From things said by Social Security Commissioner Martin O'Malley during an interview conducted by reporter Lisa Rein of the
Washington Post:
... I wasn’t asked to come here because
everything was going great, right? We’re in a customer service crisis;
that cannot be denied. ...
There is a theme running through this stuff [I've done]: It’s small.
[W]e executed on a bunch of little short-term, quick wins. Our new general counsel has probably said yes in 60 days more than any [Office of General Counsel] leader has said in 10 years. ...
I have been unpleasantly surprised by how dire the staffing situation is. ...
[W]e’ll be rolling out an action plan for the remainder of the year that
will better organize over 150 actions under 21 initiatives, all of which
are intended to take a bite out of these processing times [at Disability Determination Services]. ...
Clearly we need a more modern assessment of the widely available
occupations out there [used in disability determination]. And we are taking a fresh look at this project [to create a new occupational data system],
and at what we forecasted we might have to spend. ... Many members of Congress expressed their concern
about the amount of money that we have put into this and the amount of
time that it has taken. There’s still a systems component, and that also
has a price tag. I would say it’s a big policy issue. There will be
some winners, some losers. ...