OIG Report On Numident Data Exchanges

      Social Security’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) has issued a report on data exchange agreements affecting its Numident system. It reveals that the agency already has more than 3,400 data exchange agreements and expects to increase that number by 10% a year despite the fact that the agency already has a backlog of 1.3 billion data exchanges that haven’t been processed. OIG “recommended SSA establish processes for components to collaborate on matching criteria and enhance criteria to increase verified matches where appropriate. SSA agreed to implement our recommendations.”

     Others with more knowledge of Numident can correct me but I think Numident isn’t even all that important. It’s not used for benefit payment purposes. It’s highly unlikely that any significant numbers of ineligible benefits recipients will be discovered no matter how many data matches you process. This sounds like a report designed to appeal to President Trump’s obsession with undocumented aliens. I wonder how many of the data exchanges already underway are cost effective. The number of data exchanges already underway troubles me. There’s too many opportunities for errors that will cause unnecessary problems for people who have done nothing wrong. These databases, like Social Security’s and everyone else’s, contain errors but how important are they if the data isn’t being used for benefit payment purposes?

A Labor Day Poll

 

Scam Call Center Shut Down

      From Yahoo Finance:

A joint effort by the FBI, local police and Indian authorities has shut down a huge scam call center operation in India that saw Americans lose nearly $50 million. 

The FBI Baltimore Field Office, Montgomery County Police Department and Montgomery County State's Attorney's Office announced that they had traced scams reported by residents in Montgomery County, Maryland, to "extensive international scam call center operations in India that had been targeting Americans since 2022," according to a FBI Baltimore news release.

Suicide At NC Field Office

      From WTVD:

A man was found shot at the Social Security Administration Office in Rocky Mount [NC] on Wednesday afternoon.

The Rocky Mount Police Department responded to a report of a shooting around 1:30 p.m. at the building at 1071 Hunter Hill Road. Officers arrived and found a man suffering from a gunshot wound.

Authorities said the man died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. …

AFGE On Pay Freeze

      A press release from AFGE, the union that represents most Social Security employees:

American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley today issued the following statement in response to President Trump’s decision to freeze the salaries of most federal employees next year:

“For the second year in a row, President Trump has decided to deny most federal workersa pay raise next year. This is a slap in the face to the dedicated civil servants who keep our nation running and will make it harder for federal agencies to recruit and retain essential employees.

“For years, wages for federal employees haven’t kept pace with rising costs for housing, food, utilities, and other essentials. Private-sector workers currently earn 27% more on average than federal employees doing the same job. To add insult to injury, the administration is asking for special approval to pay hundreds of employees ‘requiring an extremely high level of expertise’ up to $400,000 a year – equal to the president’s base salary – even as it denies workers a basic cost-of-living raise.

“Federal employees treat our veterans and support our military, safeguard our food and air, process retirement and disability payments for tens of millions of Americans every month, and so much more. Making sure they earn a fair wage isn’t just good for them – it’s good for the quality of government services and the people we all serve.

“Because this White House refuses to recognize the invaluable contributions our federal workers make every day, I’m calling on Congress to step up and pass the Federal Adjustment of Incomes Rates (FAIR) Act, which would provide federal employees with a much-deserved 4.1% pay raise in 2027.”

Lots Of Poor People Not Being Paid The Benefits They Are Due

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

… When SSA identifies an underpayment of $1 or more, it issues the underpayment to the recipient, or an eligible survivor if the recipient is deceased, after it offsets any  outstanding overpayments, Interim Assistance reimbursements, and authorized representative fees. 

For large underpayments, employees must conduct and document a pre-payment review before they release a payment.

We identified 2 populations: Population 1 comprised 2.5 million underpayments pending on the Supplemental Security Record as of September 2024 and Population 2 comprised 2.4 million underpayments SSA paid between  

Of the 160 pending underpayments in Population 1, SSA paid 80 SSI recipients (50 percent) the underpayments they were due when required. However, SSA employees did not follow policy to ensure the SSA paid 69 recipients (43 percent) the underpayments they were due. The remaining 11 (7 percent) were incorrect underpayments that should be removed from the records.  

Additionally, of the 80 underpayments for deceased recipients in Population 1, we identified 47 underpayments, totaling $22,861, that remained on SSA’s records even though they were not payable to anyone.  

Of the 100 underpayments in Population 2, SSA paid 88 SSI recipients (88 percent) the underpayments they were due and conducted pre-payment reviews for them when required. We did not find evidence SSA employees followed policy and conducted
pre-payment reviews for the remaining 12 (12 percent) underpayments, as required. Of the 2.5 million underpayments that were pending as of September 2024, we estimate SSA did not pay 1.1 million underpayments, totaling about $291 million, that were owed to SSI recipients. …

New Ruling On Disability In Young Adults

      The Social Security Administration will publish Social Security Ruling SSR-26-2p Documenting and Evaluating Disability in Young Adults in the Federal Register tomorrow. At a first superficial glance I see nothing sensitive in the Ruling.

Wisdom From More Than 90 Years Ago

President Franklin Roosevelt (November 1934):

“We must not allow this type of insurance to become a dole through the mingling of insurance and relief. It is not charity. It must be financed by contributions, not taxes.”

SSA To Help Investigate Complex Fraud

      From a press release:

The Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General (SSA OIG) announced its partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in the launch of the National Fraud Detection Center (NFDC). As a signatory of the NFDC Charter, SSAOIG has committed dedicated analysts and investigators to the prosecutor-led effort to strengthen interagency coordination to detect and dismantle complex fraud schemes. …

     How many “complex fraud schemes” have there been at Social Security? Not many. 

July CAR Out

      The Social Security Administration has released the Caseload Analysis Report for July for its hearing component.

I’m From The Government and I’m Here To Help You

      From Clarin:

In an effort to identify and address irregularities within the federal benefits system, the US Social Security Administration (SSA) has launched in-person checks targeting retirees, pensioners and recipients of federal benefits. …

In-person checks are not random, nor do they cover the entire retiree population. Instead, they primarily target recipients of two programs: Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI).

Furthermore, checks are triggered when SSA systems detect discrepancies in reported data, mismatches between tax records and actual income, or address changes that were not reported within required deadlines. …

     Some may remember the old centenarian project at Social Security. Agency employees were sent out supposedly to congratulate those turning 100. The purpose was actually to make sure the claimants were still alive. 

     I guess that employees will attend to this chore in their spare time.

An Idea For “Saving” Social Security

      The Editorial Board of the Washington Post has come out with its plan to “save” Social Security. It’s fairly simple: means test benefits. They don’t even mention the possibility of raising taxes. They don’t engage with the fact that means testing Social Security doesn’t even “save” Social Security unless you apply it quite harshly to those now receiving Social Security or you use vast amounts of general revenues to make up the difference, something they dismiss off the top.

     You’d never guess that the Post is owned by Jeff Bezos who’s worth more than $280 billion.

     Right wing think tanks and editorial pages seem to be coalescing around means testing Social Security as their demand for “saving” Social Security. I think Republicans in Congress will stand behind this demand — way behind it, like on a different continent. 

     The Democratic plan is to lift the cap on FICA. That’s vastly more popular with the public than turning Social Security into a “welfare” program. As someone once said, a program for poor people is a poor program. Democrats aren’t agreeing to means testing. 

Banker Brought In To Modernize Social Security

      From CNBC:

Former JPMorgan Chase executive Matt Zames will join the Trump administration as an advisor to the Social Security agency, CNBC has learned.

Zames is taking an unpaid position to help his former JPMorgan colleague Frank Bisignano, who became Social Security Commissioner last year, tackle modernization of the agency, said people with knowledge of the move. …

Zames, a former hedge fund trader who rose to prominence at JPMorgan after helping clean up the bank’s $6 billion “London Whale” mess, was its chief operating officer for about five years. …

     Will this position allow Zames to sell his JP Morgan Chase stock without paying taxes? That trick worked for Bisignano. 

Union Makes Reasonable Request That's Impossible Today

      From Morningstar:

... The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents a total of 820,000 federal government workers, recently called on Congress to restore about $3 billion in funding to the SSA that was lost to budget cuts, and to boost the workforce by as much as 40% from current levels. ...

The SSA's administrative budget has fallen from 1.2% of benefit outlays in 2017 to 0.86% currently, which represents an annual loss of $3 billion in operating revenue, the union said. In comparison, private insurance companies are funded at roughly 20% of their benefit outlays, meaning that the SSA is deeply underfunded, the union said. 

Meanwhile, SSA staffing has declined 14% during President Donald Trump's second term - from 57,384 in January 2025 down to 49,439 in June 2026 - a net loss of 7,945 employees, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. ...

CATO To Social Security Recipients: Drop Dead

      Jeffrey Mirin of the right wing Cato Institute looks at the possibility of the Social Security trust funds running dry and benefits being cut by more than 20% and yawns. His view is any increase in taxes is quite out of the question so let's do nothing and let nature take its course. As he says, "the ideal Social Security system would have much lower benefits, if any."

Americans Have Ideas On “Saving" Social Security

      From a press release issued by Nationwide Insurance:

Despite widespread political divisions, Americans across political party lines largely agree that Social Security needs reform. According to the Nationwide Retirement Institute's 2026 Social Security Survey, 80% of U.S. adults who receive or expect to receive Social Security say the system needs to change, including 82% of Democrats and 78% of Republicans.

The agreement extends to potential solutions. The same three proposals were ranked as the most popular approaches to strengthening Social Security among both Democrats and Republicans:

1. Increase taxes on higher earners to increase funding: 51% overall, including 56% of Democrats and 43% of Republicans
2. Increase funding through taxes paid by employers: 42% overall, including 44% of Democrats and 42% of Republicans
3. Reduce or eliminate benefits for individuals with incomes above a certain threshold: 38% overall, including 38% of Democrats and 37% of Republicans. 

Miss Pearl

      Since this is a slow news day I thought I would write about something of interest to me,  regional differences in English usage.

    I started hearing a few clients refer to me as Mr. Charles when I was in my 40s. This usage was not unfamiliar to me. I particularly remember a woman in my neighborhood growing up in Winston-Salem who was always referred to as Miss Pearl but she was not the only one who received this honorific, and, yes, it was intended as an honorific. I always understood this usage as one denoting increasing age, respect and affection. Miss Pearl qualified in every way. I was not completely happy being referred to as Mr. Charles since it indicated I was getting older but I knew I was being referred to with affection and respect so I couldn’t complain. I have no problem with it now.

     I’ve always thought of this as a Southern thing and particularly common among African Americans but I’ve never known for sure. I do know it’s less common than it used to be but that may be because I now live in Raleigh, a community that has received a huge influx of people from other parts of the country and the world. As an example, Raleigh’s largest suburb is Cary. The joke locally is that Cary is an acronym standing for Containment Area for Relocated Yankees! The last person who called me Mr. Charles was a young woman wearing a hijab.

     Anyway, I’d be interested in knowing if this is a usage you’re familiar with. Who uses it? How is it used? Is it as common as it used to be?

Hiltzik On Larson’s Defeat

      Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times, himself a big friend of Social Security, has a column out bemoaning John Larson’s defeat in the primary race to continue representing his Connecticut district in the House of Representatives. Larson has been the Chairman and now Ranking Member of the House Social Security Subcommittee. There is much to admire in Larson’s career. He has certainly been a huge friend to Social Security. However, while there are strong explanations, Larson has been quite ineffective in passing Social Security legislation.

SSA Seeks Information On AI

      The Social Security Administration is seeking information to examine “how to better leverage AI and agentic AI capabilities across SSA programs, workforce, and infrastructure.” There’s no additional detail about what they’re seeking so I have to think they’re at a very early stage. 

     This is consistent with past Republican, and sometimes Democratic, behavior — an eagerness to spend billions of dollars on contractors accompanied by a great unwillingness to spend money on personnel to make the system work.

A Poll