A Message From The Commissioner To SSA Employees

A Message to All SSA Employees

Subject: COVID-19 Update

I know that there is a high level of concern among our employees about the COVID-19 outbreak.  I greatly appreciate how hard you are all working to continue to provide our critical services, even as you tend to your personal wellbeing and that of your loved ones.  As you know, confirmed cases now exist in many communities and many schools have closed for an extended time.  We are all being asked to practice social distancing to help stop the spread of this coronavirus.  In addition to the measures we announced on Friday regarding high-risk employees and school closings, today we began implementing additional steps.

 

In non-public facing offices, most employees will perform their work with additional days of telework.  For field offices and hearing offices, to protect our employees and the public we serve, we will close to the public beginning Tuesday, March 17.  We are sharing field office general phone lines with the public so our employees can provide telephone service at the local level.  Hearing offices will offer voluntary hearings to claimants, by telephone.  Due to the nature of our work, some of us must continue to come into the office to handle critical workloads.  In these situations, supervisors will try to enable you to work from home as much as possible, but not every day.  We will also take measures to distance staff from each other while in the office.

Systems has worked to ensure that all employees have VPN access during this crisis and to ensure we are ready to support a large volume of teleworking employees.  However, this will be our first time to significantly depend on this structure for an extended period.  Please be patient and immediately report any issues to your supervisors so that we can not only assist you but also coordinate at the national level, as necessary.

Please continue to follow the CDC guidance about COVID-19 to prevent illness and recognize symptoms. If you are sick, stay home, or go home immediately if you are at work, and call your healthcare provider for medical advice.  If you test positive for COVID-19, please immediately let your supervisor know.

We know that this outbreak may be stressful to you.  It may be difficult to cope with the fear and anxiety about a disease, particularly when there is uncertainty.  We hope that the decision to expand telework and to close our offices to the public will ease some of the stress.  I encourage you to visit the CDC Coronavirus webpage, which includes information and resources to cope with this stress and ensure your mental health.  Our Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is also available. 

I ask for your patience as we continue to work through these very complicated issues that affect many different aspects of the agency.  We will continue to talk with experts and to evaluate our response, and we will continue to update our human resources site to provide you with current information.

Finally, we all chose to work in public service.  During this difficult time, the public will need our help.  I know I can count on you to do all you can to serve the public with integrity.  You have my deep appreciation.

Andrew Saul

Commissioner

Just How Much Can Telework Help SSA In An Emergency?

And Happy St. Patrick's Day!

     Since I don't work at Social Security, I have only the haziest idea how telework has operated at the agency. I wonder to what extent it's technically feasible for agency employees to telework. To what extent can the following categories of employees telework?

• Employees at teleservice centers
• Employees at payment centers
• Field office employees
• Hearing office employees apart from Administrative Law Judges and decision writers

     Are there groups of employees who might potentially be eligible to telework who won't quickly be able to telework because they never previously jumped through the technical security hoops needed to telework?

     Are there other impediments to widespread teleworking at Social Security?

Field Office Closure

     I’m hearing reports that all Social Security field offices will be closed to the public beginning on Tuesday. 

     Social Security needs to get out a press release.

     Update: And here’s the press release.

This Sounds Like Field Offices Should Close To The Public

     From an NBC News Blog (emphasis added):

President Donald Trump said Monday his administration's coronavirus task force updated its guidelines amid the coronavirus outbreak. 

He said the administration recommends all Americans, including young and healthy, should homeschool children, avoid gatherings of 10 or more people, stop discretionary travel and avoid bars and restaurants. ...

     There would be 10 or more people in the waiting room of most, if not all, Social Security field offices for most of the day. That would also be the case at some times of the day for many Social Security hearing offices.

Maybe It Is Time

     I had posted skepticism about shutting down Social Security hearings while the Supreme Court is still holding oral arguments. Well, the Supreme Court has just cancelled oral arguments for the time being.

     I still think that if it's time to stop holding hearings, it's time to close the offices. 

     And by the way, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, you're ordered to stay home and see no one for the foreseeable future.

New York City Status

     From the New York City Health Department: "New York, stay home. Healthy or sick, all New Yorkers need to stay home as much as possible."

     From Social Security: The field office in White Plains (which is a suburb of New York city) and the hearing office in Bedford Heights (which is in New York City) are closed.

30 Hours Is The New 40

     From HuffPost:

... [T]he Trump administration is planning a regulation that would essentially redefine full-time work as 30 hours per week, instead of the usual 40, for purposes of determining whether someone is disabled. Fewer people would likely win benefits as a result.

The tighter eligibility standard, which has not been previously reported, is part of a draft rule that, if finalized, would bring sweeping changes to the Social Security Disability Insurance program. It would follow multiple other efforts by the Trump administration to cut social programs that help people afford food, health care and housing. ... 

The full draft rule, which has not been formally released yet, is the culmination of years of work by the Social Security Administration to update its data on the U.S. labor market ― and years of grumbling by Republicans and right-wing think tanks about how disability benefits coddle people who supposedly could get jobs. ... 

Actuaries in the Social Security Administration are currently reviewing the draft rule to see how many beneficiaries would be affected and how much money the government might save by denying benefits, according to a source. ...

     In order to adopt this, they have to send it to the Office of Management and Budget for approval. OMB is likely to take several months to review it. They must then publish it for public comments. That takes a few months. It must then be sent back to a OMB for a second review which normally takes a few months. Could this all be done before the next Inauguration Day? In theory, yes. Remember, though, that this wouldn’t be popular. Is it the sort of proposal that would make progress during an election year? And there’s the Covid-19 thing which may slow down the wheels of government.

ALJs Want To Stop Holding Hearings But Don’t Ask For Office Closure

     A press release:

WASHINGTON — March 15, 2020 — The coronavirus pandemic has caused the Association of Administrative Law Judges (AALJ) to make the unprecedented demand that the Social Security Administration immediately cancel all hearings in its 163 offices across the U.S. for the next two weeks, and longer if needed, in order to protect Americans. AALJ’s move follows what it sees as weeks of poor decision-making by SSA’s leadership. To date, SSA hasn’t enacted AALJ’s common sense request to have claimants asked if they would like a telephone hearing before they arrive for their hearings or if COVID-19 symptoms are exhibited in the hearing room. AALJ leaders, who represent approximately 1,300 judges who preside in Social Security disability hearings, note that municipal, state and federal courts have canceled their proceedings and the lack of similar action in disability hearings is confounding. AALJ President Judge Melissa McIntosh says, “We can’t understand why Social Security officials are blatantly ignoring public health guidance. Let’s always remember that many claimants in our hearing rooms and offices are senior citizens and report they have compromised immunity; they could be particularly at risk for the coronavirus. As administrative law judges, we take the health and safety of the claimants, representatives and our colleagues very seriously. Because of the Agency’s failed response, the only way to ensure the safety of the American public is to cancel hearings for a limited period of time.” The latest details about coronavirus are available at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website at www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html. 

     Why would it be appropriate to stop holding hearings but not close hearing offices? Why the concern about protecting ALJs from claimants? Shouldn’t ALJs be more worried about the staff in their own offices? If you think that claimants are dirty people who will make you sick but the nice people you work with aren’t a threat you don’t understand the situation. ALJs have much less physical separation from hearing office staff than from claimants. 

     This doesn’t come across to me quite the way the ALJ union might like and, no, I don’t think that protecting claimants is really what the union is concerned about. The hearing offices and field offices may have to be shut down altogether soon but I don’t think that merely stopping hearings is much use. Social Security hearing rooms don’t have anything like the foot traffic of a general courtroom or a Social Security field office, for that matter. If anything, I would say that Supreme Court justices face a greater threat from other justices and attorneys than Social Security ALJs and the Supreme Court isn’t shutting down oral arguments even though many of the justices are at serious risk due to age.