Explain To Me How There Could Possibly Be Money In This

     From a press release:

... United States Magistrate Judge Embry J. Kidd has found Joshua Joseph Gray (45, New Smyrna Beach) and George Douglas Metz (51, Belleview) guilty of unlawfully video recording and failing to comply with official signs and directives inside multiple Social Security field offices. ...

According to evidence presented at trial, on various dates between November 2022 and January 2023, Gray and Metz each entered three different Social Security field offices in Central Florida while video recording. Gray and Metz continued to video record despite being informed by official signage and Social Security representatives that video recording is prohibited in Social Security offices without prior permission. ... Gray and Metz subsequently posted their video recordings, which depicted members of the public and Social Security representatives conducting business, on their public YouTube channels, where Gray and Metz were paid for their videos and solicited donations. ...

WSJ Wants To Know "Who Needs 1,000 Social Security Offices?"

     The Wall Street Journal asks "Who Needs 1,000 Social Security Offices?" Of course, they think the field offices can be replaced by online services. I'll bet the authors couldn't define the difference between Disabled Adult Child and SSI Disabled Children's benefits. In other words, they assume that paying retirement benefits is basically all that Social Security does because they really know little about what the agency does.

Coming Soon -- Walk-In Service To End

     

    If you're a Social Security employee who thinks this is great, remember that there is little efficiency gained here. You'll feel less harried mainly because workloads are reduced by discouraging the public from doing business with Social Security in the first place and by extending time frames for service out potentially by months. There is a significant percentage of the population who aren't capable of jumping through even a few hoops. They'll wait in your waiting room to see someone but they won't call repeatedly trying to make an appointment only to get frustrated after 30 minutes or more and hang up. Yes, you can go to the field office and make an appointment there to come back in a month or two but many people won't keep that appointment. They've got problems that keep them from working and from keeping appointments. That's frustrating but those people are a significant percentage of the population the agency is supposed to be serving.

    Imagine this. Your Social Security checks suddenly end. Your Medicare is terminated. All of your bank accounts and credit cards are frozen. You have no way of paying your bills or even buying food. Someone tells you that the problem is that you're been declared dead. You have no idea who decided you were dead After a month of desperation, someone tells you that the problem is at Social Security. You immediately go down to the local Social Security field office hoping for a quick resolution of the problem but all that happens is that you have to make an appointment two months out into the future. How would you feel?

In Person Service Matters

    From Effects Of Suspending In-Person Services At Social Security Administration Field Offices On Disability Applications And Allowances by Monica Farid, Michael T. Anderson, Gina Freeman, and Christopher Earles, a study for the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College:

In this study, we examine the effect of the suspension of in-person services at Social Security Administration (SSA) field offices during the COVID-19 pandemic on applications ...

The paper found that:

• There were systematic differences in the characteristics of applicants by mode of application. In-person applicants were older, less likely to have completed high school, and less likely to speak English compared to phone or online applicants.
  

• The suspension caused a 6-percent decrease in the volume of applications, implying that not everyone who wanted to apply in-person was able to apply using other modes. The effect was larger for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) applications compared to Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) applications.
  

• The suspension of in-person services caused some would-be in-person applicants to apply by phone, but it did not cause an increase in the volume of online applications.
  

• We did not find evidence that the suspension disproportionately affected groups of applicants defined by educational attainment, age, or English-speaking status.
  

• Our estimates imply that in-person service suspensions explain more than 50 percent of the decline in SSI and DI applications during the pandemic. ...
  

    The first and fourth points above seem to be in tension with each other.

I Have Been Seeing More Of This Problem In The Last Year

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

… [W]e reviewed a sample of 274 cases from a population of 1.5 million recipients SSA placed in non-payment status codes from March 2020 through May 2022 after determining the recipients failed to provide requested information or take requested actions. Additionally, we identified 61,176 recipients who were placed into 7 non­payment status codes during periods SSA had prohibited their use. 

Results 

SSA did not act in accordance with its policy and procedures when it processed SSI ineligibility determinations and suspensions based on applicants’, recipients’, or representative payees’ failure to provide information. SSA’s employees did not complete all required steps for 156 (57 percent) of the 274 sampled cases placed in non-payment status, which led to 96 of the 156 recipients not receiving $203,133 in SSI payments they should have received. Projecting these results to our population, we estimate SSA did not follow its policy before it denied or suspended SSI payments for 871,330 recipients. Of these recipients, we estimate 536,203 did not receive $647 million in SSI payments they should have received. …

     It’s way too easy for field office employees to deny on the basis of failure to provide information without making any serious effort to contact the claimant.

A Tweet From The Commissioner

Had a blast visiting our @SocialSecurity offices in Arlington, TX, Albuquerque, NM, and Phoenix, AZ, this week! Getting great feedback from employees + customers 

 

In The Field

     Social Security's front line employees often complain that high level agency managers don't understand problems in the field, that no one listens to them. Whatever else you think of him, Martin O'Malley is getting out into the field. I'm attaching some photos posted on Twitter from his recent visit to the Jacksonville, FL field office. 

    By the way, O'Malley seems no more proficient at taking selfies than I am! Also, by the way, note that image of a motorcycle up on the screen in that last photo. I wonder if the employee was asked to get something up on the screen that had no PII. Could it even be an artificial image added later by Photoshop to avoid the PII problem?

 

     

Field Office Closure

     Social Security is closing its field office in Newburgh, NY. Predictably, this is drawing opposition from local political leaders. The appropriations bill favored by Republicans in the House of Representatives would ban field office closures while failing to give the agency enough money to keep them open. How would that work?

What Can We Expect On Monday?

       A tweet from the Social Security Administration:

Social Security offices will open for public service on Monday, 7/22. Staff impacted by the widespread Microsoft and CrowdStrike issues are being brought back online. Our phone lines remain operational and many online services at http://ssa.gov remain available. 

     Great, but how capable will they be of doing business? And that’s just the field offices. What about other parts of the Social Security Administration, such as the Teleservice Centers, the Program Service Centers and the Office of Hearings Operations? I know OHO was able to hold hearings yesterday but I don’t know about their work otherwise.

Milwaukee Field Office Closed For Republican Convention

     A television station in Milwaukee reports that "The Social Security Administration field office in downtown Milwaukee will be temporarily closed to the public during the Republican National Convention – Monday, July 15 through Friday, July 19."

July 5?

    I haven't heard. Are Social Security field offices open to the public on Friday, July 5?

 

    Update: I posted this over three hours ago and no one has responded! I may not be the only one who doesn't know the answer to this question.

It's Kinda Hot In Orlando This Time Of Year

     From WFTV:

Dozens of people waited in line for hours outside the newly opened Social Security Administration Office on Orange Avenue in downtown Orlando.

It’s been a daily occurrence since the new office opened on Monday, June 17.

Social Security Administration told Eyewitness News Tuesday evening that the long lines were due to recently implemented security screening requirements.

 “We are working on a long-term security screening solution for the building, potentially including an additional magnetometer,” the agency said. ...

Eyewitness News spoke to people in line Tuesday who reported up to 3 hours to get in and out of the office. Some toward the end of the line said they had been there an hour and a half.

This was as dozens were fighting Orlando’s 90-degree heat in the line, including the elderly, the disabled bound by wheelchairs, and children. No overhang or shelter was covering most of the line.

“It’s super hot! I can’t even take it,” said 7-year-old Marly, waiting to go into the office with her dad. ... 

Field Offices Workloads

     Below is an illustration from the testimony of Katherine Zuleger of Wausau , WI. President, Chicago Social Security Management Association, Executive Committee Member, National Council of Social Security Management Associations to the Senate Finance Committee on June 18, 2024 on Work and Social Security Disability Benefits (I can't help thinking that some of this looks like an illustration from a sex education textbook!):

Click on image to view full size

Here are what those acronyms mean, as best I know them:

• AUX -- Auxiliary claims, such as child claims
  
• CDR -- Continuing Disability Review
• CO -- Central Office 
• CSNO -- Centralized Special Notice Option (I don't know what that is.)
• ERPA -- Electronic Representative Payee Annual report
  
• GI -- I think General Information in this context
  
• MDW -- Modernized Development Worksheet
  
• MNUP -- Medicare Non-Utilization Project (to determine why an elderly person isn't using Medicare -- like maybe the person is dead.)  
  
• PSC -- Program Service Center -- where Title II benefits are computed, among other things
• RO -- Regional Office    
• RPMT --  ?
  
• TSC -- Teleservice Center -- where they answer most telephone calls to the 800 number    
  

Wide Variance Between Regions In Number Of Customers Waiting Outside Field Offices

    From Customer Wait Times in the Social Security Administration’s Field Offices and Card Centers, a report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General:

 

Customer Wait Times

    From Customer Wait Times in the Social Security Administration’s Field Offices and Card Centers, a report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General:

 

Let's Celebrate! Social Security Lost Fewer Employees In 2023 Than In 2022

    From Customer Wait Times in the Social Security Administration’s Field Offices and Card Centers, a report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General:

 

Belated OIG Report On Field Office Waiting Times

Photo taken on May 7 outside Raleigh FO

    From Customer Wait Times in the Social Security Administration’s Field Offices and Card Centers, a report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General:

... In February and March 2023, we visited 76 FOs [Field Offices] and SSCCs [Social Security Card Centers]. During these visits, we observed customer wait times and interviewed office management regarding best practices for reducing customer wait times. We also interviewed SSA staff to determine Agency initiatives to enhance the customer experience and reduce wait times.

During our office visits, we observed the wait times of customers throughout their visit for services. For the 76 FOs and SSCCs we visited, we observed the average wait time for customers before check-in ranged from 5 to 12 minutes, depending on the method of check-in. The check-in method(s) used varied, based on management’s discretion. Once checked in, customers waited an average of 32 to 45 minutes to receive services. We do not assert, and the reader should not infer, that our observations during our visits represent all SSA offices. ...

    Why did it take more than a year after the data was collected for OIG to issue a report?

Critter Control Did Their Job

     On May 8 Social Security plans to reopen that Cleveland field office which had recently closed due to raccoons in the attic. I guess they're gone or nearly gone.

Tiny Feet Scurrying Around Over Your Head

     From a Cleveland television station:

The Social Security office in Middleburg Heights, on Pearl Rd., is temporarily closed due to a raccoon infestation.

People trying to take care of business Wednesday at the office found locked doors and signs stating the closure. ...

Michael Murphy, President of Local 3448 of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), said problems with raccoons inside the office have been building.

“These employees were reporting concerns of noises above the ceiling as far back as January,” Murphy said. “The staff said five raccoons were removed from the building as of yesterday.” ...

    I've had racoons in my attic. Getting rid of them is expensive. Keeping them from coming back may be even more expensive.

Closure Of Field Office Due To Staffing And Attrition Problems

     The union local that represents most Social Security employees is reporting that because of staffing and attrition issues Social Security is closing a field office in Southeast Cleveland that serves an area that is 94% black.