More About Punishing Federal Employees

      From Government Executive:

Senate Democrats are warning that new limits on annual leave and sick time at the IRS and the Social Security Administration will push more employees out the door, making it harder for Americans to get assistance from these agencies.  …

In a letter to Frank Bisignano, the IRS chief executive officer and Senate-confirmed commissioner of SSA, Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. led colleagues in denouncing this new policy as a “cruel and unjustified plan that is likely to drive additional employees out the door, doubling down on the administration’s already disastrous efforts to push out federal employees.”  …

“Your actions give the appearance that this policy is less about improving service delivery, and more about punishing federal employees — and by extension, the American people,” the senators wrote. …

Sound Familiar?

      From Government Executive:

An IRS watchdog is taking a closer look at the agency’s temporary reassignment of mid-career employees to frontline entry-level jobs many of them had no prior experience doing.  … 

The IRS cut tens of thousands of jobs last year — more than a quarter of its workforce — and fell short of its hiring goals for this year’s filing season.  

IRS Chief Executive Officer Frank Bisignano said the IRS carried out a successful filing season this year, despite losing more than 25,000 employees. He told the House Ways and Means Committee in March that “I feel good about the number of employees I have right now.”  … 

Employees placed on these involuntary details are doing jobs several pay grades below the work they were hired to perform, but continue to receive their regular paychecks. In practice, the IRS is paying them double or triple what a normal customer service representative or tax examiner would make.  … 

Several impacted IRS employees told Government Executive that the initial details were involuntary, they have received insufficient training and support for this work, and they have no clear idea what work is available to them at the IRS if they leave these details. 

According to two IRS employees currently on details, the agency is looking for volunteers to remain in taxpayer services for a third 120-day tour of duty. Employees who complete a third stint would be away from their day jobs for nearly a year. But these employees say the agency is giving them few alternatives. Both previously worked in IT roles at the agency, and have been told they cannot return to their former jobs.  … 

In May, IRS Chief Human Capital Officer Alex Kweskin acknowledged that some employees on temporary details were unhappy with their current arrangements, and encouraged them to apply for other roles within the agency. Employees, however, said they have applied for other 2210-classified IT positions at the IRS, only for those job announcements to be cancelled days later.    …

Office Openings On Holidays?

      From Govly:

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is implementing significant changes to workforce scheduling and holiday staffing policies to address operational backlogs and staffing shortages. These changes include offering overtime work on federal holidays with telework options, testing office openings on holidays with holiday pay incentives, and reportedly eliminating credit hours in favor of fixed shifts. These adjustments reflect SSA's efforts to improve operational efficiency amid ongoing workforce challenges and reduced staffing levels.SSA's holiday overtime offerings and potential holiday office openings signal increased demand for flexible staffing solutions and may affect contract labor planning and telework arrangements. …

• The elimination of credit hours and move to fixed shifts at SSA could impact contractor workforce management, requiring adjustments to labor scheduling and compliance with new agency policies.
• Procurement professionals should monitor these evolving workforce policies as they may influence contract performance metrics, labor cost structures, and staffing requirements for SSA and related federal agencies.
• The CECOM pilot program suggests potential future shifts in federal workforce scheduling practices that contractors supporting DoD components should consider in operational planning. …

Return Of The Conn Cases

      I am hearing reports that Social Security has gone back to adjudicating cases left behind in the wake of the Eric Conn fiasco. Conn was an attorney in Kentucky who was found guilty of bribing an ALJ to approve his clients’ Social Security disability cases. The agency tried to cut off benefits to all claimants involved but this engendered litigation which led to readjudications of the cases which the claimants mostly won. Attorneys all over the country, including me, were involved in representing these claimants. I think it was apparent to all involved that none of the claimants had any knowledge of what Conn was up to and that the overwhelming majority of the claimants involved would have won anyway. The claimants looked more like victims than fraudsters. I’ve often wondered why Conn would have paid bribes. He didn’t need to do it. Maybe the bribes were solicited. Who knows? In any case, it’s still bribery.

     The agency stopped action on the Conn cases a few years ago. I don’t know why they’re going back now. A high percentage of these claimants are of retirement age now. Few could actually be cut off benefits. They waive overpayments in these cases. There’s no value to the agency in a retroactive cessation if the claimant stays on benefits and the overpayment is waived. The cost benefit ratio for these cases is probably below zero for the agency.      

     By the way, while I’m retired, those claimants will mostly, if not entirely, get pro bono representation this time around as well. That network hasn’t gone away. The old gang is getting back together.

      It’s not like the agency lacks other work to do. My impression has been that most at Social Security were happy to let this sleeping dog lie. 

     If you’re not familiar with the cases it looks awful that people could be allowed to profit from fraud. Up close the cases look different. The claimants are quite sympathetic.

It Keeps Getting Worse

      Social Security has posted the Caseload Analysis Report for its hearing function for this month. Same old same old.  The number of ALJs continue to decline as backlogs continue to grow. More cases are pending for extreme lengths of time. And this is despite lots of overtime.

OIG Report On SSI Claimants With More Than One Car

      From a summary of a report by Social Security’s Office of Inspector General:

SSA considers recipients’ resources when determining eligibility for SSI. While SSA generally excludes one vehicle per household from countable resources, additional vehicles may affect a recipient’s eligibility for SSI payments. SSA relies on recipients to report the vehicles they own and changes in vehicle ownership.

We reviewed 208 SSI recipients to determine whether recipients accurately reported their vehicle ownership to SSA and whether the Agency properly valued multiple vehicles when recipients reported owning more than one.

Of the 208 SSI recipients we reviewed, 154 (74 percent)accurately reported their vehicle ownership. However, public records indicated 54 recipients (26 percent) owned vehicles they did not report. For 8 recipients, the additional vehicles caused their countable resources to exceed SSI eligibility limits, resulting in $40,474 in payments for which they were ineligible. Based on our results, we estimate SSA overpaid approximately 660 recipients $435,000 because inaccurately reported vehicle ownership affected their SSI eligibility. …

I once had a client on SSI with, I think it was 29 cars in his name. His history was that he bought the absolutely cheapest used car he could find and did no maintenance or repair on it. When the car stopped running, he would abandon it on his rural property.  He considered the cars worthless and he was probably right. He never turned in the titles on the cars. I told him to turn in the car titles and talk with Social Security. I knew that, at least, he would be eligible from that point on. Social Security agreed that the cars had been worthless and there was no overpayment. You may think this must have been some sort of scam but he seemed quite believable to me and to Social Security. Life is different in poor rural areas.

Pain Matters

      The New York Times has a piece out about a man who, after years of battling to get the workers compensation and Social Security disability benefits he deserved, committed suicide. The reason he had such a hard time getting benefits was that he had the misfortune of developing a chronic pain syndrome after a very real on the job injury. His MRIs and other tests were negative but he was still in horrible pain. Because his tests were negative his pain meant nothing to Social Security. However, if you’ve worked long with the Social Security disability program and take your work seriously you know there is such a thing as chronic pain syndrome and that it’s a terrible thing with little correlation to physical tests although it clearly correlates with psychiatric exams. Those psychiatric effects may be more a result of the pain than its cause. This man’s suicide is proof of the high stakes in Social Security disability determinations. 

OIG Concerned By AI Enabled Fraud

      From GovCio:

The Social Security Administration is coordinating with federal agencies to combat a growing threat from AI-enabled fraud as criminals increasingly use deepfakes and other emerging technologies to impersonate people and trusted institutions. 

As the federal government has moved quickly to adopt artificial intelligence, criminal groups have also embraced the technology, said Chad Bungard, chief strategy officer in SSA’s Office of Inspector General, at an event hosted by GovExec in Washington D.C. Tuesday. 

Bungard said rapidly advancing deepfake technology that can realistically mimic human voices and images has fueled fraud schemes targeting SSA. These schemes include attempts to change direct-deposit information, spoof identities and impersonate trusted institutions, sometimes using the names of real employees to appear legitimate. 

Citing data from Deloitte and Accenture, Bungard said losses from deepfake-enabled fraud are projected to reach $40.1 billion by 2027. 

“It’s something we have to take seriously,” he said. …