Budget Cuts Threaten Furloughs At Social Security

     From a press release (emphasis added):

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) National Council of SSA Field Operations Locals (NCSSAFOL) is warning the public and Social Security beneficiaries of the danger of the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee's decision to cut President Obama's proposed budget request for the Social Security Administration (SSA) by $1.2 billion, $263 million below the Fiscal Year 2016 spending level.

Witold Skwierczynski, President of the NCSSAFOL, states that the House budget cuts will result in a ten-day furlough of all SSA workers, an agency-wide hiring freeze, a reduction in local field office hours, permanent closing of many field offices, increases in wait times on SSA's National 800 number and field offices, and an increase in processing times for benefits. ...

The AFGE National Council of SSA Field Operations Locals represents 28,000 employees in 1250 Social Security field offices  and 28 Teleservice Centers across the country, including Puerto Rico, and the Pacific Islands.

Eanes Nomination Stalled

     I don't know what's going on but there's been no action on the Senate floor on the nomination of Andrew Lamont Eanes to become Deputy Commissioner of Social Security even though the nomination was reported out of the Senate Finance Committee almost three months ago. At this point, it's not clear that the Senate is willing to act on any Obama nominee.

Why Is This Legal?

     From an accounting firm's newsletter:

The federal self-employment (SE) tax just keeps going higher and higher. [No, apart from a cost of living adjustment in the earnings base, it hasn't changed in many years.] If you've reached the breaking point, there may be a way to tame the SE tax beast by converting your existing unincorporated small business into an S corporation. ...

So it may be time to consider an S corporation conversion. Reason: The SE tax doesn't apply to earnings from an S corporation business. 

The FICA tax is only due on an S corporation shareholder-employee's salary. So when the company pays only a portion of its profits to the owner, or owners, in the form of a reasonable salary, with the remaining portion paid out in the form of cash distributions, only the salary portion is hit with Social Security and Medicare taxes (in the form of the FICA tax). The profits paid out as cash distributions are exempt from the FICA tax (and exempt from the SE tax too)....

Thanks, Trump

     The Social Security field office in downtown Cleveland will be closed this week because of the Republican national convention.

People Cut Off Social Security Disabilty Benefits Struggle

     And these are claimants that Social Security has found to be medically improved.

The Cost Of Budget Cuts

This Would Be A Lot Less Difficult To Address Than COBOL Problems

     From the written testimony of Rick Warsinskey, President, National Council of Social Security Management Associations(NCSSMA) an organization of Social Security managers, mostly at field offices, before the House Social Security Subcommittee yesterday:

... Every day, SSA [Social Security Administration] employees wait and watch as their computers crawl from one system’s window to another. Users watch the spinning wheel move as programs and screens attempt to load, losing valuable time that could be used to assist other customers or address workload backlogs. Around noon Eastern Time every day our system reaches peak capacity and the slowness becomes most apparent, as almost all the offices in the country are open to the public and taking claims, talking to the public on the telephone, or handling some aspect of a claimant’s record. We can demonstrate the degradation of SSA computer speed in real numbers. We surveyed our offices and found that data speed tests showed these median Megabits per Second (Mbps) speeds: 

Download: 2.87 Mbps 
Upload: .25 Mbps 

A year ago when we surveyed the same measurements, the median speeds were: Download: 

3.45 Mbps 
Upload: 2.0 Mbps 

This degradation in data speeds supports the nearly universal feedback we are receiving that our system is slowing down significantly. It is important to note the data speeds you can typically expect to receive from cable internet service providers are now over 50 Mbps for download and 10 Mbps for upload speed. ...

Our computers often freeze or applications become inaccessible and require a reboot. It can take 10 minutes to restart a computer and get back online. We are often unable to run live video training or engage in video communications with the public due to lack of bandwidth. Once we open more than five programs on our computers, they often freeze, requiring us to reboot the system. Internet access and our e-mail communications are also excruciatingly slow.

Our online time and attendance system (WebTA), which is the system used to pay employees, periodically freezes and is often down on the day we certify payroll for employees. Additional time is spent on the telephone waiting to talk to our internal help desk to resolve computer issues that we are experiencing. The need to call the help desk will only increase as SSA expands telework and calls to resolve access issues increase.

Disability Benefit Termination Attracts Media Attention