Probably most readers of this blog have tried using AI at least to some extent. Some may be using it a lot. How much use can the Social Security Administration get out of AI? I’m generally skeptical if not hostile to the idea but I’m old. What do you think? Are you already using AI for Social Security purposes? How well does it work for you? For that matter, to what extent is AI even available to agency employees? Is ChatGPT blocked on Social Security computers?
May 4, 2026
May 3, 2026
No Accessibility Improvements Announced
I had linked to an MSN article saying that President Trump was supposed to talk about accessibility improvements at Social Security during a trip to Florida. There’s a news report about that trip saying that the only thing from Trump about Social Security was his touting what he called “No Tax On Social Security” which isn’t true — nothing about accessibility.
However, Trump did say that all red snapper fishing permits had been approved, so that’s something.
May 2, 2026
Punishing Poor People
From ProPublica:
Even a glance at Shy’tyra Burton’s life reveals her need for the sort of federal government assistance that helps disabled Americans stay in their homes. Born two months prematurely into a poor family in Philadelphia, unable to breathe or swallow without tubes and largely confined to medical facilities until age 4, Burton was diagnosed with a litany of developmental and intellectual disabilities that left her with an IQ below 70.
She persevered and graduated from a high school special education program, then attempted community college. But she struggled to grasp basic tasks and information. She couldn’t get hired, including at McDonald’s. After multiple medical and psychological evaluations and a hearing before a judge, the federal government approved her for the Supplemental Security Income program, which provides a basic income to those with severe disabilities and to indigent older people.
For Burton, now 22, the $994 monthly benefit is lifesaving but not enough to completely support herself on her own. So, like many SSI recipients, she has continued to live with her father, who makes around $2,000 a month as a Philadelphia sanitation worker.
Now, President Donald Trump’s administration is poised to penalize people like Burton simply for living in the same home as their families, according to four federal officials, internal emails and a federal regulatory listing. The administration is working on a rule change that would deduct the value of a disabled adult’s bedroom from their SSI allotment, even if the family members they live with are poor enough to qualify for food stamps. This would mean slashing the benefits of some of the most low-income SSI recipients by up to a third — about $330 a month in Burton’s case — or ending their support altogether. …
If enacted, the change will require intellectually disabled young people like Burton as well as very elderly people to file extensive monthly reports if they want to continue their benefits even at the reduced level. They’ll have to provide details about the property where they live: whether it’s leased or owned, as well as the names of anyone in the home, and whether any of these people has any new income or assets. They’ll also have to include documentation of all household bills and expenses, showing how much they do or don’t contribute personally, as well as financial documents such as bank statements and any pay stubs. …
May 1, 2026
Accessibility Improvements At Social Security?
From MSN (emphasis added):
President Donald Trump will venture outside the White House for the first time since a foiled assassination attempt, traveling on Friday to a Florida stronghold under mounting political pressure and intense scrutiny of his security.Trump is expected to tout new tax deductions for seniors and accessibility improvements at the Social Security Administration during a visit to The Villages, a large retirement community that consistently backs Republican candidates. …
The Schemers Never Stop
From a press release by Social Security’s Office of Inspector General:
Federal law enforcement agencies are warning the public about a surge in government imposter scams involving the misuse of real Social Security Administration (SSA) and Office of the Inspector General (OIG) employee names, fabricated badge images, and fraudulent social media profiles.
Recent reports show scammers are:
- Using the name of a real SSA employee along with a fake badge or credential to appear legitimate.
- Using information from social media profiles to impersonate a real SSA OIG employee to initiate contact and build trust with potential victims.
These tactics mirror a broader trend in which criminals attempt to legitimize their schemes by sending doctored images of credentials, spoofing phone numbers, or posing as government officials online. …
Apr 30, 2026
How Does This Sell In Alabama?
Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL, or perhaps, the Jurassic Age) is running for governor of Alabama. One of the planks of his platform is that Social Security is a “Ponzi scheme.” He can’t believe that his Democratic opponent is calling him out on this. Judging by what he writes Tuberville wants to just end Social Security period. He doesn’t suggest any phaseout or transition to something else.
Apr 29, 2026
89 Year Old Man Goes On Shooting Spree At Social Security Offices In Greece
From the Jerusalem Post:
A gunman opened fire at a social security office and a courthouse in central Athens, wounding several people, Greek authorities said on Tuesday.
Police have launched an operation to locate the shooter, who Greek media reports say is 89 years old.
Police said the suspect, who was armed with a shotgun, first opened fire at a social security office in central Athens, wounding an employee. …
The gunman then opened fire on the ground floor of a city courthouse, wounding several more people. …
Apr 28, 2026
Increased Performance Awards
… [T]he Social Security Administration is setting aside additional funds this year to ensure a larger-than-usual pool of employees receives performance awards.
Florence Felix-Lawson, the agency’s chief human capital officer, told employees in an email last month that they would be getting performance awards earlier than usual, at the direction of SSA Commissioner Frank Bisignano.
“His goal was simple: to recognize employees as soon as possible,” Felix-Lawson wrote.
According to the email, SSA expanded eligibility to include employees who received a 3.5 or 3.7 performance evaluation, “reflecting a broader commitment to recognizing strong performance across the agency.”
By making more employees eligible for awards, but with the same amount of funding, SSA officials realized that some employees would be getting lower bonuses than they received in prior years.
“As we reviewed the outcomes, the commissioner emphasized the importance of ensuring that awards remain meaningful — particularly for strong performers across the 4-level,” Felix-Lawson wrote. “At his direction, and in partnership with our budget team, we have secured additional funding to supplement awards for employees rated 4.0 through 4.7.”
Previously, awards at the 4-level began at 0.5% of base salary. With this additional funding, they now range from 1.2% to 1.5%:
- 4.0: 1.2% of base salary
- 4.3: 1.3% of base salary
- 4.5: 1.4% of base salary
- 4.7: 1.5% of base salary
- 5.0: 2.0% of base salary (unchanged)
Felix-Lawson wrote that performance awards are discretionary and “are not guaranteed year to year and are not intended to mirror prior awards.” …
Apr 25, 2026
Medicare Enrollment Penalty Mistakes
From a report by Social Security’s Office of Inspector General:
SSA and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services share administrative responsibilities for Medicare. …
SSA enrolls beneficiaries, establishes applicable premium penalties, and collects premiums from individuals who receive Social Security benefits. If an individual signs up for Part B after their Initial Enrollment Period, they may have to pay a late enrollment penalty.
We identified 101,516 OASI beneficiaries who enrolled in Part B during the 2023 and/or 2024 General Enrollment Periods and whom SSA penalized for late enrollment. We reviewed a random sample of 200 of these beneficiaries.
SSA employees accurately processed 177 of the 200 Part B applications we reviewed. However, SSA employees did not accurately process the applications for the remaining 23 beneficiaries. As a result, SSA’s systems improperly assessed approximately $24,000 in Part B premium penalties.
Based on our sample results, we estimate SSA employees accurately processed approximately 90,000 beneficiaries’ applications and did not accurately process 12,000 beneficiaries’ applications. As a result, SSA’s systems improperly assessed about $12 million in Part B premium penalties.
These errors occurred because SSA employees did not consider Group Health Plan coverage, the impact of U.S. residency and lawful presence start dates on Initial Enrollment Period determinations, deemed enrollment, Exceptional Conditions, Special Enrollment Periods, and equitable relief. …
What I’ve seen over the years is that you can almost always find a legitimate way to avoid the late enrollment penalty. I don’t know why they even try to apply a penalty. It’s not worth the trouble.
Apr 24, 2026
41% Error Rate On Widow And Widower Claims
From a recent report by Social Security’s Office of Inspector General:
The Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance program provides benefits to wage earners and eligible family members. The Agency uses the wage earner’s Primary Insurance Amount (PIA) to determine monthly benefit amounts. The eligibility year SSA uses to determine the PIA is usually the year a wage earner attains age 62, becomes disabled, or dies. However, an alternative PIA computation for widow(er)s—the widow(er)’s indexing (WINDEX) PIA—may apply when wage earners die before they attain age 62.
When a claimant applies for Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance benefits, the application usually covers all benefits for which the claimant is eligible unless they specifically limit the scope of the application. For example, widow(er)s may limit the scope of the application to only include widow(er) benefits and exclude retirement benefits to maximize future benefits.
We reviewed 2 samples totaling 120 beneficiaries who, as of November 2023, either did not have a WINDEX PIA (from a population of 54,843 beneficiaries) or were dually entitled to widow(er)s and retirement benefits (from a population of 7,253 beneficiaries).
SSA paid 71 (59 percent) of the 120 widow(er) beneficiaries we reviewed the appropriate monthly benefit amounts. For the remaining 49 (41 percent), we found the following.
Apr 23, 2026
Man Arrested For Threatening Social Security Employees
From WWNY:
A Watertown [NY] man is accused of threatening to shoot employees at the Social Security Administration.
City police charged Charles Brown, 26, with a misdemeanor count of making a threat of mass harm.
According to police, Brown called the Social Security Administration on Bellew Avenue in Watertown on Tuesday and became upset with the service he received.
He allegedly told the employee on the phone that he planned to shoot the worker in the head and then shoot the rest of the staff at the office. …
Apr 22, 2026
That’s A Long List
From the Washington Examiner:
Some Social Security offices are closed or limiting in-person services across 12 states, potentially delaying access to benefits and other services. According to the Social Security Administration’s emergency operations webpage, the SSA has temporarily closed or shifted several field offices to phone-only service. …
Offices in Yuma, Arizona; Mission Viejo, California; Fort Walton Beach, Florida; Wailuku, Hawaii; Decorah, Iowa; Elizabethtown, Kentucky; Detroit College Park, Michigan; Glasgow and Havre, Montana; Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania; Del Rio, Texas; and Logan, West Virginia, are operating on a phone-only basis. …
That’s way more than can be explained by ordinary office repair type issues. I have to guess it’s lack of staff in most cases.
Apr 20, 2026
What Is The Public To Do?
From Forbes:
Last October, my mother walked into the family room of her rural North Carolina house and found my dad, her husband of nearly 60 years, sitting motionless in the recliner.
In the days that followed, as our family processed our shock and grief, we had to deal with some very practical issues, including money. As retirees, my parents had relied largely on their individual Social Security checks and his small pension to pay the bills. We assumed that, following my dad’s death, she could continue to draw income from those two sources. Plus, my mom had me—an estate and tax lawyer and journalist who has advised dozens of families and written extensively about Social Security—to help make sure the transition went smoothly.
Instead, it took five months, numerous phone calls, letters and faxes and help from my mom’s Congressman, to get all of the Social Security she was owed. Along the way, we got contradictory answers from the Social Security Administration (SSA) on the phone and conflicting letters in the mail, including one advising my mom to call a toll-free number that was disconnected.
We also saw Social Security payments appear and disappear from her bank account and began to fear that her health coverage might lapse too, since she was paying her Medicare premiums (as the majority of seniors do) through deductions from her Social Security check.Sadly, our experience was not all that unusual. Even as the number of Americans eligible for Social Security has been rising, the SSA has shed thousands of employees. After President Donald Trump set billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency loose on the federal workforce in January 2025, more than 7,200 positions were eliminated. Additional cuts have left the agency with just 52,045 workers as of January, down almost 20% over the last decade. …
The article goes on to document all the problems caused by inadequate online systems and inadequate personnel. If even transactions like this which should be simple are so difficult, what is the public to do? You know that somewhere down the road when we have a truly independent Inspector General there will be report after report showing that huge numbers of people have been underpaid billions of dollars.
Apr 19, 2026
A Horror Show
A report by the Library of Congress has interesting tables showing Social Security’s staffing levels by month by state since the beginning of last year. I’d love to reproduce the table here but it’s just too big. It’s fascinating and horrifying. You’ll have to click on the link to see for yourself.
Apr 18, 2026
They Say He Stole From Poor Mentally Ill People
From Fox News:
… The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland announced today that a federal grand jury indicted Najee Alexander Corbett, 37, of Baltimore, in connection with a Social Security disability theft scheme. …
As part of the alleged scheme, prosecutors said Corbett targeted SSI claimants diagnosed with mental health disorders and altered claimant records in the SSA database to include bank accounts he controlled and his residential mailing address so he could receive their benefit funds.
Prosecutors also said Corbett changed the date of benefit eligibility payments for selected claimants in the database, generating back payments in the claimants’ names. Authorities said he then caused SSI benefit payments to be transmitted to bank accounts he controlled and mailed to his home.
Federal prosecutors said Corbett received $116,537.62 in SSI disability payments through the scheme and retained $71,304.62. …
Apr 17, 2026
Critical Payment Errors
From a report by Social Security’s Office of Inspector General:
An SSA employee initiates a critical payment when an Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance beneficiary or representative payee alerts SSA of a critical case or special situation when SSA is not paying regular monthly benefits, additional benefits are due, or a beneficiary reports they did not receive a monthly benefit. These include dire need, court orders, legislative mandates, and preliminary and expedited payments. …
We reviewed a random sample of 175 critical payments from a population of 3,549 issued in Fiscal Year 2023 …
We estimate SSA employees accurately processed about 44,000 (62 percent) of the 70,980 critical payments and did not accurately process about 27,000 (38 percent)—making over 28,000 errors when they processed the payments. About 2,800 of these errors resulted in the payments being incorrectly documented on beneficiaries’ records. For the remaining errors, we estimate the following.
Apr 16, 2026
Some Changes From SSA
An announcement from Social Security:
New Developments in Disability Adjudication: Supporting Timely and Fair Decisions
Date:
Dear Colleague,
We are pleased to share several recent enhancements from Disability Adjudication (DA) that support our mission to deliver timely, policy-compliant decisions for claimants. These improvements reflect our ongoing commitment to efficiency, transparency, and collaboration with the appointed representative and advocacy community.
Good News Highlights:
- New Functionality in Appointed Representative Services (ARS): We have enhanced ARS by adding good cause statements for untimely hearing requests as a selectable option within the existing drop-down menu for representatives. Hearing offices will receive a notification when the statement is submitted. This improvement was developed in response to feedback from the representative community regarding the need to better identify and process these statements earlier in the adjudicatory process. Representatives can electronically submit the statement when filing an untimely request for hearing. Submissions are automatically routed to the appropriate B section and are now labeled within the electronic record, allowing hearing offices to quickly identify and address good cause statements, reducing the risk of unnecessary case scheduling or cases erroneously remaining on the docket.
- Centralization and Optimization of Vocational Expert (VE) Availability:The Scheduling Procedure Assistance and Resource Cadre (SPARC) team continues to improve hearing scheduling efficiency through process enhancements, updated guidelines, and better communication. As part of these efforts, VE availability processing has been centralized, ensuring consistent communication with VEs. This change has led to significantly improved docket coverage.
For general inquiries related to Hearings, please email the designated mailbox for your Hub.
Please share these updates with your colleagues and stakeholders. We appreciate your partnership and continued collaboration as we work together to further enhance the disability adjudication process.
Regards,
Jay M. Ortis
Chief
Disability Adjudication
Apr 14, 2026
More On The Commissioner’s Lawsuit: A Replica Of J.P. Morgan’s Library?
 |
| Morgan Library |
From MSN:
Frank Bisignano has two demanding jobs, running the Social Security Administration and serving as the CEO of the Internal Revenue Service during tax season.
But these days the Trump administration heavyweight has something else to worry about: He’s locked in a fight over a pair of Muhammad Ali’s boxing shorts.
Eric Inselberg, a sports memorabilia buff and entrepreneur, said he gave the prized gear to his former friend Bisignano years ago as collateral for a $500,000 loan. Inselberg said he settled the debt but Bisignano has nonetheless refused to return the trunks, which he estimates are now worth $800,000. Bisignano countered he was never given the white shorts with black stripes, which Ali wore the last time he fought at Madison Square Garden in 1977. ...
Inselberg, in a deposition, described Bisignano as an “apex predator” who is holding on to the shorts out of spite. “He’s vindictive,” Inselberg said. “He thinks he can do whatever he wants.” ...
“He tries to distance himself from the fact he’s a closeted collector, because he doesn’t want to be associated with collectors or fanboys at a convention,” Inselberg said. “He thinks he’s bigger than that, but he is a collector.” ...
In a deposition, Lampson discussed a 2012 dinner that he and Fitzgerald attended at Bisignano’s New Jersey home. The evening stood out for many reasons, he said, especially a tour of a nearby, newly built mansion that Bisignano planned to move into. The residence included a replica of J.P. Morgan’s ornate personal library as well as a urinal in a bathroom.
The unusual loo prompted chuckling guests to ask their host why he had it. “I got it because I can have it,” Lampson recalled Bisignano saying.
“Frank can be a little arrogant about things sometimes,” Lampson added. ...
I’ve actually been to the Morgan Library. I can’t even conceive of trying to replicate it. What’s next? Will Musk try to replicate Versailles?
Apr 13, 2026
Threat To Understaffed Field Offices
From Government Executive:
Officials with the nation’s largest federal employee union on Friday raised concerns that a 2024 law enabling the General Services Administration to offload federal property based on low occupancy rates could mistakenly target busy Social Security Administration field offices for closure.
In recent months, SSA has implemented a “badge in/badge out” system for measuring how many employees work at the agency’s various offices around the country. That’s part of the federal government’s broader effort to implement the provisions of the 2024 Utilizing Space Efficiently and Improving Technologies Act—USE IT, for short. The USE IT Act requires federal agencies track the occupancy rates of their various buildings, with a goal of at least 60% occupancy. If a particular office consistently fails to hit that threshold, GSA is empowered to take steps to shrink that agency’s physical footprint. …
AFGE Council 220 President Jessica LaPointe, whose union represents field office and teleservice center employees, told Government Executive that basing whether or not to offload an office solely on employee occupancy data could have unintended consequences at an understaffed agency like SSA. Without additional data, such as non-employee foot traffic or customer demand, a busy but understaffed could be erroneously targeted for closure. …
Apr 12, 2026
SSA Appeals Arbitrator Ruling On Telework
The Social Security Administration is appealing an arbitrator’s decision requiring the agency to restore telework for its employees.
A third-party arbitrator ruled last month that SSA violated its collective bargaining agreement with the American Federation of Government Employees when it indefinitely suspended telework, and ordered the agency to restore workplace flexibilities that had been in place before mid-March 2025.
An SSA spokesperson said in a statement Friday that the agency has appealed the case to the Federal Labor Relations Authority, which has a majority of Trump appointees. SSA is not obligated to comply with the arbitrator’s decision while the case is under FLRA appeal. …
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