Long Line In Guam

    There's been a long line outside Social Security's field office in Guam. Yes, Guam is a U.S. territory so that's U.S. Social Security. 

First Report On Field Office Reopening

    From WHEC:

For the first time in two years, people could just walk into the Social Security office downtown to try to get someone to help them.

For five months, we've documented all kinds of problems and delays with the agency's phone system and operators, but Thursday the doors opened and we found someone who really needed the access.

I stood on Main Street asking people who walked in without an appointment—how did it go? Some said it was fine. Others were still frustrated. And then I saw a little 7-year-old girl walk out with her mom and considering where they came from, the offices opened at the right time. 

Jenna is 7 years old. She and her mother Yurina and escaped from Ukraine. 

"I'm helping my friends," Viktor Kachaluba said. "They come from Ukraine, like refugee."

This mother and daughter recently came into the United States through Mexico. They came to the Social Security office when it opened today in the hopes of getting a number. ...

Within two hours of opening, about 50 people came to the office and I watched more arrive every minute. 

People waited in the lobby to get escorted to the second floor. 

"I just needed my social security card," Deshawn Terry said. "And the phone lines were tied up so I just decided to come down."

"Yes, I've called numerous times," Ann Randall said. "I've been on hold, ringing for hours." ...

    If you work in a field office, how is reopening going so far?

They Call This The Waterfall Chart

 

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How Will Reopening Affect This?

      This Caseload Analysis Report has been uploaded by Social Security. It's basic operating statistics from the agency's Office of Hearings Operations.

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Advance Designation Of Rep Payee Form Leaks Out

      Social Security has a form to make an advance designation of representative payee but for reasons unknown to me they won’t release the form to the public. What good does it do to have the form but not release it to the public? However, a wills and estates law firm has gotten a copy and posted it online. 

April 7 Is The Day

      Social Security field offices will reopen to the public on April 7, per an agency press release. 

     Good luck.

It Rings And Rings And Rings

      From KFOR:

Oklahomans in need of new Social Security cards claim they can’t get the help they need, but federal officials say more aid will soon be available. 

Between 12-hour nursing shifts and caring for two kiddos, Mikyla Cartwright stays quite busy. 

But lately, much of her free time has been spent on the phone, fighting to find her four month old’s information. 

Her son, Xander, was born back in November. Mikayla tells KFOR she opted for the hospital to file for Xander’s Social Security card.

For whatever reason though, the card never came. Come tax time, Mikyla grew concerned and decided to file for Xander’s Social Security card herself.

When she stopped by her local office, she said the door was locked. Mikyla called the number on the door, which didn’t help. 

“Longest I was ever on hold was two days, I mean two working days,” said Mikyla. “It just rings, it rings and rings and rings.” …

SSA To Allow Self-Selection Of Sex

      From a press release:

Kilolo Kijakazi, Acting Commissioner of Social Security, announced that the agency will offer people the choice to self-select their sex on their Social Security number (SSN) record. The agency anticipates this option will be available in the fall of 2022. ...

People who update their sex marker in Social Security’s records will need to apply for a replacement SSN card. They will still need to show a current document to prove their identity, but they will no longer need to provide medical or legal documentation of their sex designation once the policy change becomes effective. SSN cards do not include sex markers. ...

    This appears to be part of a larger Biden Administration effort to ease the lives of transgender Americans.

    Why should Social Security even bother to collect gender information? Prohibitions on same sex marriage used to affect benefits payments but that was external to Social Security and those prohibitions are now gone. Social Security benefit payments themselves have been gender neutral for many decades.

AFGE And Social Security In Contentious Relationship

      From the Washington Post: 

 … AFGE leaders criticized officials [at Social Security] for continuing to act like Trump’s anti-union edicts remain in effect, despite Biden’s policies to the contrary.

“You still have those holdovers from the previous administration,” Kelley told reporters, “that just don't want to give up any form of authority.”

Social Security officials continue to pursue an “aggressive anti-union/anti-employee bargaining approach … undoubtedly directed by the Trump orders,” said an email from Rich Couture, AFGE’s spokesman on Social Security.

Among the current Social Security polices Couture cited as “antithetical” to Biden’s agenda are “draconian official time cuts” and the “elimination and reduction of union office space nationwide, which similarly limits our ability to represent and access employees, especially now with reentry at agency installations now starting.” Official time allows union leaders to represent workers in limited ways, such as grievance procedures, while on government time.

A Social Security statement said it “complied with all of the administration’s labor policies and is fully committed to positive relations with our labor partners. Last year, we offered to renegotiate major provisions of our collective bargaining agreements with all three of our unions. Two of our unions accepted and we are currently in contract negotiations with them. AFGE did not accept that offer and is pursuing arbitration to revoke the entire 2019 contract.” …

Help Please

      For some time now I've been posting the Caseload Analysis Report issued by Social Security's Office of Hearings Operations (OHO). To their credit, OHO has been voluntarily releasing it. 

    I'm sure that other Social Security components produce similar reports. I'd like to see some of them. I can request them under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) but it would help if I knew what the reports are called. I'd be interested in the names of the operational reports for the Disability Determination Services (State Agency Operations Report?), Field Offices, Teleservice Centers and Payment Centers. The names of the reports can't be some closely held secret. Can anyone help me with just the names of the reports?

    It's hard to imagine any harm to the agency in the public having a better idea of the agency's operations. It might be of help in obtaining an adequate operating budget.