New Ruling On Disability In Young Adults

      The Social Security Administration will publish Social Security Ruling SSR-26-2p Documenting and Evaluating Disability in Young Adults in the Federal Register tomorrow. At a first superficial glance I see nothing sensitive in the Ruling.

Wisdom From More Than 90 Years Ago

President Franklin Roosevelt (November 1934):

“We must not allow this type of insurance to become a dole through the mingling of insurance and relief. It is not charity. It must be financed by contributions, not taxes.”

SSA To Help Investigate Complex Fraud

      From a press release:

The Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General (SSA OIG) announced its partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in the launch of the National Fraud Detection Center (NFDC). As a signatory of the NFDC Charter, SSAOIG has committed dedicated analysts and investigators to the prosecutor-led effort to strengthen interagency coordination to detect and dismantle complex fraud schemes. …

     How many “complex fraud schemes” have there been at Social Security? Not many. 

July CAR Out

      The Social Security Administration has released the Caseload Analysis Report for July for its hearing component.

I’m From The Government and I’m Here To Help You

      From Clarin:

In an effort to identify and address irregularities within the federal benefits system, the US Social Security Administration (SSA) has launched in-person checks targeting retirees, pensioners and recipients of federal benefits. …

In-person checks are not random, nor do they cover the entire retiree population. Instead, they primarily target recipients of two programs: Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI).

Furthermore, checks are triggered when SSA systems detect discrepancies in reported data, mismatches between tax records and actual income, or address changes that were not reported within required deadlines. …

     Some may remember the old centenarian project at Social Security. Agency employees were sent out supposedly to congratulate those turning 100. The purpose was actually to make sure the claimants were still alive. 

     I guess that employees will attend to this chore in their spare time.

An Idea For “Saving” Social Security

      The Editorial Board of the Washington Post has come out with its plan to “save” Social Security. It’s fairly simple: means test benefits. They don’t even mention the possibility of raising taxes. They don’t engage with the fact that means testing Social Security doesn’t even “save” Social Security unless you apply it quite harshly to those now receiving Social Security or you use vast amounts of general revenues to make up the difference, something they dismiss off the top.

     You’d never guess that the Post is owned by Jeff Bezos who’s worth more than $280 billion.

     Right wing think tanks and editorial pages seem to be coalescing around means testing Social Security as their demand for “saving” Social Security. I think Republicans in Congress will stand behind this demand — way behind it, like on a different continent. 

     The Democratic plan is to lift the cap on FICA. That’s vastly more popular with the public than turning Social Security into a “welfare” program. As someone once said, a program for poor people is a poor program. Democrats aren’t agreeing to means testing. 

Banker Brought In To Modernize Social Security

      From CNBC:

Former JPMorgan Chase executive Matt Zames will join the Trump administration as an advisor to the Social Security agency, CNBC has learned.

Zames is taking an unpaid position to help his former JPMorgan colleague Frank Bisignano, who became Social Security Commissioner last year, tackle modernization of the agency, said people with knowledge of the move. …

Zames, a former hedge fund trader who rose to prominence at JPMorgan after helping clean up the bank’s $6 billion “London Whale” mess, was its chief operating officer for about five years. …

     Will this position allow Zames to sell his JP Morgan Chase stock without paying taxes? That trick worked for Bisignano. 

Union Makes Reasonable Request That's Impossible Today

      From Morningstar:

... The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents a total of 820,000 federal government workers, recently called on Congress to restore about $3 billion in funding to the SSA that was lost to budget cuts, and to boost the workforce by as much as 40% from current levels. ...

The SSA's administrative budget has fallen from 1.2% of benefit outlays in 2017 to 0.86% currently, which represents an annual loss of $3 billion in operating revenue, the union said. In comparison, private insurance companies are funded at roughly 20% of their benefit outlays, meaning that the SSA is deeply underfunded, the union said. 

Meanwhile, SSA staffing has declined 14% during President Donald Trump's second term - from 57,384 in January 2025 down to 49,439 in June 2026 - a net loss of 7,945 employees, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. ...