What Happens At Social Security If There Is A Government Shutdown?

The Congressional Research Service has prepared a timely report on what happens in the case of a government shutdown due to a budgetary impasse. Unfortunately, the main takeaway from the report is that Social Security is a special case so one cannot say with confidence exactly what will happen. The precedent from 1995 suggests that most of Social Security will stay open. The Office of Management and Budget requires agencies to have written shutdown plans. I have never seen a copy of Social Security's plan.

It's Weird

Yglesias on proposed cuts to Social Security's administrative budget:

Love it or hate it, Social Security is a pretty lean, mean, check-writing machine. Money comes in through payroll taxes and it comes out through checks. It’s practically automatic. But of course it’s not 100 percent automatic. It does need a few human beings to run it. But thinking that it’s somehow smart to try to trim the fat here is bizarre. Actually reducing the quantity of money in the checks would make old people mad but also save a ton of money. Gumming up the administration of the check-sending process packs a lot of oldster-aggravating punch but barely gets you anything. It’s weird.

Mainframe Back Up

From the Chicago Tribune:

The Social Security Administration's mainframe computers based in Maryland were back up this afternoon [Thursday] after being offline for several hours, a Chicago-based spokesman said.

The mainframe system situated on the East Coast that serves the entire country went down this morning, affecting the processing of claims for beginning retirement and disability benefits, among other services, said Doug Nguyen, a spokesman for the government agency in the Midwest. It was functioning again by early this afternoon, but systems analysts wanted to make certain the computers were working before announcing it, Nguyen said about 4 p.m.

Hearing Office Average Processing Time Report

Here is the most recent Social Security hearing office processing time report. The data is from Social Security and appeared in the newsletter of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR). Click on each thumbnail to see full size.

Compare the average processing time as it has changed over time:

• January 25, 2007 -- 508 days
• February 29, 2008 -- 511 days
• March 8, 2009 -- 499 days
• July 5, 2010 -- 415 days
• February 1, 2011 -- 371 days
  

Social Security Helps People Live Longer

From a press release:

New findings from researchers at New York Medical College suggest that when Social Security benefits are improved, people over the age of 65 benefit most, and may even live longer.

According to a new study published in the Journal of Public Health Policy, Americans over the age of 65 experienced steep declines in the rate of mortality in the periods that followed the founding of and subsequent improvements to Social Security. ...

After controlling for factors such as changes in the economy, access to medical care, and Medicare, they found that although mortality rates for all adults fell during the 20th century, rates of decline for those 65 and older changed more than 50 percent in the decades following the introduction of Social Security in 1940. Rates of decline for the younger age groups remained virtually the same during this period. The trend was particularly pronounced following marked improvements in Social Security benefits between the mid-1960s and the early 1970s.

Awards In Danville

From WSLS:

Five people — three Social Security employees and two clients — were honored for heroism during a ceremony at the Danville [Virginia] Social Security office on Thursday.

Michael Astrue, the commissioner of the U.S. Social Security Administration, traveled to Danville to present the awards personally.

Astrue is pictured above giving the award to Officer Jason Alsbaugh.

Gird Your Loins

John Boehner, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, is saying that he will not allow a temporary continuing resolution to keep the government running at the current rate to go forward. This does not guarantee a government shutdown but it makes it much more likely.

Democrats Again Criticize Republican Budget

From a new press release issued by Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee:

Republicans are defending their proposed cuts to the Social Security Administration (SSA) budget by seeking to downplay the impact of reducing the SSA’s spending level to $10.7 billion this year.

The facts are clear: this represents a 9.3 percent decrease from Fiscal Year 2010 spending levels of $11.8 billion. It would leave the already cash-strapped agency with fewer resources with which to process claims for seniors and people with disabilities. In fact, SSA says that the GOP proposal is equivalent to up to four weeks of furloughs at the agency.

The Republican budget plan calls for $10.7 billion in overall spending for SSA in 2011, $1.7 billion less than the Social Security Administration needs to fulfill its obligations. They claim their budget represents a 1 percent cut from last year to SSA – but to get there they ignore more than $600 million in additional cuts to the reserve account and funding budgeted for a National Computer Center. The math is simple:

• $10,675,500,000 in general operating expense funding for the Social Security Administration
• $485,000,000 for continuing disability reviews and redeterminations
• $161,000,000 in collected fees
• $500,000,000 cut to Social Security Administration’s reserve account
• $118,000,000 cut to what has been budgeted for the National Computer Center

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• $10.7 billion TOTAL