Saul On Telework

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

Sent: Friday, May 28, 2021 1:30 PM

A Message to All SSA Employees

Subject:  Update on Telework

I want to begin to talk with you about the future of our operations post-pandemic.  First, let me make clear that this is a separate conversation from our current work during the pandemic.  For now, we continue to operate under our COVID-19 Workplace Safety Plan including maximum telework and office capacity limits.

Agencies across government have gained real-time telework experience since March 2020.  The pandemic forced us to implement new ways of doing business, which accelerated some positive changes and highlighted areas where we need to make additional improvements.  We have done a great job under difficult circumstances ensuring our key services continue.  Still, there are areas where we are falling behind.

Part of the reason for service degradation could be inefficiency in business processes due to the temporary but necessary changes we made during the pandemic.  For example, requiring the public to mail in important documents like drivers’ licenses for a Social Security card is not sustainable, but iSSNRC and video and express appointments will help address that workload.  We also know that not all work is portable and some members of the public, in particular our vulnerable populations, are best served in person.

The pandemic provides us a unique opportunity to build a new normal that improves public service.  A part of that opportunity is to reconsider how we use telework.  As a result, I have asked each component’s Deputy Commissioner (DC) to reassess telework opportunities within your components considering all we have learned during the last year. Generally, we expect to increase telework opportunities from our pre-pandemic levels. We will also be seeking input from the unions and meeting any applicable labor obligations.

Public service must remain the key driver, but issues like employee retention, recruitment, morale, space savings, continuity of government operations, and the environment will also inform our decisions.  Additionally, we are participating in a government-wide initiative about the future of work, which will guide our decisions including when more employees will return to the office.

We will continue to follow the Administration’s science-driven lead on operating during the pandemic, and I will continue to share new information with you as we receive it.  At the same time, we must plan for how the agency can best perform in the future.

I appreciate that telework is important to you and for your ability to plan in your personal lives so I wanted to take a moment to let you know we are working on it. Thanks again for all you are doing to be sure we take care of the people who depend on us.

Andrew Saul

Commissioner

AAJ Hearings To Remain A Possibility As CRA Resolution Fails

      In the twilight days of the Trump Administration, Social Security adopted new regulations allowing Administrative Appeals Judges (AAJs) to hold hearings on disability claims. Previously, only Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) were able to hold such hearings. AAJs have only handled cases pending on review at the Appeals Council. This has been concerning since AAJs, unlike ALJs, have not been thought to enjoy decisional independence.

     The Congressional Review Act (CRA) permits Congress to disapprove "midnight" regulations adopted as an Administration is leaving office. CRA resolutions may not be filibustered. A CRA resolution was introduced to disapprove the AAJs regulations. The problem with CRA resolutions is that they must be acted upon within a certain number of days. The computation of when the days start to run is a little tricky but, apparently, the time ran out yesterday but no action was taken on the CRA resolution on the AAJ regulations.

     I would be surprised to see any AAJ hearings scheduled in the near future. There's no plausible justification since there are enough ALJs to handle the current workload and Democrats control the White House, Senate and House of Representatives. Further out, who knows?

Express Interviews

      From Emergency Message EM-21041:

A. Purpose
This Emergency Message (EM) provides Field Offices (FOs) and Social Security Card Centers (SSCCs) information regarding the nationwide implementation of the Express Interview (EXI) process. In addition, this EM provides instructions for scheduling appointments, conducting interviews, and documenting interviews, as part of the EXI process. This process was established to address the challenges the public has faced in providing enumeration and documentary proofs, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

B. Background
Effective May 28, 2021, FOs and SSCCs nationwide will begin offering the new EXI option. EXIs are brief interviews, lasting approximately 5-7 minutes, which allow eligible individuals to apply for an original or replacement Social Security Number (SSN) card and submit necessary evidence in person.

While this initiative is primarily intended to assist customers who need an SSN card, EXIs are also available for purposes of gathering evidence needed for processing claims and other workloads, as well as for individuals who meet certain limited, critical situations.

 C. Express Interview Criteria

In order to qualify for an EXI, individuals must:

· meet existing limited, critical appointment criteria such as:
o original cards for individuals age 12 or older;

o replacement cards for individuals who need to update or correct their information, such as name, date of birth, or citizenship, or to obtain income, resources, medical care or coverage, or other services or benefits (e.g., filing a tax return, applying for housing, or seeking an Economic Impact Payment);

AND

· be unable to use our automated services (e.g. enumeration at birth, enumeration at entry or enumeration beyond entry) or online SSN replacement card service (iSSNRC).

Individuals also qualify for an EXI if they are unable or unwilling to mail original evidence documents.  ...

Overdue

     There's an annual Trustees Report on the state of the Social Security Trust Funds that gathers same public attention. Last year's report came out on April 22 but none so far this year so we're overdue. I suppose the pandemic might have something to do with the delay. The change in Administrations might also play a role.

Little Change In Social Security Headcount

    The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has posted updated numbers showing the headcount of employees at each agency. Here they are as of March with earlier headcount numbers for comparison:

• March 2021 60,675
• December 2020 61,816
  
• September 2020 61,447
  
• June 2020 60,515
  
• March 2020 60,659
  
• December 2019 61,969
  
• December 2018 62,946
  
• December 2017 62,777
• September 2017 62,297
• June 2017 61,592
• March 2017 62,183
• December 2016 63,364
• December 2015 65,518
• December 2014 65,430
• December 2013 61,957
• December 2012 64,538
• September 2011 67,136
• December 2010 70,270
• December 2009 67,486
• December 2008 63,733

      By the way, Full Time Equivalent (FTE) numbers would be more meaningful since those take overtime work into consideration. Social Security isn't posting those numbers as far as I know. I'd love to see them.

Guidance Coming Soon On Telework

      From the Washington Post:

As the Biden administration contemplates how to return the massive federal workforce to the office, government officials are moving to make a pandemic experiment permanent by allowing more employees than ever to work from home — a sweeping cultural change that would have been unthinkable a year ago. ...

Notice of the change is expected in June, when the administration is set to release long-awaited guidance to agencies about when and how many federal employees can return to the office — likely in hybrid workplaces that combine in-person and at-home options, according to officials and memos obtained by The Washington Post. The bulletin is expected to address remote work policies in the immediate and long term.

 “We anticipate this guidance will leave room for decision-making at departments and agencies, to provide maximum flexibility for defining work requirements to meet mission and workforce needs,” said a senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because plans have not yet been finalized. ...

How much other federal employees will be able to work from home will be up to individual agencies and is likely to vary widely depending on employee needs, manager preferences and the department’s mission, officials said. ...

Mark Hinkle, a Social Security Administration spokesman, said in an email that the agency is “carefully and incrementally increasing the number of employees working in our local field offices” to help whittle down workloads and is beginning to increase in-office appointments. ...

If You Have To Ask The Question, You Really Are A Fool

      The Motley Fool asks “Is Bitcoin Safer For Retirement Than Social Security?”

ALJ Union And Social Security At Odds

     From Government Executive:

An independent arbitrator this week took the rare step of ordering the Social Security Administration and a union representing administrative law judges to completely redo negotiations on a new contract, after he found several instances of illegal bad faith bargaining by the agency.

In a decision dated May 17, Arbitrator John T. Nicholas found that management at the agency engaged in unfair labor practices in relation to five different articles of its contract negotiations with the Association of Administrative Law Judges. The ruling marks the third instance in which an arbitrator has found instances of malfeasance on the part of management at the Social Security Administration in connection with their negotiations with the judges’ union.

In those previous cases, the arbitrator issued narrow awards to the union, such as requiring the agency to provide previously improperly withheld information and rescind an effort to implement a partial contract. But Nicholas instructed the parties to completely restart the contract negotiation process from the beginning with negotiations on ground rules for bargaining over an entirely new contract. ...

 The arbitrator also found that the Social Security Administration engaged in “surface level” bargaining on official time, in essence making tweaks to their proposal without actually trying to find a solution amenable to both parties, and he found the agency engaged in bad faith bargaining in its negotiations over provisions intended to protect the judges’ judicial function. ...

In a statement, Social Security Administration spokesman Mark Hinkle downplayed the potential impact of the arbitrator’s ruling, and accused the judges’ union of blocking efforts to negotiate a new contract.

“The arbitration decision was substantively moot by the time the decision was issued, as SSA has offered the AALJ the opportunity to renegotiate the entire CBA on several occasions,” Hinkle said. “In fact, the agency’s chief spokesperson for these negotiations has sent at least four communications making that offer to the AALJ chief negotiator . . . Despite these repeated efforts, AALJ has refused to even meet with the agency.” ...

     Melissa McIntosh, the president of the ALJ union, recently appeared on Tom Temin's show on WFED. The posted transcript demonstrates the depth of the gap between union and management at Social Security.

Stimulus Payments Cause Problems For Some SSI Recipients

     From HuffPost:

Stimulus payments aren’t supposed to count against eligibility for social insurance programs like disability benefits, but some people might have lost benefits because of too much money in their bank accounts.

The Social Security Administration has suspended disability benefits for some Supplemental Security Income recipients because the stimulus payments pushed their bank accounts above the program’s archaic $2,000 limit, according to legal aid attorneys. ...
It’s likely that relatively few of the program’s nearly 8 million beneficiaries have been affected. ...

Everyone on SSI is subject to the resource limit, which hasn’t been updated since 1989. It’s $2,000 for individuals and $3,000 for couples, with exclusions for a home, a car and certain other assets. 

Because the coronavirus stimulus payments are technically tax credits, they shouldn’t have affected eligibility for any social program, whether it’s food benefits or Social Security. Under federal law, tax credits don’t count as income or “resources” for eligibility purposes within a year of their receipt.

But the Social Security Administration is a huge agency with lots of employees, and it’s possible some have made mistakes, said Stacy Cloyd, director of policy and administrative advocacy with the National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives. What should happen, Cloyd said, is that when the agency sees more than $2,000 in someone’s bank account ― the overall balance is all the agency sees ― it should investigate and then back off if the cash came from a tax rebate within the past year.

 “If the resource limit were $10,000 this would be a lot less of an issue,” Cloyd said. President Joe Biden has proposed updating the asset limit, but Democrats haven’t yet reintroduced their bill to change the policy. ...

Too Cute?

     I don't know how, if at all, this ever impacts Social Security but the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has issued an interesting opinion on remand from the Supreme Court in the case of CFPB v. Seila Law. The Court held that once the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Board knew that she could be removed from office by the President without cause, her tenure in office became constitutional. Moreover, she could ratify her prior actions taken before the Supreme Court opinion in Seila Law. Thus, the Supreme Court opinion in the Seila Law case becomes meaningless as far as Seila Law itself is concerned. I'm not sure how the Supreme Court will see this but it seems a bit too cute to me. How do you say that this is an important constitutional issue and then say, never mind, we're not going to let it have real world consequences?

     To this point, as far as I know, Andrew Saul hasn't acknowledged that Seila Law even applies to him, nor has the White House said anything on the subject. Has Social Security filed a brief on the Seila Law issue yet in federal court?

    

Message To SSA Employees On Reopening

      Federal News Network reports that Social Security sent the following message to its employees yesterday:

You may have seen the recent update from the CDC about people who are fully vaccinated. As we have said all along, we will continue to follow government-wide and CDC guidance. We are getting additional information from the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force and will update you as soon as possible about changes. We will also meet all applicable labor obligations.

Masks No Longer Required In Federal Offices

      From Government Executive:

Following the new public health guidance issued last week, the White House said fully vaccinated federal employees, contractors and visitors are no longer required to wear masks in federal buildings. 

The Office of Management and Budget sent all federal agencies an email to supplement the updated guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday, which said vaccinated individuals do not need masks outside and in most indoor settings ... 

“For now, this change related to masking is the only change to federal workplace COVID-19 safety guidance – maximum telework and workplace occupancy limits remain in place – but we will continue to update based on public health guidance,” said OMB’s message. “If you are not fully vaccinated (at least two weeks past your final dose), please continue to wear a mask consistent with the requirements set forth in your agency workplace safety plan.”  ... 

“OMB, through the President’s Management Council, with [the Office of Personnel Management] and [General Services Administration], will continue to work with your agencies on the planning already underway related to the federal personnel policies and work environment for after it is safe for increased return of federal workers to the physical workplace,” said the email ...

People Just Won't Behave Like Jason Fichnter Wants Them To

      Jason Fichtner is a mainstream Republican economist specializing in retirement issues. He worked at Social Security during the George W. Bush Administration. He's been associated with the Mercatus Center, a Koch brothers financed think tank. He's recently put out a "White Paper" on Creating A New Retirement Security Framework.  Fichtner identifies real problems. Traditional defined benefit retirement plans are going, going, gone. People aren't saving much for retirement. The money they do save isn't generating much safe retirement income because interest rates are so low. Annuities would help some but people are suspicious of them. Delaying going on Social Security would help but most folks don't wait until full retirement age much less until age 70. Social Security has long term financing problems. What are Fichtner's solutions: Try harder to persuade people to delay going on Social Security retirement benefits and try harder to persuade people to use annuities for retirement income.

     I think that Fichtner's solution to the problems he identifies are completely inadequate. In fact, I'd call them almost useless. We're not going to change people's retirement behavior in fundamental ways. People already have plenty of encouragement to retire later but they just don't want to. If people don't like annuities, they don't like annuities. You're not going to harangue people into liking annuities.

     I see only one workable solution to the problems that Fichtner identifies -- beef up Social Security. Improve its long term financing. Increase its benefits significantly.  That would work. Why can't Fichtner bring himself to mention improving Social Security even as a possibility? The man has on right wing blinders. He can't see the obvious because it doesn't fit into his ideology.

Andrew Saul Happy To Be Back In The Room Again

      From the Wall Street Journal:

... For the first time since the pandemic, Sotheby’s invited a few dozen collectors and dealers to bid in person rather than by phone or online during live streamed auctions. ...

Longtime collector Andrew Saul, commissioner of the Social Security Administration, arrived in a dark suit and peach tie and took a spot on the second row, thumbing through the miniature catalog left in his seat. He didn’t bid but showed up because he said, “It feels so good to be back in the room again.” ...

The Cry Isn’t Dying Down

      Ralph de Juliis, the head of the Union local that represents most Social Social employees, has penned an op ed for the Baltimore Sun on his favorite subject, the need to get rid of Andrew Saul as Commissioner of Social Security.  He’s not the only one who feels that way.

$200,000 Embezzlement Of Social Security Benefits

      From a press release:

Acting United States Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams announced that Jonnel Perkins, 43, of Philadelphia, PA, pleaded guilty to the charge of embezzlement by a bank employee.

According to court documents filed today, the defendant was employed as a Retail Relationship Banker at a bank located in Philadelphia. While she was employed in this position, the Social Security Administration (SSA) conducted a routine audit which identified that a customer of the bank branch where Perkins worked was likely deceased but still receiving monthly electronic benefits from the SSA. The SSA suspended the payments to this account, but due to regulation had to wait seven years before the approximately $200,000 in accumulated benefit overpayments by the SSA could be reclaimed.

In the months prior to the time when the reclamation could be initiated, between June and December 2019, Perkins withdrew all of the funds from this dormant account. A subsequent investigation determined that the customer whose account from which the defendant withdrew funds had been deceased since 1999. ...

A Poll Just For Those Who Represent Social Security Claimants

 

find bike trails

Not Much Happening At Social Security Subcommittee

      The following is a list of the Subcommittees of the House Ways and Means Committee and the number of hearings they've held since the beginning of this Congress in January:

• Health -- 2
  

• Oversight -- 3
  

• Social Security -- 0
  

• Select Revenue Measures -- 2
  

• Trade -- 2
  

• Worker & Family Support -- 2

Liberal Overcaution May Cause Employee Resistance To Reopening Social Security Offices

      From The Atlantic:

Lurking among the jubilant Americans venturing back out to bars and planning their summer-wedding travel is a different group: liberals who aren’t quite ready to let go of pandemic restrictions. For this subset, diligence against COVID-19 remains an expression of political identity—even when that means overestimating the disease’s risks or setting limits far more strict than what public-health guidelines permit. In surveys, Democrats express more worry about the pandemic than Republicans do. People who describe themselves as “very liberal” are distinctly anxious. This spring, after the vaccine rollout had started, a third of very liberal people were “very concerned” about becoming seriously ill from COVID-19, compared with a quarter of both liberals and moderates, according to a study conducted by the University of North Carolina political scientist Marc Hetherington. And 43 percent of very liberal respondents believed that getting the coronavirus would have a “very bad” effect on their life, compared with a third of liberals and moderates. ...

For many progressives, extreme vigilance was in part about opposing Donald Trump. Some of this reaction was born of deeply felt frustration with how he handled the pandemic. It could also be knee-jerk. “If he said, ‘Keep schools open,’ then, well, we’re going to do everything in our power to keep schools closed,” Monica Gandhi, a professor of medicine at UC San Francisco, told me. Gandhi describes herself as “left of left,” but has alienated some of her ideological peers because she has advocated for policies such as reopening schools and establishing a clear timeline for the end of mask mandates. “We went the other way, in an extreme way, against Trump’s politicization,” Gandhi said. ...

“Those who are vaccinated on the left seem to think overcaution now is the way to go, which is making people on the right question the effectiveness of the vaccines,” Gandhi told me. Public figures and policy makers who try to dictate others’ behavior without any scientific justification for doing so erode trust in public health and make people less willing to take useful precautions. The marginal gains of staying shut down might not justify the potential backlash. ...

      It's obvious that CDC guidelines will change rapidly over the next three months. Let's not fight the science because we're still mad with Donald Trump. We can't keep cowering in fear forever.

     If you're one who believes that we need to remain cloistered even after we're fully vaccinated and the CDC says we can start to resume normal life, what's your endgame? What will be enough to persuade you that it's safe to eat in restaurants, travel, visit in person with family and friends, return to normal workplaces, etc? 

     Covid-19 will never completely go away. The vaccines who have are extremely effective. Like influenza, meningitis, salmonella and other infectious diseases Covid-19 will always be some threat but the world is full of potential threats.

Twenty Minutes To Answer The Phone In 2021

      Here are some numbers from Social Security on how long it's been taking them to answer calls on their 800 number. You can see that it's gone up dramatically over the years. It's currently around 20 minutes. I don't whether they factor in the calls where the system eventually hangs up on the caller. Click on each image to view full size.