Back Pay For SSA Employees Coming Monday

      Social Security employees may already know this but they can expect their back pay on Monday.

SSAB Still In Business

      From American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries:

Amy Shuart is the new Chair of the Social Security Advisory Board, having been appointed by President Trump to that position on Nov. 12. She is the youngest Chair in the history of the SSAB. …

Shuart is not new to the SSAB, however. She had been appointed by the Speaker of the House effective Oct. 9, 2022 to a six-year term as a member of that body. She filled the vacancy created by the expiration of Hildred’s appointment to the SSAB, which ended in October 2022.

ad space

Shuart also is no stranger to policy. Her nearly 20-year career in policy roles includes those of Staff Director of the Social Security Subcommittee of the Committee on Ways and Means, and Vice President of Technology & Innovation at Business Roundtable. Before that, she served as a Presidential Management Fellow at the Social Security Administration in the Office of Retirement Policy. She earned two Bachelor of Arts degrees from Virginia Tech and a Master of Public Affairs from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas. …

Threats Bring Charges In Cleveland

     From Cleveland.com:

A Cleveland man faces federal charges after authorities say he threatened to kill Social Security employees after he didn’t get his emergency disability check.

Aharon Meir Michoel Schur, 39, went to a Social Security Administration office twice and called the administration’s hotline several times to get his October check delivered to a new bank account, according to court records. 

When that didn’t happen, he made several threats— including threats to kill that he made on the phone and while he was at the Social Security Administration’s office on Waterloo Road in Cleveland, according to court records. …

On Sept. 30, Schur went to the Waterloo Road office to update his direct deposit information to a new bank account, according to court records. 

He hadn’t received his check by Oct. 6 and called the administration. The call was recorded, and an employee in Arizona told Schur that he needed to go in person to an office and take steps to obtain a “dire need” payment. 

Schur became upset during the call, saying that the delay put him and his son in dire need of money and that he may not be able to pay his rent, court records say. …

He said on the call several times that he was going to attack workers at the Waterloo building and burn the building down, court records say. 

“Play with my m-------------g family, I will kill everybody over my family and their well being, ma’am,” he said, according to court records. “I don’t give a f—k if this is a recorded line.” 

Schur made the threats while driving to the office, according to court records. 

He told the employee on the phone that he arrived at the office, that he was going to kill everyone inside and wanted her to stay on the phone so she could listen to it, court records say. 

Employees at the Waterloo Road office didn’t know of the threats until after Schur left, according to court records. A security guard stopped Schur after noticing he was yelling on the phone, court records say. 

An employee ultimately reissued the payment to Schur’s new bank account. …

Veterans Day

 

A Poll

 

online polls

Senators Want Answers

      From Government Executive:

… In a letter to [current Fiserv CEO Mike] Lyons, Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., the top Democrats on the Senate Finance and Banking committees, respectively, demanded information about the circumstances that led to Fiserv’s issuance of overly rosy revenue projections and the subsequent decision to reevaluate those goals.

“At a minimum, Mr. Bisignano appears to have failed to manage Fiserv effectively, and may have misled investors and the public about the company’s financial status, raising concerns about his ability to serve as a key Social Security and IRS official in the Trump administration,” they wrote. “Because of Mr. Bisignano’s mismanagement, many Fiserv investors, including retirees and members of the public, lost money—a fate Mr. Bisignano avoided. Bisignano’s required divestment of company stock helped him avoid about 300 million in losses cause by the stock’s price decline by over 50%.” …

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.” ...