ICE Will Be Given SSA Appointment Info

       From Wired:

Workers at the Social Security Administration (SSA) have been told to share information about in-person appointments with agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), WIRED has learned.

“If ICE comes in and asks if someone has an upcoming appointment, we will let them know the date and time,” an employee with direct knowledge of the directive says. They spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. …

Noncitizens are also required to appear in-person to review continued eligibility of benefits. …

     ICE arresting people outside Social Security offices with help from Social Security is highly disturbing. 

“Locking” Your Social Security Number Recommended

      From Kiplinger:

… Locking your SSN is a strategic move that shuts down the two most common avenues for fraud: illegal employment and unauthorized access to your government records. By understanding the tools available — from the E-Verify "Self Lock" to the SSA’s "Electronic Access Block" — you can effectively take your identity off the market. …

While you cannot "freeze" an SSN exactly like a credit report, you can achieve a similar result using two distinct government "locks." Here is the breakdown of how they work and how they differ. …

The E-Verify "Self Lock" (employment protection)

This lock specifically prevents scammers from using your SSN to get a job or pass an employment background check at any of the millions of employers that use the federal E-Verify system. …

How to use Self Lock- The Self Lock feature is only available to myE-Verify account holders. To lock your SSN, you must select and answer three challenge questions. Select questions you can easily answer, because you will need to answer them again to verify your identity if you receive an E-Verify Tentative Non-confirmation (mismatch) due to Self Lock. …

SSA "Block Electronic Access" (stops account takeover)

When you block electronic access to your account, this blocks everyone — including you — from accessing or changing your Social Security records online or via the SSA's automated phone system. … 

You must call the Social Security Administration at 1-800-772-1213 or visit a local SSA office to request an "Electronic Access Block." It blocks all automated telephone and internet access to your record. …

It’s A Harsh Program

      From an op ed in the Washington Post by A.P.D.G. Everett:

Social Security’s “disabled adult child” program has a simple rule: Someone who suffers a disability before age 22 can claim benefits on the basis of a parent’s earnings record, because they are not considered to have reached economic adulthood. But if the disability occurs after their 22nd birthday, they are on their own, even though young adults have not generally worked long enough to receive meaningful benefits.

That rule once made sense. It no longer does.

The age-22 cutoff reflects a mid-20th-century assumption about how adulthood unfolds — one in which education ended at 18, full-time work began immediately and economic independence was typically achieved by the early 20s. Disability before that point plausibly meant a person never had a realistic opportunity to enter the labor market. …

Today, undergraduate education routinely extends to age 22 or 23. Graduate, professional and credentialing pathways can delay stable employment well into the mid- to late 20s. Even among those who leave school earlier, insured status is often not available — because it now takes longer to accumulate sufficient earnings credits to qualify for meaningful coverage.

     The author, a graduate student in biomedical engineering at the University of Vermont, recommends a cutoff age of 26. Wait until he finds out about the marriage penalty for disabled adult child recipients.

A Plan To Help The Social Security Trust Funds

       From E&E News:

House Natural Resources subcommittee will take up several public lands bills during a hearing this week, including a contentious proposal to redirect revenues to shore up Social Security.

The “Land and Social Security Optimization (LASSO) Act,” H.R. 34, would redirect 10 percent of public land revenues into the Social Security Trust Fund.

The bill, from Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) and more than a dozen GOP co-sponsors, would not allow public land access prices to be raised in connection with the initiative. …

     Apparently, it’s only about $2 billion a year, which is not enough to make a significant dent in the problem, but it may be a sign of what’s ahead — plans to divert current federal revenue streams to the Social Security trust funds. Right wing groups don’t like the sound of this since they think they finally have Social Security cornered. They’re rubbing their hands in glee at the prospect of forcing major Social Security cuts such as means testing. I guess everyone has to have a dream even if it’s crapping on other people’s retirement so billionaires can get ever greater tax cuts.

Seven Year Sentence For Former Social Security Employee

      From Texas Border Business:

HOUSTON – A former Social Security employee has been ordered to federal prison for aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to steal government funds.

David Lam, 46, Pearland, pleaded guilty June 5, 2025.

U.S. District Judge Sim Lake has now ordered Lam to serve 84 months in federal prison to be immediately followed by three years of supervised release. At the hearing, the court heard about the complex nature of Lam’s scheme and how it involved dozens of fraudulent applications. Lam also used his access to personal data, which was necessary for his actual job duties, to facilitate his embezzlement and theft. Lam was further ordered to pay $3,346,280 in restitution.

Lam was an operations supervisor and claims specialist for the Social Security Administration office in Houston. …

Over 100 Million Online Accounts

      From a press release:

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is announcing that over 100 million Americans have created personal my Social Security accounts. This marks a major milestone in the agency’s digital-first transformation to increase accessibility, expand service, and improve the overall customer experience for the public. …

Who Could Argue?

       From Fortune:

For all the talk about Social Security being in crisis, what hasn’t been stressed enough is the leadership crisis. From December of 2023 to until the current leader’s Senate confirmation of May 6, a parade of four commissioners and acting commissioners cycled through the position. These chiefs departed fast in part because they got frequent hammerings in Congress over the agency’s poor phone and face-to-face service to beneficiaries. 

Enter Frank Bisignano. The Jamie Dimon protegee had a storied career in banking, and was appointed to lead SSA last spring (he has since added the job of IRS CEO to his resume, which you can read about here.) 

But the changes he has quickly enacted at SSA—drawing heavily on his time in the private sector—are real, and they’re impressing even the Administration’s fiercest critics.  … 

No matter what your political party, few could argue that an agency in need of efficiency finally has a leader at the top who is moving the needle. 

What Happened?

      From Money.com:

It seemed too good to be true. A $60,000 deposit from the Social SecurityAdministration landed in a woman's bank account with no explanation, as if she had won the lottery without buying a ticket.

But is this a real windfall, or has she been caught up in a grand mistake? And more importantly, what should she do with the money? …

The woman who received the money is unemployed and receives Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), her 22-year-old child explained in the post. About three months prior, the mother's monthly SSDI payment doubled. The family was already waiting for an explanation of that increase before the $60,000 deposit arrived. …

"They said that every six months they were supposed to review her account and adjust if needed but never did that in the 23 years she was on disability," the post reads, adding that the representative also mentioned a back payment for an issue related to dependents. …

This highlights a long-standing problem at Social Security — the money usually arrives well before the explanation of the money. Sometimes no award certificate ever arrives. 

More SSA Employees Assigned To Answer Phones

      From Government Executive: 

The Social Security Administration is shifting more employees to its phone line, a move that employees say risks adding to backlogs and processing times for the public as employees who typically handle those workloads are reassigned to take calls.

Employees who receive and process retirement and disability claims, manage the agency’s technology and work in the agency's finances unit will be answering SSA’s phone line after only hours of training. The reshuffling comes after SSA pushed out over 7,400 employees last year, according to newly released government data. That total eclipsed the Trump administration’s intended target of shedding 7,000 SSA workers, a target it announced a year ago.

That loss of workers included 1,387 contact representatives at the SSA, which is now fielding applications for replacements at several locations around the country.  …

Reassigned employees said it made little sense to answer calls for individuals awaiting information about the status of their claims and benefits while removing the people responsible for processing those claims and benefits. 

“Why are we being forced away from the backlog of appeals and cases and forced onto the phones to take calls from people wondering what the status of their claim is and where their back benefits are?” one reassigned employee asked. “We are the workers who process the claims they are waiting for.” …

Sound Familiar?

      From Government Executive:

The Internal Revenue Service is asking seasoned employees without any direct tax experience to perform entry-level tasks of answering phones and processing tax returns, a step impacted staff call unprecedented as the agency scrambles to prepare for filing season. 

The reassigned workers, who are being detailed out on an involuntary basis, are coming from the IRS human resources and, potentially, the IT departments. Some employees reported that supervisors first asked for anyone who had experience in the front-line fields to consider the roles, but they ultimately chose many individuals with no prior experience working directly on tax issues. 

The details come as IRS has dramatically slashed its workforce, cutting more than 20,000 employees—or more than 20% of total staff—in the last year. The divisions seeking internal staffing support have seen similarly significant losses to their workforces and have struggled to rebuild in time for filing season, according to a new report from the IRS inspector general.  …

RTO Criticized

      From Federal News Network:

… GAO [Government Accountability Office]tracked SSA telework from July 2019 through May 2025 and found a sharp cliff after the White House memo [limiting telework] Telework hours fell from 35% of total hours in January through March 2025 to 13% in April through May 2025, a telework hours drop that matched the new posture. That speed matters because SSA employees had built their lives and budgets around flexibility.

Agency leaders told GAO that telework acted as a recruitment lever during a tight labor market. In a fiscal year 2023 new hire survey, more than half of new employees said telework ranked as a very important factor in applying and accepting the job. Managers also described candidates who expected hybrid schedules as a baseline benefit, especially in high-traffic metro areas.

Retention signals flashed even before the decree. GAO reports that around 37% of SSA respondents to the 2024 employee viewpoint survey planned to leave within a year. Among those planning an exit, almost half said telework or remote options in their unit shaped that decision. Frontline staff singled out newer hires and retirement-eligible experts as the most ready to move, since both groups value lighter commutes and focused work time. GAO then warned about skills gaps in mission critical roles, right as SSA pursued a 50,000 employee target announced in a February 2025 agency workforce plan aimed at cutting costs. …

Trump’s administration framed the return push around supervision and fairness, echoing language from the January 2025 guidance memo. GAO’s SSA findings show the hidden trade: Forcing the same schedule on every job drains the very talent that the public relies on for timely benefits decisions. A smarter approach uses job-based eligibility, transparent metrics and targeted onsite time for training, mentoring and complex customer work. Agencies that build that system keep their best people longer, save money and deliver service with steadier staffing. …

Auditor’s Report

      As has been the case for quite a few years, the Social Security Administration hired an outside auditor, Ernst & Young this time, to audit its books and operations. The report is not a ringing endorsement of agency operations, although the problems didn’t just start a year ago. Implementation of the audit recommendations is out of the question due to lack of funding.

A Poll

He Only Got Probation

      From MyNewsLA.com:

A former employee of the Social Security Administration district office in the Antelope Valley who admitted stealing over $25,000 from beneficiaries was sentenced Thursday in federal court to probation and restitution.

Dion Bright Jr., 34, of Lancaster, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Fernando Olguin, who ordered restitution in the amount of the theft along with a year’s probation.

Bright pleaded guilty in July 2025 in downtown Los Angeles to a misdemeanor count of theft of government property.

As part of his job duties at the SSA field office in Lancaster, Bright would use a database to access claimants’ records to process claims for the aged, blind or disabled, and for workers who lost income due to physical or mental impairment.

During the scheme, from September 2022 to June 2023, Bright accessed beneficiaries’ SSA records, changed their mailing addresses so that they would not receive notices that their account information had been revised, and rerouted their benefits to a U.S. Bank account he controlled, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. …

Office Closures Today Due To Security Threat

      I am hearing that many Social Security offices around the country were ordered evacuated today due to some unspecified security threat. I don’t recall ever hearing about anything as widespread as this.

     Does anyone know details on this?

Irony Is Dead

      A post by Social Security on “X”:

Today is Data Privacy Day! We are committed to protecting individual privacy and securing the personal information made available to us when you visit our website. Learn how we protect your personal information: ssa.gov/agency/privacy…

I Don’t Like The Sound Of This

      From  new entry in Social Security’s operating manual, POMS:

We created a new POMS section titled, "Addressing Anomalous Electronic Annual Wage Reporting Activity" in response to an increase in irregularities observed in electronic wage reporting. …

SSA may delay processing or decline to process anomalous wage reports. When anomalies are detected that, in SSA's judgement, warrant investigation, SSA will suspend processing some or all electronic reports from the submitter and contact the submitter to initiate an investigation. …

SSA may also refer a matter to OIG for possible investigation. Technicians should report suspected cases of fraud to OIG via Allegation Referral Intake System (ARIS). …

     This may be nothing but it looks to me like the start of a new immigration enforcement mechanism, trying to find employers of immigrants and harassing them. That’s better than what ICE is doing in Minneapolis but it still involves Social Security in immigration enforcement which is not its mission.  

     By the way, as someone steeped in administrative law, I’m noticing a complete lack of due process, which is the sort of thing that could quickly shut this down.  You just can’t harass employers and their employees like this badly without giving them an opportunity to be heard by a neutral adjudicator.

Senators Have Questions

      The Chairman and Ranking Democratic leader of the Senate Finance Committee are asking for answers from the Social Security Administration on the recent admissions from the agency on the improper sharing of confidential information outside Social Security, possibly including sharing with nongovernmental partisan entities.

     No hearing has been scheduled. A actual hearing might have to involve Bisignano and Republicans don’t want him facing live questions. 

Bisignano’s Other Job

 

    The New York Times has a piece on Frank Bisignano’s time as “CEO” of the Internal Revenue Service that touches a bit on Bisignano’s position at the Social Security Administration. There’s no such position as CEO of the IRS but he’s leading it anyway. Here’s a brief excerpt from the piece:

… He works at the I.R.S. roughly two days a week, commuting from his home in New Jersey to Washington in his private plane, according to five people familiar with his schedule.

“I run two large organizations,” Mr. Bisignano said. “I don’t divide my time. On any given day, for example at 11:15 today, I will have an S.S.A. call, and at 12:30 I will have an I.R.S. call. They’re just two big divisions I run.” …

     Two days a week at the IRS. How often is he present at his Social Security office? Probably not that much. I think we know which job he regards as his day job.

Not Much But Better Than Nothing

      From AARP:

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a major spending bill on Jan. 22 that would give the Social Security Administration (SSA) an additional $50 million for customer service for the remainder of fiscal year 2026, which runs through Sept. 30.

The bill now heads to the Senate. It must be approved by both houses of Congress and signed by President Donald Trump by Jan. 30 to avert another government shutdown. …