Jan 1, 2022
Dec 31, 2021
Dec 30, 2021
Thanks, Donald Trump!
From GOBankingRates.com:
Employers and self-employed individuals who chose to defer paying part of their 2020 Social Security tax obligation [because then President Donald Trump, as part of his re-election campaign, gave them the option or because they were federal employees who had it forced upon them by Trump] must make a payment by Jan. 3, 2022. While many received reminder billing notices from the IRS, the agency also noted that those affected are still required to make a tax payment, even if they never received a bill.
“As part of the COVID relief provided during 2020, employers and
self-employed people could choose to put off paying the employer’s share
of their eligible Social Security tax liability, normally 6.2% of
wages,” according to the IRS reminder. “Half of that deferral is now due
on January 3, 2022, and the other half on January 3, 2023.” ...
Dec 29, 2021
Backlog Starts To Slowly Creep Up As Number Of ALJs On Duty And ALJ Productivity Both Decline
The report shown below was obtained from Social Security by the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) and published in its newsletter, which is not available online to non-members. It contains basic operating statistics for Social Security's Office of Hearings Operations (OHO).
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Dec 28, 2021
IMAGEN How Skeptical I Am
The National Association of Disability Examiners (NADE), a voluntary organization of the personnel who make initial and reconsideration determinations on disability claims for the Social Security Administration, has released its Winter 2021 Newsletter. Among other things it discusses a video conference held in September, particularly a presentation on IMAGEN, which is:
... a tool for reviewing evidence. It has a search engine for specific types of data like pathology reports, diagnoses and listing level labs. It recognizes synonyms, acronyms and abbreviations. It can suggest listings for analysis. In a case with thousands of pages, it can scan for whatever you ask it to. It’s been rolled out in 17 states so far. ...
When claimant medical and related evidence is received, IMAGEN transforms the evidence in real-time, into machine-readable text that enables enhanced search capabilities and intelligent analysis of medical record content. The medical evidence is analyzed to identify key clinical findings using a robust clinical vocabulary specialized for SSA's disability adjudication needs. This enables the identification of severe medical impairments (step 2 of sequential evaluation) which are then mapped directly to SSA's established diagnosis codes and SSA's Disability Listings (step 3 of sequential evaluation). Specific dated encounters and reports are also identified in the evidence, allowing the user to organize the evidence by section types (inpatient, out-patient), report types (MRI, Pathology, Post-operative, etc.), and chronologically. In upcoming releases, IMAGEN will be able to identify content in the medical record that relates directly to the claim-ant's physical function and mobility, as used in steps 4 and 5 of the disability sequential evaluation. IMAGEN currently supports Initial and Reconsideration level disability claims. ...
IMAGEN has a cadre of representatives from multiple components, including ODP, ODD, DDS, OHO, and OQR that provide feedback, which allows the IMAGEN team to continue to refine and improve IMAGEN's user interface, predictive analytics and other features. ...
Dec 27, 2021
It’s Time
Andrew Saul was removed as Commissioner of Social Security on July 9, 2021. There has not yet been a nomination of a new Commissioner. I have no prediction for when the nomination will come but I think it’s time.
Dec 26, 2021
Dec 25, 2021
Dec 24, 2021
Dec 23, 2021
Employee Union Shocked That Anyone Would Think They're Dragging Their Feet On Reopening
From Government Executive:
The Social Security Administration is again embroiled in a spat with one of its labor unions, this time over the agency’s plans to bring employees back to physical work sites. ...
Rich Couture, president of AFGE Council 215, which represents Office of Hearing Operations employees, and chief negotiator for AFGE on the agency’s reentry plan, said much of the holdup comes down to the agency’s insistence that all reentry negotiations take place at the national level and the agency’s reentry plan is too vague, given the myriad of job descriptions and working conditions across the agency. ...
“AFGE has got around 45,000 bargaining unit employees spread across virtually every component of SSA,” he said. “The positions and work they do, whether they see the public or not, and the functions that each of these components serve are very, very different, and even within the components you have subcomponents and divisions where the work can be different. There’s not a one-size-fits-all approach we can take with how the reentry process will operate, proceed and affect employees based on their position and the work they do.”
Couture said that making negotiations more difficult is distrust over whether the agency is being transparent about its plans. Union officials suspect that the agency actually has more specific reentry plans for each of its components, but is simply withholding that information in order to gain an upper hand in bargaining. ...
“SSA has been completely transparent with the labor unions representing our employees and informed them that there is only one agency-wide reentry plan, which applies to all SSA components,” [Darren] Lutz [a Social Security spokesperson] said, “The resumption of a limited, finite number of in-person hearings for certain aged cases to be conducted by non-bargaining unit administrative law judges is distinct from the agency-level reentry plan and it is not part of reentry for bargaining unit employees.” ...
In a Dec. 17 letter to Kijakazi, AFGE National President Everett Kelley escalated the issue, citing the acting director's desire for a “reset” in labor-management relations at the agency, expressed in a conversation last month.
“In the weeks since that conversation, I am sorry to say that labor relations at SSA have not improved at all, either in tone or in substance,” Kelley said. “Collective bargaining over reentry has been characterized by a lack of transparency, unfounded accusations of delays on the part of the union, and perhaps most concerning, an apparent refusal to engage in bargaining reentry at either the component or local level in spite of the fact that circumstances surrounding reentry vary so much both in terms of operational considerations as well as community transmission data.” ...
Let's state the obvious. The union wants Social Security offices closed FOREVER. They want their employees to work from home FOREVER. They have zero concern for what that would mean for the public. They want reopening stalled FOREVER by endless negotiations. There are real public health threats that need to be dealt with but what the union wants to accomplish goes well beyond any legitimate public health concerns.
The union needs to get realistic. The public isn't going to tolerate keeping Social Security offices shuttered forever. Democrats are sympathetic to unions in general but there are limits and I think those limits will become more and more obvious if this effort at stalling continues.
Dec 22, 2021
Not In Any Rush To Reopen
A message from Social Security:
We want to give you an update on our preparations for returning our employees to local Social Security offices, a process called reentry.
You may have seen a proposed reentry date of January 3, 2022 in the draft reentry plan that we provided to our unions, or in the media. While some executives reentered on December 1, we have not set a reentry date for the rest of the agency.
The best way to reach us is online at SSA.gov, or by calling our National 800 Number or a local Social Security office. At this time, please remember that we can only provide in-person service by appointment only for limited, critical issues. And we continue to hold voluntary hearings by online video and phone. We are taking steps to increase in-person help for people unable to complete their business online or by phone.
We will keep you updated on our reentry process.
Dec 21, 2021
Headcount Stays At Historically Low Number
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has posted updated numbers showing the headcount of employees at each agency. Here are Social Security's numbers as of June with earlier headcount numbers for comparison:
- September 59,808
- June 2021 59,707
- 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
Dec 20, 2021
The Idea That SSA Employees Would Retire Rather Than Be Vaccinated Was Always Ridiculous
From Federal News Network:
The Social Security Administration continued its trend of offering early retirements to eligible employees in 2021, though early data suggests the agency had relatively few takers. ...
About 6,800 SSA employees were eligible for an early retirement this year. About 175 employees, or slightly more than 2% of those eligible, have accepted the offer to date, an agency spokeswoman said in an email to Federal News Network. ...
Federal employees had until Nov. 22 to be fully vaccinated or submit a medical or religious exception request, and the vast majority of SSA employees have complied with the mandate. ...
At least 90.3% of the SSA workforce has at least one vaccine dose, and 97.7% of the agency’s employees were either partially vaccinated or had a medical or religious exception request pending or approved, according to data the Office of Management and Budget provided last week. ...
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