SSA Employees Unhappy

      From Politico:

… A new survey of federal workers found that, government wide, only 32 percent of the federal workforce is satisfied with and engaged in their jobs.  …

The survey, conducted late last year by the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service, was launched after the White House instructed the Office of Personnel Management to cancel its annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, a long-running survey tracking agency performance and workplace morale across four administrations, according to a person with knowledge of OPM’s plans and granted anonymity to discuss them.  …

[A]t the Social Security Administration, the score fell from 54.2 to 15.2. …

You Can’t Trust Social Security’s IG

      From a Washington Post article on Inspectors General:

… At the Social Security Administration, acting inspector general Michelle Anderson meets regularly with Commissioner Frank Bisignano and has given him information about her work, according to two people familiar with the meetings. Anderson has wanted to maintain a good relationship with Bisignano, the people said.


The inspector general’s office has largely avoided digging into the work of the U.S. DOGE Service at the agency, but it recently told Congress it is investigating allegations that a DOGE member has improper access to sensitive Social Security data. Before that, it had told senators last year that it would not evaluate the agency’s decision to classify thousands of living immigrants as dead.


In December, the Social Security IG released an audit of the agency’s phone metrics, which found that the wait time for someone to talk to a representative had dropped to single-digit minutes. Agency leaders celebrated the report as a vindication of their claims that they had improved customer service. Bisignano later told staffers he had thought the inspector general had wasted taxpayer dollars even looking into the statistics, according to a recording of his remarks.

However, an unpublished draft of the report reviewed by The Post showed that the inspector general had planned to report another metric — called the “total wait time” — to measure the overall time it takes for callers to be connected with an SSA employee. According to that draft report, in 2025 total wait time averaged 46 minutes to over two hours. That information was deleted from the draft after the agency reviewed it before publication, according to the document’s revision history. …

Disastrous Service For Widows

      From 19th News:

Kathy Quitno-Bolt was still numb when she started calling Social Security days after her husband’s sudden death in July. Steve, her partner of 25 years and husband of 13, died four days after being diagnosed with lung cancer — just enough time for their daughter to arrive and say goodbye.

When she finally got through to someone, they told her they wouldn’t have an appointment to begin her application for survivor benefits until October. 

Her head started spinning. Did she have enough saved to make it through then?

Survivor benefits could have stabilized Quitno-Bolt’s life when it felt like everything she knew was falling apart. But like many people across the country, she was facing significant delays at the Social Security Administration (SSA).  …

Among those facing the longest delays are people claiming survivor benefits after the loss of a spouse and those applying on behalf of children who lost a parent. These groups are entitled to monthly payments that vary depending on the earnings of the worker who died and the age of the surviving spouse. There’s no online application for survivor benefits; they are at the mercy of the phones and the appointment calendar, which in the past year has become a logistical nightmare that has a disproportionate impact on women and children.  …

After her first appointment in October, Quitno-Bolt submitted her documents, including her husband’s death certificate and their marriage license, to her local office thinking that was the end. But she heard nothing back for weeks. In November, she found out SSA had denied her benefits, saying she didn’t turn in her documents even though she had already received them back from the agency.  …

For the past four months now, she’s called the agency almost weekly trying to sort through what went wrong. Typically, she waits on hold for 70 to 90 minutes. At one point, she was told her application was closed without a denial or approval. More recently, she was told her second application was being processed. She’s still in limbo. 

“It’s been a mess, and I can’t even think anymore because I’m so worried about everything,” said Quitno-Bolt, 57, who is disabled and can’t work. Her husband, a factory worker, was the breadwinner. A GoFundMe set up by her daughter helped her scrape by, but she said the last of her savings will run out this month.  …

Shuffling The Deck Chairs

      From the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare:

There’s been an uncanny amount of re-shuffling of workers and resources at the Social Security Administration lately – in a feeble attempt to paper over Trump’s reckless cuts in staffing. The latest example of this game of whack-a-mole unfolded last week. 

Commissioner Frank Bisignano announced a shiny, new plan to “centralize” medical reviews for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits — which could impact nearly 9 million Americans. (Disabled workers can lose their benefits if they do not pass these periodic reviews.)

This shift yanks the review process away from experienced state Disability Determination Services (DDS) offices, supposedly to boost “accountability.” These medical reviews will now fall under the purview of SSA’s federal Disability Case Review (DCR) team. 

We suspect that this move has nothing to do with “accountability,” and really is about “re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic,” as our senior Social Security expert, Maria Freese, puts it.  She points out that Trump’s SSA, after recklessly cutting more than 7,000 jobs when the agency already was understaffed, now finds itself falling short in key areas — and is furiously trying to plug holes.

“The agency has way too much work, with too few people. So they shift around the workload (in this case, SSDI reviews), so that overburdened staff in other areas have to do that work. That ultimately leaves SSA with a deficit somewhere else.” Freese explains. “Eventually, everyone who is reliant on the agency suffers.” …

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

 

Senators Want Answers

     From NEXTGOV/FCW: 

Twelve Democrats want answers from the Social Security Administration about its decision to shift employees that normally perform other jobs to its phone line last month with only hours of training, a move employees have said risks adding to backlogs.

SSA pushed out over 7,400 employees last year, including 1,387 contact representatives, as the Trump administration sought to reduce the size of the government’s workforce. 

Since last summer, the agency has moved over a thousand employees from its field offices to answer its phone line, and last month, Nextgov/FCW

 reported that the agency was shifting employees from its processing centers, technology office, financial unit and other offices to the phone line, too. 

Employees told Nextgov/FCW at the time that it made little sense for those processing benefit claims to answer calls, many of which may be about the status of those very claims.  …

The senators want an array of details about the reassignments, including how many employees have been moved and from what posts, the training they received, why the agency moved them, how the agency’s reassignments have impacted its functioning and any hiring SSA is doing. It recently had open jobs listed for contact center representatives. 

The letter’s signatories include Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., Patty Murray, D-Wash., Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore. …

Happy Pi Day

 

John Solly Is The Alleged Culprit In Data Theft

      From Wired:

JOHN SOLLY, A software engineer and former member of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), is the DOGE operative reportedly accused in a whistleblower complaint of telling colleagues that he stored sensitive Social Security Administration (SSA) data on a thumb drive and wanted to share the information with his new employer, multiple sources tell WIRED.

Since October, according to a copy of his résumé, Solly has worked as the chief technology officer for the health IT division of a government contractor called Leidos, which has already received millions in SSA contracts and could receive up to $1.5 billion in contracts with SSA based on a five-year deal it signed in 2023. Solly’s personal website and LinkedIn have been taken offline as of this week. …

Where’s The Slack Coming From?

From: ^Commissioner Broadcast <Commissioner.Broadcast@ssa.gov>

Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2026 11:35 AM

Subject: SSA Brings Continuing Disability Review Workloads In-House  

A Message to All SSA and DDS Employees      

 

Subject: SSA Brings Continuing Disability Review Workloads In-House 

Today, we announced the agency will bring in-house the processing of medical continuing disability reviews (CDRs) from State Disability Determination Services (DDS) to our federal processing site called Disability Case Review (DCR). CDRs are conducted as part of SSA’s ongoing program integrity workload to determine whether a person receiving disability benefits should continue receiving them.   

Centralizing medical CDRs is another important step to reduce improper payments and improve customer service. This shift allows the DDSs to focus on efficiently processing disability claim decisions and benefits for eligible individuals. Reduced wait times for state level disability decisions means eligible individuals can begin receiving their critical benefits more quickly.   

DDS initial claim backlogs spiked to over 1.2 million in June of 2024. They have done great work driving down the backlog to 831,000 claimants waiting for a decision as of February 2026. This next step will maximize the DDS’s state level resources to further reduce processing time and continue to drive down the pending claims. 

 

DCR, with its experience processing initial disability claims, reconsideration cases, and medical CDRs, will now handle medical CDRs for the entire country—allowing DDS sites to focus on reducing wait times on initial claims and reconsideration cases for citizens in their state. Non-medical CDRs, which do not require the same expertise as medical CDRs to process, will continue to be handled by the agency’s field offices and processing centers. 

Frank J. Bisignano 

Commissioner 

Arbitrator Orders Telework Restored But Don’t Expect It To Happen Anytime Soon

      From Federal News Network:

A third-party arbitrator is ordering the Social Security Administration to restore telework for many of its employees, after the agency indefinitely suspended workplace flexibilities under the Trump administration.

The arbitrator, in an order signed on Wednesday, directed SSA to restore telework for employees represented by the American Federation of Government Employees. The ruling brings back telework to levels that had been in place before mid-March 2025. …

The arbitrator’s ruling won’t have an immediate impact on SSA’s workforce. An SSA spokesperson said in a statement that the agency “strongly disagrees with today’s flawed decision,” and will appeal it to the Federal Labor Relations Authority, which has a majority of Trump appointees. … 

Maybe You Shouldn’t Have Fired Them

      From the Washington Post:

… At the Social Security Administration, officials are moving forward with plans to hire at least 700 customer service representatives this year, according to two people familiar with internal discussions. The agency aims to increase its workforce by roughly 1,000 employees after losing about 7,000 last year. …

Do You Trust The “Investigation”?

       From the Washington Post:

The Social Security Administration’s internal watchdog is investigating a complaint that alleges a former U.S. DOGE Service employee claimed he had access to two highly sensitive agency databases and planned to share the information with his private employer — a claim that, if true, would constitute an unprecedented breach of security protocols at an agency that serves more than 70 million Americans.
 …

According to the disclosure, the former DOGE software engineer, who worked at the Social Security Administration last year before starting a job at a government contractor in October, allegedly told several co-workers that he possessed two tightly restricted databases of U.S. citizens’ information, and had at least one on a thumb drive. The databases, called “Numident” and the “Master Death File,” include records for more than 500 million living and dead Americans, including Social Security numbers, places and dates of birth, citizenship, race and ethnicity, and parents’ names. The complaint does not include specific dates of when he is said to have told colleagues this information, but at least one of the alleged events unfolded around early January, according to the complaint. While working at DOGE, the engineer had approved access to Social Security data.

According to the complaint, he allegedly told the whistleblower that he needed help transferring data from a thumb drive “to his personal computer so that he could ‘sanitize’ the data before using it at [the company.]” The engineer told colleagues that once he had removed personal details from the data, he wanted to upload it into the company’s systems. He told another colleague, who refused to help him upload the data because of legal concerns, that he expected to receive a presidential pardon if his actions were deemed to be illegal, according to the complaint. ….

The whistleblower filed the complaint with the inspector general in January. When The Post contacted the agency and the company in January, both said they had not heard of the complaint. Both said they subsequently looked into the allegations and did not find evidence to confirm the claims. The company said it had conducted a “thorough” two-day internal investigation and concluded the assertions were unsubstantiated. Reached this week, both declined further comment. … 

Please, Not At Social Security

      The New York Times is reporting on the pictures of President Trump proliferating in and on government offices around the country. Please tell me there are no Trump pictures in or on Social Security offices apart from the traditional 8x10s at the entrance.

What It’s Supposed To Be Like

      A letter to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle:

This is a shoutout to the staff at Bozeman’s Social Security office, who recently helped me apply for retirement benefits in a professional and incredibly helpful manner.

My case was perhaps a bit more complicated than most in that I’d worked both in the U.S. and overseas, so there were several application details to figure out. I’d gotten a letter from the Denver-based Social Security office saying that my application process had stalled because they needed more information from me.

So I drove over to the local office, thinking, “More information? What more information?,” not knowing what to expect when I arrived (application delays? Denial?).

SSA Wants Kiosks

      From a contracting notice posted by Social Security:

This is a Request for Information. The agency wants to deploy secure, accessible self-service kiosks nationwide to further modernize service delivery and improve customer experience. These kiosks will empower customers to complete routine transactions independently, reduce lobby congestion, and offer flexible service options. The Self-Service Kiosks will supplement existing check-in systems and integrate with SSA’s network and infrastructure, with robust accessibility features. This initiative enhances, not replaces, in-person service.

     My recollection is that this was tried before and made little progress. 

Bisignano Testimony Panned By GOP Congressman

      From Politico:

A Republican tax writer ripped IRS CEO Frank Bisignano on Wednesday, blasting him as unprepared for his appearance before the House Ways and Means Committee.

“This is unacceptable,” Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio) told Bisignano, who frequently offered vague answers to lawmakers’ questions about tax-filing season, Republicans’ signature tax cuts and other issues.

“You really need to come in here and answer the questions that these members ask you directly, and saying ‘I’ll come see you in your office,’ even to me, on very basic questions that I’m asking you, is really upsetting,” Miller said. “I am very embarrassed right now for my side.” …

Miller was frustrated by Bisignano’s answers to his inquiries about the agency’s plans for taxing digital assets, an admittedly arcane topic. But Bisignano’s responses to lawmakers’ questions on a range of issues were often vague and repetitive. And he appeared to be unfamiliar with some aspects of President Donald Trump’s signature tax breaks. …

Miller said he blamed Bisignano’s advisers who accompanied him to the hearing.

“You need to do a better job of educating the IRS commissioner about the questions that he’s coming here to answer,” Miller told them. “If I was working for a principal, I would never let them walk into a hearing like this.”

Who’s Running The Show?

 

    Frank Bisignano is simultaneously trying to be Commissioner of Social Security and “CEO” of the IRS, a position that doesn’t really exist. When he was nominated to be Commissioner he openly admitted that he knew little about the agency he was supposed to run. Even if he’s a quick learner there’s no way that I can see that he can run Social Security on a day to day basis without subjecting himself to a ton of briefings so that he can understand the issues he’s deciding on. How can he possibly have time for that when he’s also trying to run the IRS, especially if he’s interacting with others at Social Security mainly through video?

      My question is whether insiders think Bisignano is actually running things at the agency on a daily basis. If he isn’t, who is? I suppose one possibility is that Bisignano is making the decisions but without bothering to understand the issues. If you regard Social Security as fundamentally unimportant and don’t expect to be around long, why bother with trying to understand arcane issues? If Trump didn’t bother with understanding the issues presented by embarking with war on Iran, why should Bisignano bother with understanding the issues at Social Security? How important can Social Security be? It pays its Commissioner far less than a million a year, peanuts in Bisignano’s world.

Bisignano Declines To Answer Questions

      From the Los Angeles Times:

The head of the IRS largely declined to answer questions about recent unlawful disclosures of taxpayer data when he was questioned by lawmakers at a congressional hearing on Wednesday, saying they happened before his tenure began.  …

“Was anyone fired? Was anyone disciplined? Was anyone held accountable? Was anyone held to account?” Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) asked Bisignano.

Bisignano cited ongoing litigation and declined to answer questions about the disclosures, adding, “I don’t want to debate the numbers.” …

     A Democratic chairman of the Committee would not allow Bisignano to decide which questions he wouldn’t  answer which is why Bisignano will quickly decide to spend more time with his family and his fortune if Democrats seize control of either the Senate or House in November.

Congressional Hearing Today

      Here’s a reminder that a full Ways and Means Committee hearing with Commissioner Bisignano is coming up at 10:00 today. It’s supposed to be about Bisignano’s role at the IRS but I imagine that Social Security will come up. You can watch online.

A Lot Worse

 

    The Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF) has produced a report on customer service at Social Security since DOGE entered the picture. Not surprisingly, they report significant deterioration in service.