Office Closures

      From Newsweek:

 Several Social Security offices have been closed today amid the larger government shutdown. ...

In California, the Madera Social Security office is unable to provide in-person service until 1 p.m. local time.

Meanwhile, in Montana, the Havre office is only able to provide telephone assistance until further notice due to the shutdown.

New York is facing several disruptions, with the East Bronx location unable to provide in-person services until 10 a.m., and Canarsie and Corning locations only providing phone assistance until further notice.

The Pennsylvania office in Wilkes-Barre is only offering phone assistance on Monday, while Bloomsburg and Reading offices have generally reverted to phone service instead of any in-person options until further notice.

In South Carolina, the Spartanburg office will only be providing phone service on Monday, and the Dallas Fair Park office in Texas will be offering the same service instead of in-person capabilities.

In West Virginia, the Logan SSA office is only available by telephone.

In Wyoming, beneficiaries relying on the Cody office will need to use phone services until further notice. ...

     Some of these have to do with local conditions which might occur anytime. Some of these have to do with the reduction in staffing at Social Security. Some of these have to do with the government shutdown.  When people aren't being paid, they're not as enthusiastic about showing up for work when they're not feeling so well.  

Doing The Right Thing

     From the Washington Post:

Charles Borges, then chief data officer for the vast Social Security Administration, was alarmed last when he learned that members of Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service had copied a mainframe database containing the personal information of hundreds of millions of Americans, including names, birthdays, addresses and more.

The discovery prompted Borges to file a whistleblower complaint in August, telling Congress and the Office of Special Counsel that the cloud server where the database was uploaded had little oversight and was vulnerable to attacks by bad actors. 

The result: He said the Trump administration’s reaction to his complaint caused him to feel isolated and subject to a hostile work environment, prompting him to resign and give up a decades-long government career and dream job. … 

Borges is not the only Social Security official to raise concerns about the safety of data under the U.S. DOGE Service, which was launched by billionaire Elon Musk to cut costs across the government. 

Former acting Social Security commissioner Leland Dudek — who was elevated to that role by the Trump administration after showing loyalty to DOGE — said in an interview that Borges’s worries, as documented in his whistleblower report, are both “appropriate” and “accurate.” Dudek, who said he is on paid administrative leave pending a full separation from Social Security, said the type of cloud server that DOGE used is not sufficiently protected for such personal information and has been a well-known problem for years. 

“That absolutely has been the problem with that environment since I’ve been with the agency, that it is too little secured,” Dudek said. Borges, he continued, is “absolutely right.” …

If Bisignano Signs Off On This, He’d Better Hope For A Pardon Before Trump Leaves Office

      From the Wall Street Journal:

It’s An Idea

      From the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:

The Social Security retirement and Medicare Hospital Insurance (HI) trust funds are approaching insolvency, with both trust funds expected to be depleted in just seven years. Without action, retirees face an automatic 24 percent benefit cut in 2032, while Medicare hospital payments would be cut by 12 percent. Restoring solvency to these trust funds will require slowing benefit growth, lowering health care costs, increasing revenue, or some combination.

The Social Security and Medicare trust funds are financed primarily by a 15.3 percent payroll tax on wages, split evenly between worker and employer, with the 12.4 percent Social Security tax applied only to the first $176,100 of annual wages in 2025. Proposals to boost revenue often involve increasing the tax rate or the tax cap.

This Trust Fund Solutions Initiative white paper suggests a new alternative – replacing the employer side of the payroll tax with a flat Employer Compensation Tax (ECT) on all employer compensation costs.1 While workers would continue to pay payroll taxes, employers would instead pay an ECT on all wages (with no tax cap) and all fringe benefits such as employer-sponsored insurance and stock options.

Karen E. Smith at the Urban Institute modeled this proposal using the DYNASIM model.2 Using that analysis, replacing the employer payroll tax with an ECT would:

• Raise $2.5 trillion over a decade and 0.7 percent of GDP over 75 years.
• Close two-thirds of Social Security’s shortfall and half of Medicare’s gap.3
• Alternatively, close one-third of Social Security’s shortfall, one-eighth of Medicare’s shortfall, and fund a 1 percentage point cut in payroll taxes – improving solvency while reducing taxes for the bottom 60 percent of workers.
• Extend Social Security solvency by two decades to 2055 and modestly extend Medicare solvency – with further extension if combined with other reforms.
• Increase progressivity, generating revenue mainly from the highest earners.
• Support stronger economic growth than alternative revenue options.
• Improve horizontal equity, efficiency, and simplicity; slow health care cost growth; and avoid viability and revenue stability concerns of alternatives. …

Lawsuit Over Service Breakdowns

      From Fedscoop:

A nonprofit legal group is calling on the Social Security Administration to release records on recent internal changes and “customer service breakdowns,” alleging it has caused widespread service disruptions for millions of Americans under the Trump administration. 

In a lawsuit filed in a federal court in Maryland on Monday, Democracy Forward said SSA did not respond to multiple records requests for details on the agency’s workforce reductions, cuts to phone services and the elimination of customer service metrics on the agency website that took place this year. 

These changes, according to Democracy Forward, prompted longer wait times, payment delays and “confusion for beneficiaries in vulnerable situations,” the lawsuit stated. The group said it filed various Freedom of Information Act requests over the summer regarding these incidents, but SSA did not hand over determinations or release the records.  …

Another Thing The SSAB Did Before Closing Up Shop -- Trust Fund Buildings

     This is from a letter to the Chairs and Ranking Members of the Senate Finance Committee and House Social Security Subcommittee from the Social Security Advisory Board (SSAB) (footnote omitted):

In light of efforts to reduce the federal real property footprint, the Social Security Advisory Board (Board) writes to highlight a unique issue for the Social Security Administration (SSA) regarding property acquired with money from the Social Security trust funds.

The Board believes that any proceeds from the sale of trust fund acquired property should go to the trust funds. Trust fund dollars are for Social Security program purposes only and have been intentionally set apart from general revenues by Congress. The Board therefore encourages Congress to direct all revenue from the disposition of trust fund properties to the trust funds.

     By the way, I think that SSAB has closed its doors but I haven’t seen proof that it’s happened. 

COLA Announcement Pushed To October 24

      Newsweek reports that the announcement date for the 2025 Social Security Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) has been pushed back from October 15 to October 24.

The Absurdity Of It All

 

Image produced by ChatGPT

There’s Always A New Scam

      From a press release:

The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the Social Security Administration (SSA) is warning the public about a new government imposter scam. This scam comes in the form of an official-looking letter identified as a “certificate” on fake U.S. Supreme Court letterhead using forged signatures of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. This high-pressure scam urges individuals to cooperate with the named SSA official, pressuring them to send money or share personal information.

The scam letter is personally addressed to the recipient and claims they are a primary suspect in connection with legal proceedings and criminal charges. The letter may use the real name of an SSA executive and claim that the proceedings “are conducted with the oversight of Attorney General Raúl Torrez” of New Mexico. The letter further claims that according to findings from SSA and the incorrectly named “Drug Enforcement Agency,” the recipient may have been subjected to identity theft, noting that their Social Security number (SSN) has been compromised. The letter states that SSA will issue a new SSN. …

BLS Recalling Staff So Social Security COLA Can Be Computed

      From CNN:

The Bureau of Labor Statistics is calling some staff back to work to prepare its closely watched inflation gauge, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) report, despite the government shutdown, a Trump administration official told CNN.

The latest CPI data was previously scheduled for release on October 15. It’s unclear whether the report will still be released next week or delayed amid the shutdown. The Trump official told CNN that the data would be published before November 1, since that is the deadline to publish the annual increase for Social Security payments. The September CPI data is needed to calculate that adjustment. …

A View Of The Future

      From the Washington Post:

Kinsley Kilpatrick put on a convincing show.

During visits to Atlanta VA Medical Center, the Iraq War veteran arrived in a wheelchair, claiming multiple sclerosis had paralyzed his arms and legs. By the time he turned 35, the onetime athlete said he could barely move from the neck down, leaving him dependent on others to eat, dress and bathe, according to court records.

Obligated to help a former soldier in need, the Department of Veterans Affairs began paying Kilpatrick $7,900 a month in tax-free disability benefits in 2015, the records show. The federal government also gave him $20,000 for a specially equipped Jeep Cherokee to make it easier for his wife to take him to medical appointments.

iClick these iconsto see documents and more detailed information.

The hoax lasted for three years and might have continued indefinitely, if not for a whistleblower who sent VA proof that Kilpatrick was lying: videos of the Army veteran backflipping on a trampoline, prancing around a sports field like a ballerina and swan diving into a playground ball pit. ...

    Why would I be posting this story about VA on the Social Security News blog? This sort of story gets planted when you want to cut a program. You could easily get the Post to do a similar article about Social Security disability and use it to justify making it harder to get on disability benefits and to stay on them. In fact, I imagine that's coming. 

    I can't say how common fraud is at VA but I'm sure that a few vets caught faking it doesn't mean that the program has lax standards. There must be well over a million vets drawing VA benefits. It's inevitable that there will be at least a few crooks among them. Coming up with a few cases like this one prove nothing about the overall program but can sway many members of the public and members of Congress.

Bisignano At IRS

        There are so many issues with Frank Bisignano's position as "CEO" of IRS. Let me list three that I know of:

• Bisignano is the 8th person to serve as head of the IRS in the eight and a half months that Trump has been back in the White House. The IRS can no longer carry out its core missions because it has fired a quarter of its employees. Why would anyone in their right mind want the job of CEO of such a disaster zone? And you thought that Social Security is a mess!
• The head of IRS is supposed to be the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, not the "CEO." It appears that the President is making up a title to get around submitting a new nomination for Commissioner of Internal Revenue.
• Why not submit a nomination? The nominee would face a confirmation hearing where he or she would have to answer questions Trump doesn't want answered, such as whether the nominee will continue illegally sharing data with ICE and whether the nominee will use the IRS to investigate the President's enemies. Also, the chaos at IRS would be a major topic.

For What It’s Worth

      For what it’s worth, the White House is apparently denying that it intends to make any changes in Social Security. 

Just When You Think Things Can’t Get Any More Absurd

      From The Hill:

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday announced the head of the Social Security Administration (SSA) would also serve as CEO of the IRS after the tax agency’s previous, Senate-confirmed leader was ousted.

Social Security Administration Commissioner Frank Bisignano will take on the additional role of CEO of the IRS, where he will oversee day-to-day operations. But Bessent will continue to serve as the acting IRS commissioner, giving him autonomy over the agency. …

Aggressive Action Against Disability Claimants Planned

      From the Washington Post:

The Trump administration is preparing a plan that will make it harder for older Americans to qualify for Social Security disability payments, part of an overhaul of the federal safety net for poor, older and disabled people that could result in hundreds of thousands of people losing benefits, according to people familiar with the plans.


Currently, the Social Security Administration evaluates disability claims by considering age, work experience and education to determine if a person can adjust to other types of work. Older applicants, typically over 50, have a better chance of qualifying because age is treated as a limitation in adapting to many jobs.


But now officials are considering eliminating age as a factor entirely or raising the threshold to age 60, according to three people familiar with the plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share private discussions. They also plan to modernize labor market data used to judge whether claimants can work, replacing an outdated jobs database that includes obsolete occupations like nut sorters and telephone quotation clerks, following a Washington Post investigation in 2022. …

“We felt that so many more jobs are now available to disabled people,” said Mark Warshawsky, who led work on the earlier proposed rule as the SSA’s deputy commissioner for retirement and disability policy during the first Trump administration. “The nature of work has changed.”

Warshawsky, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, predicted that while the new rule under consideration would allow the agency to turn away more older people, more people with mental disabilities are likely to be approved. … 

According to two former officials, starting next year the agency plans to develop a computer-generated database using the modern jobs data to determine which jobs, if any, someone seeking benefits could perform. Disability advocates say they worry that the database will be programmed to come up with a vast array of jobs, particularly if advancing age is no longer a limiting factor, and will end up denying benefits to tens of thousands of claimants every year. …

     As I’ve said recently, doing anything like this would be disastrous for its authors. The people planning this have no idea how radical it is.

October 10 Is Coming Soon

      The first paycheck that federal employees will miss due to the shutdown is apparently October 10. Will that be the whole check missing or just part of it?

Only Five Of Thirty People At Work

      From CBS News:

…  In Atlanta, some residents who tried to file critical paperwork at the Social Security office downtown say they're having a hard time ensuring they get their payments.

CBS News Atlanta saw countless people turned away by security on Thursday. A federal worker said the office is severely understaffed since employees aren't being paid to come to work. …

The office isn't closed, but a Social Security Administration spokesperson said they have reduced services. A federal worker said that only five out of 30 people who were supposed to be in the office came to work on Thursday. …

Again, Mr. Commissioner, What Are You Going To Do About These Payment Errors?

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

The Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance program provides monthly benefits to retired and disabled workers and their dependents as well as the survivors of deceased workers. In general, to be entitled to benefits, a child of a retired, disabled, or deceased worker must: 1) be unmarried; 2) be under age 18, a full-time elementary or secondary school student under age 19, or have become disabled before age 22; and 3) meet certain relationship and dependency requirements. Generally, an SSA employee may appropriately deny a claim when the employee properly completes all necessary actions and determines the applicant has not established the claimant meets the requirements to be entitled to child’s insurance benefits. 

We reviewed a random sample of 100 claims from a population of 21,533 claims filed from January 2019 through July 2023 that SSA employees approved for benefits in July 2023 or earlier and a random sample of 100 claims from a population of 75,424 claims filed from January 2019 through July 2023 SSA employees did not approve for benefits as of July 2023. 

Of the 96,957 claims in our review, we estimate SSA employees correctly denied 37,712 (39 percent) and incorrectly denied 24,555 (25 percent). As a result of employee errors, SSA did not pay these beneficiaries approximately $92.2 million in benefits and delayed paying these beneficiaries approximately $87.7 million in benefits to which they were entitled. 

We could not conclude whether employees correctly denied the remaining 34,690 claims (36 percent). This includes an estimated 28,661 claims SSA employees denied before they appropriately completed all required actions; therefore, there was not enough information in SSA’s records to determine whether Agency employees appropriately denied the claims. …

     This might be tough for the Commissioner. I don’t think it can be solved by laying off employees or intimidating them or demanding they work harder.  It will take analysis of the difficulties in doing this work accurately, coming up with better workflow processes, coming up with better quality control processes and being honest with everyone about the workforce needed to do the job properly. The honesty part will be the hardest thing for this Administration. It’s easier to blame the “deep state” than to do the difficult work of governing. 

Using The Shutdown As An Excuse?

      I am hearing reports that some Social Security field offices in at least two states are refusing to deal with attorneys and others during the government shutdown. Of course, I’ve heard nothing suggesting this is authorized. I have a vague recollection that this happened in an earlier shutdown before field offices were told to knock it off.

BLS Operations To Suspend Due To Government Shutdown

      From the New York Times:

… The Bureau of Labor Statistics, which produces the monthly jobs data, will “suspend all operations” if Congress and the president fail to reach a deal to extend funding for the federal government before a Tuesday midnight deadline, according to a contingency plan released by the Department of Labor. Data releases scheduled during a government shutdown “will not be released,” and data collection for future reports will cease, the memo said. …

     So, why does this matter for Social Security? The annual Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for Social Security would ordinarily be announced soon after the BLS report due this week. That will have to be delayed. We have until December for this, so there’s time. However, future COLAs could become unreliable due to the gap in BLS data collection. Is it even possible for them to ever catch up? Their staffing levels have also been cut.  I don’t think BLS was affected like this in prior government shutdowns.