"We Don't Social Distance Because We Can't"

     From a summary of an interview conducted by National Public Radio:

... At the Social Security Administration office in Tulsa, Okla., the first order of business yesterday was a staff meeting. Forty people, four times the number the government recommends should be in one place at one time, crammed into the meeting room to be told their office would be closed to the public but not to employees. Ralph de Jullis works there. He's also an official with the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents some Social Security workers.

RALPH DE JULLIS: Most of our offices are more than 10 people. We don't social distance because we can't. We're in cubicles. So we're all exposing each other. It would be safer for us to be at home to prevent the spread of the coronavirus because if we're here and we all get sick, we're not going to be able to do the work. ...

The Social Security Administration announced late Monday it was closing field offices ...

DE JULLIS: But the people who are over 60 were told, oh, yeah, we don't agree with the CDC guidance. Unless you have one of the other serious medical conditions, you can't telework. They're just making it up as they go along. ...

Tony Reardon, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, is calling on the Trump administration to close all federal offices with more than 50 people. Reardon says the government should also allow federal employees to take special leave, called weather and safety leave, if they're low on paid sick leave.

TONY REARDON: You have employees who don't have a great deal of leave. They don't feel well. And if they are not provided weather and safety leave, they still have to provide for their families. They still have to earn a paycheck. So you know what they do? They go to work, and that really puts all the other employees in their workplace at risk. ...

Why Can't Attorneys Use Facetime Or Viber To Do Video Hearings?

     The Covid-19 emergency isn't going away soon. The Department of Health and Human Services is planning based upon an assumption it will last 18 months or more.

     Social Security has allowed attorneys to do video hearings from their offices but only if they install expensive video equipment. Very few have done so.

     Why don't we allow attorneys to use Facetime or Viber to appear with their clients at these hearings? Skype doesn't but Facetime and Viber have end-to-end encryption. They're far more secure than the telephone calls we'll be using otherwise. At least from out end this can be implemented quickly. Come on, we're in an emergency situation here!

No, This Isn't Going To Blow Over In Two Weeks Or Two Months

     The Department of Health and Human Services has issued a Covid-19 response plan. The plan assumes that the Covid-19 pandemic will last 18 months or longer and may include multiple waves of illness.

     Social Security has to plan for prolonged dislocations. We all do.

A Little Bit More Requested For Social Security

     The Office of Management and Budget is asking for $45.8 billion in emergency appropriations for agencies affected the Covid-19 but only an extra $50 million for the Social Security Administration.

"The Sudden Transformation Did Not Unfold Seamlessly"

     From the Washington Post:

Social Security closed its 1,250 field offices and 165 sites where administrative law judges hear appeals of rulings on disability applications, after weeks of pressure from employees and the unions that represent them. In theory, business will carry on by phone, officials said.

In reality, the sudden transformation did not unfold seamlessly. 

Some employees arrived at work first thing Tuesday morning because they were not yet set up to telework. They watched as customers pulled into parking lots, looking for help with disability claims or with replacing lost Social Security cards. Then they watched them peer into the darkened offices and walk away in frustration. 

“We’ve been asking for this for a while. They did it overnight — and failed to get the word out,” said Ralph Dejuliis, a field worker in Oklahoma and national president for the union that represents the federal employees. 

Dejuliis said Social Security employees don’t know how they are going to handle a variety of tasks. What if they are not sure people on the phone are who they claim to be? In the past, they made them come to the office to be sure. Also, only a fraction of the staff have work computers equipped with Softphone, a software program that allows employees to make and receive calls using the Internet. 

So they are being asked to use their personal cellphones to talk to dozens of strangers each day. Managers are advising them to block their personal number by using *67 before dialing. 

Workers said they are receiving confusing directions from managers about telework. 

Milana Bubrinkova, who processes claims in a Chicago district office, said she learned Friday afternoon that her children’s schools were closing.

She asked her manager for permission to telework and didn’t receive a clear decision, she said. She grabbed her work laptop before she left that night. The agency policy allowed for telework under such circumstances, and she wanted to be ready for work Monday morning. 

That morning, she said her manager approved her to telework but reprimanded her for taking her computer home without his permission. “I’m trying to find a way to get my work done, and I’m getting reprimanded for it? You cannot make this stuff up.” ...

$1.3 Billion In "Improper" Payments, Most Of Them Being Claimants Not Getting All They Were Supposed To Get

     From a recent report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) (emphasis added):

... Once a beneficiary becomes entitled to OASDI [Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance] benefits, SSA must update its records to reflect changes in the beneficiary’s circumstances. SSA refers to these updates as post-entitlement actions. T2R is SSA’s primary post-entitlement processing system. In some instances, T2R cannot process post-entitlement actions to update beneficiaries’ records and PC employees must do so.  

When updates must be manually processed, T2R produces alerts. A PC employee must review the alert, correct any issues that prevented T2R from automatically processing the update, and make the necessary changes to the beneficiary’s record.

We identified 52,108 OASDI post-entitlement alerts T2R produced on or after January 1, 2017 and designated as processed and completed by PC employees from January 24 through February 6, 2019. We reviewed a random sample of 200 post-entitlement alerts to determine whether PC employees processed them correctly.

Of the 200 OASDI post-entitlement alerts we reviewed, PCemployees incorrectly processed 83 (42 percent). Of the 83 incorrectly processed alerts, 48 resulted in improper payments totaling $329,767 through May 2019. Based on our sample results, we estimate PC employees incorrectly processed approximately 555,000 alerts, resulting in approximately $1.3 billion in improper payments.  

 For 45 of the 83 alerts, PC employees took incorrect manual post-entitlement actions and did not update the beneficiaries’ records correctly. Our analysis showed that, in some instances, employees took incorrect manual actions because they did not—for unknown reasons—follow the provided instructions when they processed alerts. In other instances, employees may have incorrectly processed the alerts because of vague and generic alert language and corresponding written instructions. 

Employees processed the remaining 38 alerts incorrectly because they cleared the alerts without taking corrective actions. SSA does not require that employees document why they did not take corrective action on alerts. Thus, we were unable to determine why employees cleared the alerts without taking action.
...

      The term "improper payment" makes you think that people were being overpaid and some were but further down you see that most of the "improper" payments were underpayments to claimants. This sounds like a big problem.

How Do Telephone Hearings Work?

     This is from the press release that Social Security put out late yesterday afternoon:

... If you have a hearing scheduled, we will call you to discuss alternatives for continuing with your hearing, including offering a telephonic hearing. Our call may come from a PRIVATE number and not from a U.S. Government phone. Please remember that our employees will not threaten you or ask for any form of payment. ...

     How is this going to work? Will I and my client have to be at the same location? What about expert witnesses? What about cases that are already scheduled for video hearings? Will hearing reporters, the people who, among other things, operate the recording equipment, be allowed in the hearing offices? What is this "private number" business?

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