Currently, the Social Security Administration has 138 job openings posted. This is the most for the agency in some time. However, as high a number as this may seem, Social Security's overall employment is dropping. They are not hiring as many people as they are losing by attrition. Office of Personnel Management figures on total agency employment are only available as of December 2006. When the March 2007 figures are released, they are certain to show a dramatic drop in employment, at a time when the agency is struggling to keep up with its workload.
Jun 7, 2007
Another NY Newspaper On Hearing Backlogs
The Post-Standard of central New York and the Press Republican of Northeastern New York are running an article about Social Security's hearing backlogs. New York Senator Shumer is quoted as saying that Social Security needs another $1 billion to hire sufficient staff.
Social Security Subcommittee Statements Available -- Recording Not Available?
The House Social Security Subcommittee has posted the written statements of witnesses at today's hearing on employment eligibility verification systems, but no recording of the hearing. I have gotten a report that there are technical problems which may prevent the Subcommittee from ever posting a recording of the hearing.
Remember that however technical and boring this hearing topic may seem, that if Social Security has to start issuing biometric Social Security cards that the agency will rapidly become a very different place with a much expanded staff. Issuing Social Security cards may become the main task of the Social Security Administration and Social Security field offices may start to resemble drivers license offices.
The only statement from a government witness about additional staffing needs at Social Security came from an official of the Department of Homeland Security who said this in his written statment:
It is striking that the Social Security officials who testified did not mention implementation difficulties in their written statements and, indeed, that relatively low level officials were sent to testify about something that may have a profound effect upon the Social Security Administration. There seems to have been a deliberate effort to downplay implementation difficulties.
Note that the Commissioner of Social Security has his own full time White House Liaison -- for the first time in the history of the Social Security Administration, as best I can tell. The immigration bill is a high priority for the White House. A detailed assessment of Social Security's implementation difficulties for a new employment eligibility verification system may not be what the White House wanted the Subcommittee to hear.
Remember that however technical and boring this hearing topic may seem, that if Social Security has to start issuing biometric Social Security cards that the agency will rapidly become a very different place with a much expanded staff. Issuing Social Security cards may become the main task of the Social Security Administration and Social Security field offices may start to resemble drivers license offices.
The only statement from a government witness about additional staffing needs at Social Security came from an official of the Department of Homeland Security who said this in his written statment:
According to SSA officials, the number of new staff required would depend on both the legislative requirements for implementing mandatory EEV and the effectiveness of efforts USCIS has under way to decrease the need for individuals to visit SSA field offices. For this reason, SSA officials told us they have not yet estimated how many additional staff they would need for a mandatory EEV.Tyler Moran of the National Immigration Law Center and Sue Meisinger of the Human Resource Initiative for a Legal Workforce, who testified at the hearing, cautioned about Social Security's implementation difficulties at a time when Social Security field offices are already overburdened. Why is someone from Department of Homeland Security and these other witnesse talking about this, but not the witesses from Social Security itself?
It is striking that the Social Security officials who testified did not mention implementation difficulties in their written statements and, indeed, that relatively low level officials were sent to testify about something that may have a profound effect upon the Social Security Administration. There seems to have been a deliberate effort to downplay implementation difficulties.
Note that the Commissioner of Social Security has his own full time White House Liaison -- for the first time in the history of the Social Security Administration, as best I can tell. The immigration bill is a high priority for the White House. A detailed assessment of Social Security's implementation difficulties for a new employment eligibility verification system may not be what the White House wanted the Subcommittee to hear.
Jun 6, 2007
Memo On Streamlined Folder Assembly
CONNECT has obtained and posted a copy of Social Security's memo concerning "streamlined" folder assembly for hearing offices. While the memo "authorizes" this streamlined mode and encourages Administrative Law Judges to cooperate, it does not make this mandatory. There will be hearing offices and individual ALJs who refuse to accept this.
I do not understand why Social Security does not just release this sort of thing to begin with. It is not a secret. It is going to leak out quickly anyway. Just post it on the website for everyone to read.
I do not understand why Social Security does not just release this sort of thing to begin with. It is not a secret. It is going to leak out quickly anyway. Just post it on the website for everyone to read.
No Streaming Video On June 7 Social Security Subcommittee Hearing
It looks like I will not be missing the streaming video of the June 7 Social Security Subcommittee hearing anyway -- since it will not be available in streaming video or any other live format. The Subcommittee may make it available later in an audio format.
Allsup and AAPD?
I am not certain what this means. Allsup represents many Social Security disability claimants, mostly at the behest of long term disability insurance carriers who are interested in getting their insureds on benefits to offset the long term disability benefits they have to pay. However, Allsup is also interested in the retail business of representing Social Security disability claimants one at a time. Allsup may have entered into some sort of relationship with the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), which bills itself as 100,000 member organization. According to a press release from Allsup some of the leadership of AAPD made a trip to Allsup headquarters. AAPD may be a big deal, but I have not previously heard of them. AAPD's website contains a few -- not many -- links suggesting that they have relationships with some other for profit businesses. I do not see it on Allsup's website at the moment, but in the past Allsup offered a cash bonus to anyone who steered a Social Security disability case their way.
By the way, Allsup's website touts a 97% success rate.
By the way, Allsup's website touts a 97% success rate.
Jun 5, 2007
Witness List For Social Security Subcommittee Hearing -- And, Can I Get A Volunteer?
The House Social Security Subcommittee has issued the following tentative witness list for its hearing on Thursday, June 7 on Employment Eligibility Verification Systems at Social Security.
The hearing will be available in streaming video. Unfortunately, I will be trying to earn a living while this Congressional hearing is going on. Would anyone be interested in watching and writing up a summary that I can post? I will be happy to give credit for this or to post it without a named source. If interested, please use the Feedback form on the right side of the page.
Frederick G. Streckewald, Assistant Deputy Commissioner for Program Policy Office of Disability and Income Security Programs, Social Security AdministrationThis may sound awfully boring, but it is important. If, as now appears very possible, everyone in the country will have to go to their local Social Security office to get a new Social Security card card which includes a photograph and will have to do so on a regular basis in the future, the Social Security Administration will be dramatically transformed. The manpower requirements for such a role will certainly be in the tens of thousands. I know there are many issues associated with "employment verification", but I hope at least one of the witnesses will focus upon the impact upon the Social Security Administration of using the Social Security card as a national ID card.
Steve Schaeffer, Assistant Inspector General for the Office of Audit, Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General
Richard Stana, Director of Homeland Security and Justice, Government Accountability Office
Tyler Moran, Employment Policy Director, National Immigration Law Center, Boise, Idaho
Angelo I. Amador, Director of Immigration Policy, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Sue Meisinger, The Human Resource Initiative for a Legal Workforce, Society for Human Resource Management, Alexandria, Virginia
Peter Neumann, Principal Scientist, Computer Science Laboratory, SRI International, Menlo Park, California, on behalf of U.S. Public Policy Committee of the Association for Computing Machinery
Marc Rotenberg, Executive Director, Electronic Privacy Information Center
The hearing will be available in streaming video. Unfortunately, I will be trying to earn a living while this Congressional hearing is going on. Would anyone be interested in watching and writing up a summary that I can post? I will be happy to give credit for this or to post it without a named source. If interested, please use the Feedback form on the right side of the page.
Schenectady Daily Gazette On Backlogs
Some excerpts from a Schenectady Daily Gazette article. No link is possible since there is no on-line edition of the paper. At the rate we are going every newspaper in the country will do a story along these lines.
Twenty-three-year-old Christina Doty waited three years to hear that she would be receiving a monthly check from the federal government for the rest of her life, and would never have to work again....
"It was hard to keep a job," recalled Doty, a Schenectady resident whose husband is also disabled. "With my education level, nobody wanted me. My bipolar disorder and anxiety made it hard for me to be around a lot of people. Standing for eight hours a day was painful."
Yet her application for Supplemental Security Income ... had been denied three times. She kept appealing, but the wait, which began in 2004, seemed interminable. ...
The Social Security Administration acknowledges that the wait is too long, and that they are trying to find ways to expedite the application process and reduce the ever-mounting backlog of cases waiting for a hearing decision. ...
"It's all too high," said Mark Lassiter, a spokesman for the Social Security Administration.
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