Number Of Employees At Social Security -- Or Would The Last One Out Please Turn Out The Lights

The Office of Personnel Management has just released numbers on the number of employees at the Social Security Administration as of March 2007. Here are the numbers with some comparison points:

• March 2007 61,867
• December 2006 63,410
• September 2006 63,647
• June 2006 64,814
• March 2006 64,297
• March 2005 66,312

The Social Security Administration lost 7% of its workforce in two years-- just at the point at which the agency was beginning to experience a surge in disability claims caused by the aging of the baby boomer generation as well as a dramatic increase in its Medicare responsibilities. Why would anyone be surprised that the service that Social Security gives the public has gone to hell? Why was Jo Anne Barnhart, who was Commissioner of Social Security until early this year, not making an issue of this? Why is Michael Astrue, the current Commissioner, not making more of an issue of it?

Obey Asks For Budget Support

From the Capitol Insider put out by the Disability Policy Collaboration:

The House Appropriations Chairman, Congressman David Obey (D-WI), met with human services advocates to enlist support for the House appropriations bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education [which includes Social Security]. Telling advocates “Eleven years of neglect can’t be undone in one year,” Obey said that compromises in the bill were made in order to try to get the bipartisan votes to pass the bill and override a potential Presidential veto. He asked that the human services community support the bill “as-is,” recognizing that while increased funding is proposed for hundreds of programs, many programs will still not even be restored to their FY 2004 funding levels.

Interesting SSN Change

From today's Federal Register:

SSA is proposing to change the way that we assign SSNs. We intend to eliminate the geographical significance of the first three digits of the SSN (the ``area number'') by no longer allocating entire area numbers for assignment to individuals in specific States. Instead, the SSN will be randomly assigned from the remaining pool of available SSNs, and the first three digits of the SSN will no longer have any geographical significance. We believe that by changing the way we assign the SSN we will ensure that there will be a reliable supply of SSNs for years to come. Additionally, we believe that this will also help reduce opportunities for identity theft and SSN fraud and misuse.

A couple of questions come to mind. Why does Social Security need to publish something in the Federal Register about this? Issuing Social Security numbers on a geographic basis was never required by regulation. It was merely a matter of administrative convenience in the days before widespread computerization. Second, how does this help prevent identity theft? Anyone who knows the system can tell from my Social Security number that I was living in a certain part of North Carolina when I received my Social Security number. So what? How would that knowledge help someone in a criminal enterprise?

It seems to me that there may be more practical reasons behind this. A computer system that has to assign Social Security numbers both geographically and randomly is more complicated than one which assigns Social Security numbers merely randomly across the entire country.

This may sound silly, but I am already nostalgic for geographically assigned Social Security numbers.

No Early Intervention Funding

From today's Federal Register:

In the Federal Register notice of January 29, 2007 (72 FR 4049), we announced a funding opportunity, as follows: Early Identification and Intervention Demonstration Request for Applications; Program: Cooperative Agreements for Early Identification and Intervention Demonstrations (EIID); Program Announcement No. SSA-OPDR-07-01. We are canceling that announcement now because the goals of the cooperative agreement to design and implement developmental screening models and improve the early identification of children with delays and/or disabilities are no longer feasible due to Agency budget limitations.

I am happy to see this. The Social Security Administration has no business administering grants to begin with. It is not the agency's role. Under current budget circumstances, it is just ridiculous. I have seen no evidence that any grant issued by Social Security has ever produced any benefit for the American people.

Legislation To Speed Up Social Security Disability Benefits For Veterans

From the Baltimore Sun:

U.S. Rep. John Sarbanes of Maryland has introduced legislation that will streamline the process in which disabled war veterans receive government benefits. ...

The legislation, which has 36 co-sponsors ... will allow a veteran who receives a 100 percent disability rating from the VA to receive Social Security benefits quicker than the prolonged waiting period now in place.

An Image From 1965

Upcoming Meetings and CLE

• July 13, 2007, SSI Coalition meeting, Boston, MA
  
• July 16-17, 2007, American Association for Justice (formerly ATLA) CLE, Chicago, IL
  
• July 23, 2007, Legal Aid Society, Nashville, TN
• July 24-26, 2007, Association of Administrative Law Judges Educational Conference, Providence, RI
• August 24, 2007, Social Security Advisory Board meeting, Washington, DC
  
• August 9-10, 2007, Retirement Research Consortium Annual Conference (funded by SSA), Washington, DC
• August 24, 2007, Social Security Advisory Board Meeting, Washington, DC
• September 10-15, 2007, International Social Security Association General Assembly, Moscow, Russia
• September 14, 2007, SSI Coalition meeting, Boston, MA
• September 15-20, 2007, NADE National Conference, Sioux Falls, SD
• October 17-20, 2007, NOSSCR CLE, St. Louis, MO
• November 16, 2007, SSI Coalition meeting, Boston, MA
  
• November 30, 2007, Legal Services of New York Legal Support Unit CLE, New York, NY
• April 8-11, 2008 NADE Regional Conference, Austin, TX
• April 21-24, 2008, NADE Regional Conference, Los Angeles, CA
  
• May 5-6, 2008 NADE Regional Conference, Madison, WI
• May 13-16 2008, NADE Regional Conference, Birmingham, AL
  
• May 14-18, 2008, NADE Regional Conference, Annapolis, MD
  
• June 4-7, 2008 NOSSCR CLE, Miami, FL
• October 15-18, 2008 NOSSCR CLE, Century City, CA

If you know of others I have not listed, please use the feedback button on the right side of the page to let me know.

Death Of Bill Bredenberg

]From the Florida Times-Union of Jacksonville:

Karl W. "Bill" Bredenberg, one of the founders of the Social Security Administration, died Tuesday at his Jacksonville home from multiple myeloma. He was 95.

Mr. Bredenberg served in some of the agency's top national posts. He oversaw implementation of Medicare in 1966 before coming to Jacksonville in 1970 to manage the Jacksonville office and be close to his family. ...

In an interview with the Times-Union when he retired in 1972, Mr. Bredenberg recalled there was strong resistance to the new federal program many saw as foreign to American traditions.

He recalled processing one of the first survivor claims under Social Security in 1940 from a death that occurred just a few minutes after benefits first became available.

Mr. Bredenberg served as manager of several district offices and was in charge of the New York-New Jersey region and later the Atlantic region covering the Southeast. Under the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, he was responsible for coordinating all Health, Education and Welfare activities across the nation.

He became deputy assistant commissioner for Social Security and played a key role in reorganizing the field force. With the advent of Medicare, Mr. Bredenberg set up a control center to monitor problems.