Eye Rolling Comments From Trump

      Donald Trump is saying that he likes the idea of Australia’s defined contribution retirement program instead of U.S.’s defined benefits plan. Defined contribution means you have no guaranteed retirement income. Maybe you get more than a defined benefits plan. Maybe not. The risk is yours. Also, how does a defined contribution handle disability and survivor benefits? Maybe those contingencies never happen in Trumpworld. Oh, and there’s also the little problem of how we would transition from what we have now to a defined contribution plan, a problem that has no conceivable solution.

     Talking about the U.S. switching to a defined contribution plan is a sure sign that you know virtually nothing about Social Security.

     At least I’m talking about eye rolling comments from the President rather than the problem he has keeping his eyes open.

Let’s End Junk Science At Social Security

      David Weaver, a former Social Security official, has written a piece for LinkedIn echoing something I had written about recently, the need for Social Security to start using the updated occupational data it has collected in making disability determinations. I thought that Social Security had not released the data. Weaver says they have released the actual data.  They just haven’t released a front end for the data, making it useless as is. However, Weaver says that third party vendors have developed front ends making the data usable. Social Security may want to suppress this data but I don’t think this will be possible. The Courts don’t like “junk science.” Is there any “science” more junky than the Dictionary of Occupational Titles?

In Dubious Achievement News

      From Think Advisor:

The House passed legislation Monday to update the language used by the Social Security Administration to describe when American workers can claim their retirement benefits. …

The Claiming Age Clarity Act, sponsored by Rep. Lloyd Smucker, R-Pa., changes the terminology in materials produced by the Social Security Administration. …

The bill, which passed the House Ways and Means Committee in September, states that the agency must use minimum monthly benefit age instead of early eligibility age. …

SSA must also use standard monthly benefit age instead of "full retirement age" and "normal retirement age." …

Some People Just Won’t Get Service

      From Biometric Update.com:

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is remaking itself around a digital identity system that tens of millions of its beneficiaries cannot use – while simultaneously dismantling the in-person safety valve that has long allowed people to navigate the system when digital verification fails. …

But that digital system is built on identity-proofing mechanisms that millions of Social Security beneficiaries cannot satisfy. To access many of SSA’s online services – including creating a my Social Security account, resetting credentials, obtaining replacement documents, checking claims, or managing benefits – individuals must authenticate their identity using commercial data sources.

Those identity checks can include credit histories, mobile carrier records, address histories, and financial account data. They generate “soft inquiries” on credit files and hinge on the existence of a stable and verifiable financial footprint.

The problem is straightforward: millions of Social Security beneficiaries do not have the data these systems require. …

Numerous disability claimants operate with inconsistent documentation due to frequent address changes, medical crises, or disruptions tied to long periods out of the workforce. For these beneficiaries, digital identity verification is not simply difficult. It is often impossible.

Under SSA’s new operational model, that impossibility now carries far-reaching consequences. When digital verification fails, the fallback is a field office – but the agency is cutting field office traffic by 50 percent and reducing staffing across local offices. …

This dynamic recasts SSA’s modernization not as a technological upgrade but as the construction of a two-tiered system – one for beneficiaries with strong credit files, stable addresses, broadband access, and technological competence – and another for those without such resources, who will increasingly face longer waits, reduced access, and the escalating possibility of being unable to access benefits at all. …

Really? How Will You Achieve This Result?

      From NEXTGOV/FCW:

… The Social Security Administration wants to halve the number of people that go to its field offices in the 2026 fiscal year. 

More than 31 million people visited SSA field offices over the last fiscal year. Now, the agency aims to have 50% fewer visits — or no more than 15 million total — in fiscal 2026, which began in October, according to internal planning documents viewed by Nextgov/FCW. …

     I’d call this wishful thinking at best. 

Let’s Circle Back To This

      I want to circle back to something that was in the Washington Post article about Social Security’s decision to scrap their plan to reduce or eliminate the consideration of age in making disability determinations. There was this interesting sentence:

… Among the Trump administration’s concerns with using the new [occupational] data is that younger disabled people with cognitive and mental impairments would probably qualify for fewer jobs, potentially leading more of them to be awarded benefits, the former Social Security executive said. …

     OK, so it sounds like they collected data showing that more people with cognitive and mental impairments should be awarded disability benefits but they’re not going to act on that data or even release it to the public. Does that sound like the right thing to do? If the data is subpoenaed for an ALJ hearing shouldn’t it be produced?

     I recall a non-disability case where I asked the ALJ to obtain some information about the case from a field office. The field office sent back a memo literally asking “Don’t you understand that the attorney is only trying to get his client approved?” Would that be the agency’s response to a request for the occupational data that they spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars obtaining?

     You might think that an attorney raising a fuss over this might be endangering their older clients since the plan to reduce or eliminate consideration of age might come back. That sounds too speculative to me to take into consideration but if an attorney has clients with conflicting interests, you don’t solve the conflict by deciding which clients to not represent zealously. You solve it by withdrawing from cases. That’s non-negotiable.

Where’s The $1 Trillion In Savings Musk Promised?

      From Brett Arends writing for Morningstar:

… I'm not surprised that President Donald Trump and the Social Security Administration put out the latest inspector-general report the day before Thanksgiving, when nobody is paying attention. 

It's yet another embarrassment. 

The latest 57-page report to Congress details a variety of Social Security frauds that took place under Trump's first administration, only to be caught, stopped and prosecuted ... er ... under Joe Biden. 

And it confirms what has long been suspected, and which will come as no surprise to MarketWatch readers: namely that Elon Musk and Trump were talking total nonsense for the first six months of this year, when they were claiming that there was a "huge" amount of fraud in Social Security, including hundreds of thousands of dead people claiming benefits. …

Ho Hum

      Some former Social Security public trustees are out with a piece in The Hill arguing that it’s important that the Social Security public trustee positions, which are all vacant, be filled. 

     The problem with their argument is that the trustee positions hardly even qualify as ceremonial. None of the trustees have any power whatsoever. The trust funds are invested in U.S. bonds. The trustees have no discretion in this. Public trustees have put out statements in the past arguing for their favorite way to “save” Social Security and nobody cared. They certainly have no power to bring about any change.

     I wonder how much the public trustees are paid when those positions are filled.

Happy Thanksgiving!

No Timeline For New Occupational Data

     From NEXTGOV/FCW:

A long-planned refresh of the occupational data used in the disability adjudication process at the Social Security Administration was tucked inside a regulatory overhaul that the Trump administration abandoned last week. 

As a result, the agency now appears to be without a timeline for finalizing that years-in-the-making update, which SSA has already spent hundreds of millions of dollars on, according to remarks made by the Social Security commissioner, Frank Bisignano, during a Monday meeting. …

The commissioner was asked multiple times about the future of the data project now that the regulatory changes have been abandoned. 

Bisignano acknowledged that lawmakers think the data needs to be updated, committed to looking into the issue and said that he hoped it could be updated in the future — emphasizing collaboration and consensus building as important for that process — but he didn't share any specific plan or timeline for doing so.  …

It’s Time

      John Larson is the ranking Democrat on the House Social Security Subcommittee, currently in line to become Chairman if Democrats regain control of the House of Representatives next year. He’s 77. According to a New York Times article some Democrats are asking whether it’s time for Larson to pass the torch to a new generation.

     If Democrats win the House next year they will need to be confrontational on Social Security matters. Larson isn’t the right man for that job.

A Fine Mess

     Social Security’s Office of Hearings Operations is now officially just “Hearings” according to a new memo. “Hearings” is divided into five “hubs.” These names sound like they’re trying too hard to sound new and different. Anyway, here are the heads of these “hubs”:

• Hope Grunberg, currently a National Hearing Center Administrative Law Judge, is now the Head of Hearings Hub A.

• Tanya Garrian, currently the Regional Chief Administrative Law Judge (RCALJ) for Northeast, is now the Head of Hearings Hub B.

• Michael Rodriguez, currently the RCALJ for Southeast, is now the Head of Hearings Hub C.

• Scott Kidd, currently the RCALJ for Mid-West/West, is now the Head of Hearings Hub D.

• Ray Souza, currently the RCALJ for Southwest, is now the Head of Hearings Hub E, in addition to his role as Acting Chief Administrative Law Judge

     The assignment of hearing offices to the “hubs” completely scrambles geography and reason. Tucson and Queens are in the same hub. Charleston, SC and Sacramento are in another. Macon, GA and Honolulu are in another. And, dare I say it, why are ALJs in charge of Hubs? These are management positions and, on the whole, management is not what ALJs excel at. Who will handle questions about leave and such like? Who will handle it if a Hearing Office roof leaks? How will anyone have enough knowledge about local personnel to handle assigning new Hearing Office Chief ALJs? 

     Down the road other people will have to unscramble this mess. 

NADE Newsletter

      The National Association of Disability Examiners (NADE), a professional organization of the personnel who make initial and reconsideration determinations on disability claims for the Social Security Administration, has posted its most recent newsletter, which includes summaries of presentations by agency brass at a conference.

Mody Nomination Advances

      The Senate Finance Committee has advanced the nomination of Arjun Mody to become Deputy Commissioner of Social Security but only by a vote of 14-13. The nomination now goes to the Senate floor.

Frank Bisignano Exhibiting The Candor And Integrity For Which He’s Known

From a letter to Congress from Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano:

… After just my first six months on the job, I am pleased to report we are delivering a dramatically better customer experience at SSA. … 

     In other news concerning the Commissioner, the Ranking Member of the House Social Security Subcommittee has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate Bisignano’s conduct at his former employer, Fiserv. The SEC shouldn’t need a referral from Congressmen to investigate this one but in the Trump Administration no Trump appointee need fear any sort of federal investigation.

Trump Administration Drops Plan To Alter Grid Regs

      From the Washington Post:

The Social Security Administration has abandoned plans to block thousands of older Americans from qualifying for disability benefits after an uproar that reached senior officials in the Trump White House, according to people familiar with the decision.


The agency is also halting a plan to use modern labor market data to help judge whether disability claimants can work, a project that has cost the federal government more than $350 million so far. The new data would have replaced a long-outdated jobs database that until recently included obsolete occupations such as nut sorters and telephone quotation clerks. …

Jason Turkish — an attorney representing disabled people and co-founder of the advocacy group Alliance for America’s Promise — said SSA Commissioner Frank Bisignano and other administration officials assured him in meetings over the past week that the proposal would not move forward. A former Social Security executive familiar with the disability program confirmed that Bisignano has scrapped the proposed rule. …

Working After Claiming Retirement Benefits

      From Who Works After Claiming Social Security?, a report by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College:

The brief’s key findings are: ...

Our results show that about 40 percent of individuals work at some point after claiming, typically for several years and for non-trivial earnings.

Most of them are lower lifetime earners who claim around 62 and then work part time, so they may struggle to delay Social Security claiming.

The rest are higher earners who often work full time after claiming near the full retirement age, suggesting they may be able to further delay claiming. ...

 

Increasing Medicare Costs Eat Much Of Social Security COLA

     From USA Today:

It’s official. Medicare costs will eat up much of older Americans' Social Security cost-of-living increase next year.

The standard monthly premium for Medicare Part B, which covers outpatient care, doctors' services, durable medical equipment and preventive service, will be $202.90 in 2026, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said on Nov. 14. That's up $17.90, or nearly 9.7%, from $185.00 in 2025. ...

Seniors were the only ones who saw an increase in poverty in 2024. All other age groups saw a decrease or stayed the same. ... 

Social Security Increases Minimum Repayment Of Overpayments From $10 A Month To $50

      Per an issuance in Social Security’s manual made on October 1 but just now posted online.

45%? Are You Kidding Me? That's Insanely High!

     From David Weaver, a former Social Security executive writing for ICT (emphasis added):

Just-released data indicate that about 25 percent of children in Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota, have lost a parent or sibling to death. 

The childhood bereavement picture is very different in Union County, South Dakota, where about 2 percent of children have lost a parent or sibling to death. Ninety-three percent of individuals in Oglala Lakota County are American Indian (alone) and 94 percent of individuals in Union County are White.

South Dakota is not an isolated example. In western states, childhood bereavement is far more likely in tribal areas.  ...

Parents who work and pay Social Security taxes earn benefits for their children in the event of death. The benefit amounts are substantial, averaging $1,100 per month per child or $13,200 annually. 

Unfortunately, a lack of awareness about these benefits and administrative errors by the Social Security Administration have left many bereaved children behind. Nationally, about 45 percent of bereaved children are missing out on Social Security survivor benefits.

Many families are simply unaware that bereaved children may be eligible for Social Security benefits. This, in turn, is because the Social Security Administration has scaled back its communication efforts. 

For example, the agency no longer mails the Social Security statement to households each year. The statement provided detailed information on all types of Social Security benefits, including child benefits. ...

     It's almost as if they need attorneys to help them file claims or something. They certainly need for someone to tell them to file.