Plans To Jumpstart The Next Fiscal Year Starting To Take Shape

From the minutes of a January 29, 2007 telephone conference of the Board of Directors of the National Council of Social Security Management Associations (NCSSMA), an organization of Social Security management personnel:

Rick [Warsinskey, NCSSMA President] had conversation on the FY 2008 budget with Roger McDonnell [SSA Associate Commissioner for Public Services and Operations Support] voicing our concerns with the Field Offices receiving adequate resources. ... Roger said one major problem is that SSA needs to have enough money to cover any FY 2007 hires in next year’s budget. The Agency could hire near the end of the year saving dollars for this year but would then have to pay the new employees’ entire salaries and benefits next year. If the President’s budget submission for FY 2008 is insufficient, then SSA could be facing continued budget problems for next year.

The idea being expressed is that if Social Security has enough assurance that the fiscal year 2008 budget (that fiscal year begins on October 1, 2007) will be considerably higher than the budget for the current fiscal year that Social Security can start the process of hiring more personnel well before the end of this fiscal year and might be able to have some of those new employees start even before the end of this fiscal year.

One other thing that was not in the minutes of that meeting, but would have been obvious to all involved, is that if Social Security has a considerably bigger budget for the next fiscal year, that there will be a huge amount of overtime authorized for Social Security employees beginning on October 1. In years past Social Security has relied greatly (perhaps too much) on overtime to get its work done. This fiscal year there will be little or no money for overtime. This, along with attrition of employees who cannot be replaced, will cause backlogs to increase significantly throughout the agency between now and September 30. If the new budget is considerably higher, the recovery plan would have to be a lot of new employees hired as quickly as possible coupled with a lot of overtime. This can make things better in Social Security's field offices and payment centers fairly quickly, but full recovery will still take a lot more money than is likely to be available in the next budget.

Full recovery for the Office of Disability Adjudication and Review (ODAR), where the Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) work, is going to take much longer. Quickly working down the backlogs at ODAR to more "normal" levels (to, say a six to eight month backlog in hearing requests, which, really is still higher than it ought to be) might take a doubling or tripling of ODAR staff. That would be almost impossible to do even if the money were there. Realistically, working down the ODAR backlog will take several years, even with good budgets

Cleveland Plain Dealer Editorial On Backlogs

The Cleveland Plain Dealer has an editorial up about Social Security's backlogs. They take a brave stand against the backlogs.

Here is an interesting sentence from the editorial: "Critics who talk about dynamiting the system and starting anew might just have it right." This is an example of a concern which I have. If Social Security becomes closely linked in the public mind with poor public service, the survival of the whole concept of social insurance is in danger in the United States. Frustration with the Social Security Administration itself could undermine Social Security as a concept. I do not think that those who wish to privatize Social Security are involved in some dark scheme to undermine confidence in the concept of social insurance by crippling public service at the Social Security Administration. They are indifferent to public service at Social Security, but the effect is the same.

NADE Newsletter For Winter 2007

The National Association of Disability Examiners (NADE), an organization of workers employed in making disability determinations for Social Security, has issued its Winter 2007 newsletter.

It is interesting to note that the NADE president, Chuck Schimmels, recently spoke to the Association of Administrative Law Judges.

On another vein, here is a quote from the newsletter about eDIB, the paperless system that Social Security is struggling to implement:

eDib is still a work in progress and requires ongoing refinements, upgrades and improvements frequently needed to make the system work as efficiently and effectively as possible. The impact on the system as a whole when these changes are made is unpredictable, and currently results in a slowing or shutting down of the system, or parts thereof.

Since Disability Determination Services (DDSs) process over 2.5 million cases on an annual basis, any shut down or slow down of the case processing system equates to a significant loss of production capacity.

It is not surprising to hear that implementing a new system is difficult. The thing is that when an agency is struggling with huge backlogs due to inadequate staffing, implementation of a major new system will inevitably make the backlogs worse.

An Image From 1947

Fraud In Kansas City

From KSHB-TV:

Thomas W. Bradley, 61, of Kansas City, waived his right to a grand jury and pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Gary A. Fenner this morning to a federal information that charges him with Social Security fraud.

By pleading guilty today, Bradley admitted that he received more than $30,000 in Social Security disability insurance payments to which he was not entitled. Bradley applied for disability payments on Jan. 3, 2001, claiming inability to work due to a back condition. After undergoing back surgery, Bradley returned to work at Metropolitan Transportation Services without notifying the Social Security Administration. Bradley continued working for more than two years while receiving disability payments.

Wall Street Journal Poll On Social Security

From a press release issued by the Wall Street Journal and Harris Interactive:

A new Wall Street Journal Online/Harris Interactive Personal Finance Poll found that despite the general uncertainty regarding the solvency of Social Security, a majority (65%) of respondents expect Social Security to be a primary source of income during retirement. However, as the age of respondents falls, the proportion of respondents who expect to rely on Social Security also declines. Forty one percent of those ages 18 to 34 say that Social Security will be a primary source as compared to 84 percent over the age of 55. Furthermore, only those ages 18 to 34 (59%) expect to rely on 401K plans more than Social Security, while those ages 35 to 44 expect to rely on Social Security and 401K plans equally (60% each).

Astrue Statement To Senate Special Aging Committee

Michael Astrue has been on Capitol Hill a lot. He testified at his Senate confirmation hearing and then at a House Social Security Subcommittee hearing just a few days after being confirmed. He also testified at a Senate Special Aging Committee hearing a day after the House Social Security Subcommittee hearing. His prepared statement for the Committee is very close to, if not identical to, his prepared statement for the House Social Security Subcommittee.

The hearing must have been an impromptu affair. It appears that the Senate Special Aging Committee did not even bother to send out a press release about the hearing.

AARP Poll On Social Security

From The Star Tribune of Minneapolis (but I cannot find anything about it on the AARP website):

A majority of Americans support potentially painful proposals to increase taxes and reduce benefits in order to ensure Social Security's long-term financial future, according to a poll released Wednesday.

"I think the public is ahead of Congress and the Washington debate when it comes to Social Security," said John Rother, policy director for AARP, the nation's largest organization for Americans 50 and older, which conducted the survey. ...

The poll found a strong bipartisan willingness to consider a range of changes, Rother said. A majority of respondents supported proposals which, taken together, would solve Social Security's long-term financial problem.