Headcount Continues To Decline

     The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has posted updated figures for the number of employees at the Social Security Administration.

• December 2013 61,957
• September 2013 62,543
• June 2013 62,877
• March 2013 63,777
• December 2012 64,538
• September 2012 65,113
• September 2011 67,136
• December 2010 70,270
• December 2009 67,486
• September 2009 67,632
• December 2008 63,733
• September 2008 63,990
• September 2007 62,407
• September 2006 63,647
• September 2005 66,147
• September 2004 65,258
• September 2003 64,903
• September 2002 64,648
• September 2001 65,377
• September 2000 64,521

Happy Easter!

Benefit Statements Coming Back -- At Five Year Intervals

     From Reuters:

Paper Social Security benefits statements, which used to be mailed out every year and then fell victim to budget cuts, are going to make a partial comeback.Starting this September, the Social Security Administration (SSA) will resume mailings at five-year intervals to workers who have not signed up to view their statements online, an agency spokesman told Reuters. The statements will be sent to workers at ages 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55 and 60, he said, adding the agency would continue to promote use of the online statements.

Forensic Genealogists And Social Security

     Dee Dee King writes in Forensic Genealogy News about the new process to become certified to access Social Security's Death Master File. Who knew there were forensic genealogists?

A Little Weird

     Let me tell you something a little weird about this blog. It gets some surprising hits from outside the U.S. I'm sure that some of these hits come from people who are genuinely interested in U.S. Social Security. I'm sure that some of these hits come from people who were looking for information about another country's Social Security system. However, Google Analytics tells me that many of the hits from other countries come from people who did a search for "resignation letter." Long time readers can attest that the subject of resignation letters has not been a major focus of this blog. The term "resignation letter" has come up in only four posts out of 6,367 in the history of this blog! 

     Don't ask me why a search engine would direct people seeking information on resignation letters would funnel traffic this way or why that would only be the case for those making this request who live outside the U.S. I have no idea.

     I think there's an opportunity here. People in other countries want to find examples of resignation letters. They'll seek out your website if you provide them.

Social Security Ends Letter Forwarding Service

     From today's Federal Register:

Letter Forwarding is a service we provided to the public since 1945. It is not a program related activity under the Social Security Act (Act). Therefore, we will stop the letter forwarding service. ... 

 DATES: The cessation date for letter forwarding services is May 19, 2014. ...

We provided the letter forwarding service to the public since 1945. ... 

SSA processes the following types of letter forwarding requests (free and for a fee). 

• Humanitarian (free)--when the health or welfare of an individual is at risk and the requestor provides a compelling reason to show the person would want to be aware of the circumstances. In addition, when an immediate family member (e.g., parent, sibling) is seeking to re-establish contact with another immediate family member. 
• Monetary purpose (fee $35 in fiscal year (FY) 2013)-- situations in which the individual sought is due something of value, and it is reasonable to assume that he or she is not aware that the asset is due.

     Reading this makes me sad. Yes, letter forwarding has been a very ancillary service but a damned important one to the people being served. This is one of many signs that the Social Security Administration lacks the funding needed to carry out its work in the humane way that the public deserves.

We've Hit A Plateau

     TheWall Street Journal is noticing that disability claims have hit a plateau. They still don't want to acknowledge that the aging of the baby boom generation had anything to do with the boom in disability claims. It had to have been the economy or fraud or anything other than simple demographics. But it was almost completely demographics and predictable fifty years ago. The WSJ is also now acknowledging that the Disability Insurance Trust Fund may not run out of money in 2016.

Major Hepatitis C News

     If you're involved with Social Security disability claims you know that hepatitis C causes much misery, disability and death. There are almost four million people in the United States infected with hepatitis C. It's an epidemic that receives far too little coverage in the media. The treatment available has been horribly inadequate. It's expensive. A high percentage of people who attempt the treatments cannot tolerate the horrible side effects. Even if the patient can afford treatment and can tolerate the side effects, about half the time it doesn't work. Without effective treatment, a person infected with hepatitis C slowly becomes weaker and eventually succumbs to liver failure or liver cancer. It may take ten, twenty, thirty years or more but it's inexorable.

     Finally, finally, there's good news on hepatitis C. Researchers at the University of Texas have come up with a drug that appears to cure, that's right, cure, hepatitis C in a few weeks for those with genotype 1 infections, which account for about 45% of hepatitis C cases. The medicine is expensive but hepatitis C inexorable progressing to liver cancer or liver failure is even more expensive. This is a big deal.