Security Upgrade Planned For Central Offices

     From the Baltimore Sun:

The Social Security Administration is planning to build a "security barrier" at its Woodlawn headquarters that officials say is needed to protect employees and visitors.

Though available details of its design are sparse — several elected officials said they had not yet been briefed on the plans — an agency spokesman acknowledged that millions of dollars have been budgeted for security upgrades at the agency's headquarters, including some form of barrier.

Your Trivia For Today

     From Mental Floss:

Who got the lowest Social Security Number?

The SSA [Social Security Administration] had some control over where numbers were issued because of the early geographic distribution of the area number. The lowest numbers went to the northeast states, and while Maine, the most northeasterly of them, should have gotten the block of numbers starting in 001, that group number actually went to New Hampshire.

This was done so that the lowest possible SSN, 001-01-0001, could be given to Social Security Board Chairman and former New Hampshire governor John G. Winant. He passed on the number, so the SSA then offered it to John Campbell, a Regional Representative of the Federal Bureau of Old Age Benefits. He didn’t want it either. The SSA finally decided to just assign it to the first New Hampshire applicant, Grace D. Owen of Concord.

A Press Release

     The National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) has put out a press release on its ongoing conference in Seattle and saluting its outgoing president, Chuck Martin, and its incoming president, Debra Shifrin. Certainly, Chuck and Debra deserve the recognition. The bigger point is that NOSSCR now has a public relations firm putting out press releases on its behalf. NOSSCR also has a political action committee (PAC). The PR firm and the PAC are new. Why does a 32 year old organization like NOSSCR suddenly decide it needs a PR firm and a PAC? It's the political environment NOSSCR members and their clients face.  We have to arm ourselves. There are people gunning for us.

AARP Opposes Extension Of Partial FICA Holiday

     AARP has come out in opposition to any extension of the partial F.I.C.A. tax holiday. The F.I.C.A. tax supports the Social Security trust funds. The partial F.I.C.A. tax holiday of the last two years is set to expire at the end of the year unless continued. General revenues have been used to make up for the lost F.I.C.A. tax revenues over the last two years.

No News Is No News

     I am at the conference of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) in Seattle. Normally on the first full day of the conference I post a summary of the morning general session or if I can't make it to the conference, I find someone who is present to write a summary to post here. Usually, there is real news coming out of this session. This year there has been no real news. This is not because the conference is deficient. This is what I expected. It's just the time frame that the conference occurs in. A general election is right around the corner. Things may be vastly different at Social Security depending upon the results of that election. Also, the Commissioner of Social Security, Michael Astrue, will be leaving office in less than three months, regardless of the election results. Even if you knew who will win the Presidential election, you could not now predict who will replace Astrue. How the new Commissioner  will manage Social Security will depend not merely upon who is in the White House, but also upon which party controls the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Another Appellate Decision Holding DOMA Unconstitutional

     A second federal court of appeals has declared the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional. DOMA prevents the Social Security Administration from recognizing same sex marriages allowed under state law. This issue will be decided by the Supreme Court in the not too distant future. There is an issue about whether it is constitutional for a state to outlaw same sex marriages. That argument may or may not prevail at the Supreme Court but it's different and not as strong as the argument that DOMA is unconstitutional.

Weirdness At AARP

    AARP is running a $50,000 Fill The Social Security Gap Sweepstakes where you can "Empower yourself with Social Security facts" and  "win big!"

1.7% COLA

     The Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) effective for 2013 Social Security payments is 1.7%, which amounts to $21 a month or $252 a year for the average recipient.

Online Services Down

    Social Security's online process for uploading medical records, filing appeals and for attorneys to obtain access to their clients records is down. There is no explanation online. I think the lack of explanation or warning annoys me more than anything else. It's not like it just went down. A few people have been able to get in today, but apparently it's been down most of the day. Problems happen but, at least you can warn people when you're having technical problems.

Earnings Statement Mailings Suspended

     From the Federal Times:

Tight money has again led the Social Security Administration to halt the mailing of all paper statements of earnings and benefits to millions of Americans. These are the handy documents that give you an idea of what to expect in terms of Social Security retirement or disability income.

The latest suspension, which took effect Oct. 1, results from the “overall budget situation,” including a stop-gap continuing resolution that will leave the agency at last year’s funding levels through March, spokeswoman Kia Anderson said.

SSA officials had originally suspended mailing paper statements in April 2011 to save $70 million annually. This February, however, they had resumed mailings to people aged 60 or older and in July, to participants in the year they turned 25.