May 27, 2007

Social Security Hearing Backlogs Draw Criticism In Seattle

I had earlier posted about the story that Seattle television station KING did on the hearing backlogs at Social Security. Readers might want to take a look at the often emotional responses that story received on the KING website. Has the depth of the anger and outrage over these backlogs has registered with Commissioner Astrue?

Public relations and a Republican Congress that was willing to look the other way allowed former Commissioner Barnhart to get through her years as Commissioner without treating this as a crisis. Michael Astrue is nowhere near as good as Barnhart at public relations, but it is way too late for public relations to work anyway. A Congress controlled by Democrats is not going to let go of this. Sooner or later there is going to be a crash program to get these backlogs down. Michael Astrue could try to get out in front but at the moment, it looks as if he will have to be dragged kicking and screaming into creating a crash program, most likely with statutorily imposed deadlines, or at least the threat of them.

May 26, 2007

Buffalo News Editorial On Backlogs

The Buffalo News has run articles and editiorials about the terrible delays experienced by Social Security disability claimants in getting hearings on their cases. Here are a couple of excerpts from an editorial the newspaper is running today:
Bow your heads and pray tonight that you never have to claim Social Security disability benefits. Not only would that mean injury, but injury compounded — by the long stretch of years it can take to collect. ...

Much, if not all, of this despair could be alleviated if Congress would stop cutting into Social Security Administration funding, leaving the agency with too few resources to keep up with the flood of applicants. Buffalo is one of the worst, as claimants typically wait nearly two years for an appeals hearing.

Social Security Press Release For Memorial Day Weekend

From a Social Security press release:

Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, wants active duty personnel and their families to know that Social Security has procedures in place to expedite survivors applications and disability claims that apply to any injured military service member, regardless of where the injury occurred.

“I want to assure the brave men and women of our Armed Forces and their families that they will not have to wait for these needed benefits,” said Commissioner Astrue. “The special process is just one way Social Security can show our military personnel how much we appreciate their service.”

May 25, 2007

Monthly Statistical Packages Released

Social Security's Office of Policy has issued its monthly compilation of statistics on Title II and Title XVI of the Social Security Act.

Get E-Mails From Social Security About Program Developments

The Social Security Administration has now set up a convenient central point for registration to receive e-mail delivery of various agency newsletters and reports.

Social Security Releases 2005 Statistical Report

That is no typo. The Social Security Administration just released its 2005 Annual Statistical Report, a compilation of just about every Social Security statistic you could ask for.

Contracting News?

Perhaps someone can advise me whether the notice reproduced in part below that Social Security recently posted is a big deal. Has Social Security been contracting out mailroom services at its central offices in the past? If this is new, will any Social Security employees be displaced? I would think that mailroom services for Social Security offices would be a major endeavor. I recall hearing that mail comes into Social Security's central offices literally by the trainload.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) intends to issue a solicitation (Request for Proposal/RFP) for a contractor to provide staffing to operate SSA Headquarters mailroom operations services located in Baltimore, Maryland (and to SSA components located in outlying locations). The contractor selected for contract award shall furnish all management, supervision, labor, required to collect, process and deliver mail.

Hit Map


Above is a map provided by Google Analytics showing the geographic location of U.S. visitors to this blog over the last three weeks or so, since I began using that service. The map does not show every last hit. I have trouble interpreting the information provided with the map, but I think it only shows locations with more than a few hits. This map does not show the geographic location of visitors from the ssa.gov domain since May 8. On May 8 I posted that this blog was receiving about one third of its visitors from the Baltimore area. Later that same day some obscure change was made in Social Security's computer network to block the relaying of geographic location information from computers accessing the internet from the ssa.gov domain. As best I can tell, it is unusual for a domain to block the relaying of geographic information. I should say that there were signs of other changes at Social Security's domain at the time, such as a switch from labeling the domain SSA.gov to labeling it ssa.gov, so the geographic change may have had nothing to do with this blog. Of course, this map still shows a lot of hits from the Baltimore area since it still shows hits from home computers.