How Much Hiring Is Social Security Doing?

The Social Security Administration currently has 26 job openings listed on USAJobs. Alyssa Rosenburg on Fedblog reports that as of Friday 46,990 job openings were listed on USAJobs for all federal agencies. USAJobs is not the only way that the Social Security Administration or other agencies announces job openings. Still, it looks like there may be some differences in approach between Social Security and other agencies. How much hiring is Social Security doing? How many job openings does Social Security have? Does anyone know?

Good News For One Claimant

From the Lake County News-Sun:

Erma Graham worked when she was able to work, even after she was diagnosed with manic depression, even with chronic back pain, even after uterine fibroids caused her to hemorrhage every day as she stood deep-frying chicken in hot restaurant kitchens.

... [T]he day came when she was just too weak to work as a fast-food cook and home health-care aide. That's the day, in October 2004, that she first filed for Social Security disability benefits. Her claim was quickly denied. She applied again in 2005 and again in 2006. ...

Graham persevered, with a friend's encouragement, even after an attorney suggested her case was unwinnable. Acting on her own in 2007, she filed an appeal. Last October, four years after she first asked for help, a hearing office in Evanston finally heard her case ... She received word of a favorable ruling in November. In January, she received her first disability check.

Graham is one of more than 13 million Social Security disability beneficiaries across the nation. While the federal government pays $12 billion in disability benefits each month, it fails to pay millions more because of huge appeal backlogs. The Chicago region has an average of 776 cases pending per ALJ, the second-highest pending caseload nationally, according to the National Organization of Social Security Claimants' Representatives.

But the waits are shorter for Evanston, where all northern Chicagoland and Lake and McHenry county claims are heard. That office ranks 13 out of 143 hearing offices nationwide in turnaround time. Its average processing time is 463 days. ...

But Evanston's efficiency received an odd pat on the back from the federal government, which sent Evanston's 10 judges 2,000 more cases from backlogged Flint, Mich., the slowest hearing office in the nation.

Secret Law

From a recently issued section of Social Security's Program Operations Manual Series (POMS):

The RPC [Request for Program Consultation] website [http://ssahost.ba.ssa.gov/erpc/index.aspx] is supported by database management software that captures and maintains RPC data entered by the Disability Determination Services (DDS) and the Office of Disability Programs (ODP) users on the DDS RPC and ODP RPC Resolution templates.

The RPC database creates a repository of policy issues that can be used as a reference by all adjudicative components.

Of course, the link to the RPC website only works if you are on Social Security's network. We have a "repository" of Social Security policy decisions to be used by all parts of the Social Security Administration, but the public cannot access it. Does something sound odd about that?

Privatization Fantasies

From the Wall Street Journal:

On a conference call with reporters Wednesday where he generally blasted Republican budget proposals, a top Obama budget official said the administration would have to take a close look at the GOP proposal on Social Security, and hinted that the White House would have more to say on the issue soon.

Rob Nabors, deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, reiterated the administration’s view that the most urgent budget problem in the entitlements area is not Social Security but the soaring cost of health care ...

But Nabors added that administration officials would spend some time “looking at” the GOP proposal on Social Security, and promised that the public will be seeing more from the administration on the issue as the budget process unfolds. ...

Working Harder, Enjoying It Less And Giving Poor Service

From Joe Davidson's Federal Diary at the Washington Post:

Workers at the Social Security Administration are working harder and enjoying it less, while its customers grow ever more frustrated.

That's a major take-away from a recent Government Accountability Office report detailing the negative impact of SSA staff cuts.

One important note: In contrast to a generally bleak assessment of the agency, the report did shine a light on the conscientious federal employees who sometimes sacrifice personal time to boost productivity....

Managers and staff told GAO investigators "that they often do not have time to take their breaks, including lunch. Some staff told us that they feel they are letting down their colleagues and feel guilty about taking time off, regardless of whether they use credit hours or annual leave." ...

The increasing demands on the staff has resulted in higher stress, lower morale and decreasing job satisfaction. And managers suffer from it the most, with 74 percent reporting high stress levels.

SSA Commissioner Michael J. Astrue put the blame on Congress for not giving the agency enough money. ...

Managers responding to a survey by the National Council of Social Security Management Associations [NCSSMA] "estimated that they would need a staffing increase of 16.7 percent to provide adequate public service," the report says.

So why was Michael Astrue telling Congress that those last two Bush Administration budgets were all his agency needed, when clearly they were not? And what does Michael Astrue think of hiring another 10,000 or so employees as the NCSSMA suggests? It seems to me that it is past time for Astrue to openly state his opinion on the number of new employees that Social Security needs to give adequate service to the public.

California Furloughs Criticized

From the San Jose Mercury News:

When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently began sending state workers home on unpaid leave one day a month, he said the state needed to tighten its belt to save the cash-strapped state money. But in one instance, the furloughs are actually costing California millions of dollars. ...

Sending those employees home one day a month means the state will forgo about $10 million — or 5 percent of the agency's $210 million annual budget — from Washington, without saving state government any money. Meanwhile, it's taking the agency longer to process claims, delaying disability benefits at a time when such requests are soaring.

"There really is no reason to do this, it's a no-brainer," said Pete Spencer, the regional commissioner for the U.S. Social Security Administration, which oversees the disability claims program. "If the governor is saying he wants to take all the money the federal government is offering, this is one area he's not doing it." ...

"There's an equity issue there," said John Wagner, the Schwarzenegger administration's director for the California Department of Social Services.

The issue has caught the attention of California's congressional delegation. Twenty-three Democratic House members wrote the governor in February and complained that furloughing the disability agency employees makes no sense.

Why is it that only Democratic House members wrote about this?

Backlogs -- Astrue Still Defining Acceptable Service Downward

From the Associated Press:

For all the talk of an impending crisis in Social Security, one already exists: The system is clogged with hundreds of thousands of disputed disability claims, a backlog so big that some people wait years for a hearing. ...

"Workloads have gone up, resources did not go up proportionately, and the agency was too slow to embrace new technologies," said Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue, explaining the backlog. "It's a combination of all those things." ...

Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., introduced a bill that would require a hearing be held no more than 75 days from the time it is requested, and a final verdict no more than 15 days after that. ...

Astrue said Castor's proposal does not take into account the time applicants need to prepare their cases. He has set a goal of a nine-month maximum wait for a hearing.

I will be happy to prepare my clients' cases in 75 days. When I first started practicing Social Security law in 1979, the average wait time for a hearing was only about 90-120 days and some cases were scheduled in as few as 75 days. I coped just fine then and I would be happy to do so again. The fees were lower, but the work required per case was much lower. There was certainly much less stress. Until Republicans took control of Congress in 1995 it had rarely taken as long as nine months for a claimant to get a hearing on a Social Security disability claim at any time in history. When Michael Astrue worked at Social Security in the Reagan Administration, it was certainly not taking nine months to get a hearing. Astrue seems eager to define acceptable service levels at Social Security downward. Service during the era when Republicans controlled Congress from 1995 to 2006 was the exception, not the norm.

No COLAs For Three Years

From the Associated Press:

The recession is projected to wipe out annual cost-of-living increases for 50 million Social Security beneficiaries for the next three years, something that hasn't happened since automatic adjustments were adopted in 1975.

The Congressional Budget Office says in its latest budget estimates that inflation will dip so low that Social Security recipients will not qualify for annual increases in 2010, or for two years after that.