SSA Office Space Declining

     From a study by the Government Accountability Office (GAO):

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has reduced its physical footprint and expanded delivery of services remotely, including online. SSA reduced the total square footage of its facilities by about 1.4 million square feet (or about 5 percent) from fiscal years 2012 to 2016, according to GAO's analysis, by applying new standards for determining the size of offices and consolidating facilities. ... SSA has also expanded the services it offers remotely, and online use has increased for certain services such as disability and retirement applications. Despite this increase, in-person contacts at field offices have not changed substantially, with about the same number in fiscal year 2016 as in fiscal year 2007 (approximately 43 million). This may be due to growing demand for services as well as certain services not yet being fully available online. ...

SSA is taking steps to make remote services easier to use, for example by adding new features to its website and offering alternate approaches for accessing services, but does not consistently evaluate them, which could limit its ability to shift more services online and further reconfigure its footprint. For example, SSA has added features allowing online customers to interact directly with SSA staff. However, SSA does not track staff follow-ups to deal with any errors in online benefit applications in order to improve them, as called for by federal internal control standards. To enhance access to remote services, SSA has introduced alternate service approaches such as videoconferencing in third-party sites; however, it does not have performance goals for these approaches. GAO has previously identified performance goals as a best practice, which may help agencies improve their customer service. ...

No Survivor Benefits For Children Conceived 11 Years After Death Of Wage Earner

      From MacNeil v. Berryhill (CA2) decided on August 24, 2017:

... Sharon MacNeil (“MacNeil”) brought suit ... challenging a decision by the Commissioner of the Social Security Administration that her children—twins conceived via in vitro fertilization eleven years after her husband died—were ineligible for survivors’ insurance benefits. The United States District Court for the Northern District of New York (Sharpe, J.) affirmed the agency’s decision, concluding that under the applicable provisions of New York’s Estates, Powers and Trusts Law (“EPTL”) the children were not entitled to inherit under New York state intestacy law, and so were not children of the deceased wage earner within the meaning of the relevant Social Security Act provisions. We agree and accordingly AFFIRM the district court’s judgment. ...

I Wish I Could Help

     The conclusion of a lengthy message sent to me today by a stranger using the contact form on this blog:

... I'm sending this to you because you are the commissioner I'm hoping that you will get back with me my records are so messed up and I've been overcharged and I do not believe this is so security's way of doing business and I don't think you'll agree with that either ...

     I get these sorts of messages fairly often. I wish these folks well but I don't respond because I'm not who they think I am.

Huge Information Technology Conracts

     From Fed Scoop:

The Social Security Administration tapped three companies to handle its information technology services Aug. 21, awarding the trio a combined $7.8 billion contract.

The agency — which projects it will have to process benefits for an additional 70 million Baby Boomers over the next decade — selected Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and CGI Federal Inc. to handle its IT operations. ...

The indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract may last up to 10 years —it has four two-year options to extend — and will cover software and web lifecycle opportunities, database administration, software engineering and management support, and systems administration and security support.

Northrop Grumman took the lion’s share of the contract’s value, netting a $3 billion award in potential task orders, followed by CGI Federal’s $2.4 billion and Lockheed Martin’s $2.3 billion, if all options are exercised.

Drop What You're Doing If You Want To Become An ALJ

     The registry to apply to become a Social Security Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) is now open. I don't know how they're going to do it this time but on previous occasions the registry stayed open for only a few days. It may be years before the registry opens again.

Hearing Backlog Is At Record Level

     From the San Francisco Chronicle:

People who have applied for Social Security Disability Insurance and been turned down twice are having to wait a record number of days to get a hearing in front of a judge and receive a decision.

The average wait time is 596 days or 19½ months, up from 545 days in September and only 353 days in 2012. The backlog of cases pending a hearing stands at about 1.1 million, up from 700,000 in 2010. ...

News reports about disability insurance fraud — such as a 2013 episode of “60 Minutes” — make it seem like benefits are easy to get. President Trump’s budget director, Mick Mulvaney, has suggested that some recipients aren’t really disabled and the government could save billions by pushing them back into the workforce.

In reality, getting disability benefits can be arduous, and only about 37 percent of former workers who apply end up getting them. ...

The percentage of people who apply for a hearing and win has fallen to 46 percent from 64 percent six years ago ...

If It Sounds Too Good To Be True ...

     From the Detroit Free Press:

Here's some sorry news this summer: There's no secret cash stash out there to pay your utility bills or your old outstanding debts with the state.

Consumers are getting swept into some scams across the country that promise a way to use special bank routing numbers supposedly from the U.S. government to cover their bills. 

One website notes: "Pay all bills now with your no-longer secret Social Security Trust Account." ...

By re-examining the account numbers being used to pay bills, staff members noticed that individuals had been trying to pay old state debts by using routing numbers from two U.S. Department of Treasury bureaus — the financial management service and the bureau of public debt. ... 

Leix said the strategy seems to be one promoted by tax protest groups and others. ...

"It just won't work," Leix said. "It's just not a valid method of payment for any outstanding debt."  ...

People are being told that your Social Security number is all that you need to unlock payment from a “corporate account” that was established by the government in your name. ...

I'm Not Joking

     Social Security is in the pilot phase of developing DeDoop, a program that is supposed to remove duplicative medical records from the electronic files of Social Security disability claimants.