August, SSA will no longer allow Social Security beneficiaries to perform routine tasks solely by phone — changing their addresses, checking the status of claims, requesting benefit verification letters, or asking for tax forms — as they’ve been able to do for decades. Instead, beneficiaries seeking to complete those tasks by phone will need to complete a multi-factor, multi-step online verification process to generate a one-time PIN code to help prove their identity.

The new PIN code process will be impossible for many beneficiaries to complete. And if they can’t, they’ll need to travel to a field office. That will require 3.4 million more people to travel to SSA offices annually, by the agency’s own estimates. This will create a significant new burden, particularly for those who live in rural areas or have transportation or mobility difficulties.

    The AARP is expressing opposition to this decision. 

Scare Tactics Having An Effect

      From USA Today:

In an AARP survey released July 22, only 36% of Americans voiced confidence in the future of the retirement trust fund, down from 43% in 2020.   

AAnother July survey, from the nonprofit Alliance for Lifetime Income, found that 58% of older Americans fear Social Security cuts because of recent news about potential changes to the program.  …

In the new AARP survey, 25% of people ages 18-49 voiced confidence in the program’s future, compared with 48% of those 50 and older. …

Senator Warren Isn’t Done

      From The Hill:

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is asking Social Security Administration (SSA) Commissioner Frank Bisignano to provide additional information about the wait times for phone calls, amid reports of discrepancies in data.

In a letter sent Sunday evening to Bisignano, provided exclusively to The Hill, Warren followed up on her meeting with the SSA chief last Wednesday, when, the senator said, she secured a commitment from Bisignano “that SSA would undergo a public audit by the Inspector General regarding your phone call wait time data reporting and that you would publish additional wait time data.” …

She asked Bisignano to provide data by Aug. 11, including on the total number of calls received; details about the calls taken by an artificial intelligence tool — including the percentage of calls dropped, transferred, or ended without resolving the issue; the same details about the calls taken by a human customer service representative. …