Should Social Security Be Expecting A Tsunami Of Disability Claims?

     If you believe that the number of Social Security disability claims filed is a function of the unemployment rate shouldn't you be expecting a tsunami of disability claims right now as the unemployment rate soars, perhaps to greater than 20%? If you're the Commissioner of Social Security shouldn't you be urgently seeking a huge special appropriation to deal with this?
     By the way, at least at my firm, the number of phone calls from new prospective clients isn't going up since Covid-19 exploded. The number is actually down.

A Little Update On What's Going On In SSA Land

     From Government Executive:

Amid growing concerns over the coronavirus pandemic, the Social Security Administration’s ongoing saga over telework has reached some finality this week.  ...

SSA’s Office of Hearings Operations (OHO) will shift to full-time telework this week, he said.

Some employees in SSA’s payment service centers began full-time telework last Thursday or Friday. Others in the agency’s tele-service centers already have or will begin telework Monday, said Rich Couture, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 215....

Employees at SSA headquarters and other regional operations offices are also teleworking, Couture said.

SSA did not respond to multiple requests for comment. ...

Couture said SSA didn’t yet have enough “soft phones,” the special systems that tele-service center employees need to connect into the agency’s phone network and remotely handle their work.

The agency will also roll out some new technology in the coming week, which will allow OHO employees to remotely assist and cover hearings done over the phone, Couture said. ...

The agency is planning to first ask SSA supervisors to come into the office to handle some tasks that can’t be handled remotely, Couture said. ...

The Crooks Don't Let Up

     From a press release:

The Inspector General of Social Security, Gail S. Ennis, is warning the public about fraudulent letters threatening suspension of Social Security benefits due to COVID-19 or coronavirus-related office closures. The Social Security Administration (SSA) will not suspend or discontinue benefits because their offices are closed.  

The Social Security Office of the Inspector General has received reports that Social Security beneficiaries have received letters through the U.S. Mail stating their payments will be suspended or discontinued unless they call a phone number referenced in the letter. Scammers may then mislead beneficiaries into providing personal information or payment via retail gift cards, wire transfers, internet currency, or by mailing cash, to maintain regular benefit payments during this period of COVID-19 office closures. 

Some Things I'm Hearing About SSA And Covid-19

     Here are some things I'm hearing about Social Security's response to Covid-19, as well as some things I'm wondering about:

• It will be possible for Administrative Law Judges (ALJ) to do hearings from their homes. Everyone will have to be connected through the hearing office, however. This requires someone to be at the hearing office to initiate and end the recording process.
• ALJ hearings will only be conducted between 8:30 and 2:00. I guess they want to cut down on the amount of time someone has to spend at the hearing office initiating recordings?
• Snail mail and faxes may be a problem at field offices. The field offices do not have e-fax capacity. The plan is for someone, probably a management person, to go to each field office each day to handle the snail mail and faxes.
• I haven't heard what will be done about snail mail and faxes at the hearings offices but expect the same problem there. For that matter, I expect the same problem at the payment centers but on a much larger scale.
• A White House memorandum says that "It is recommended that agencies identify any impediments to using digital signatures, and remove those impediments, consistent with applicable law." Does this mean that attorneys can now submit appointment of representative and fee agreement forms that have been signed electronically?
• Disability Determination Services (DDS), being state agencies, have differing setups as far as allowing employees to work from home. My state, North Carolina, has no capacity for employees to work from home. Other states have full capacity. North Carolina DDS has tried to solve this problem by switching to two shifts in order to allow more distance between employees at their cubicle farm. Of course, this won't work if we get a stay at home order.
• There are already some physicians who have been doing consultative examinations for DDS who don't want to continue doing them due to Covid-19. This may become a serious impediment.
• I have heard nothing about Social Security's centralized printing operation. Keeping that going has to be a priority but can they?

ALJ Corps Dwindling As Receipts Dwindle

     This was obtained from Social Security by the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) and published in its newsletter, which is not available online to non-members. Click on the image to view full size.

     Note to Social Security: It's OHO now, not ODAR. Time to get this updated.

Big Contract For MetTel

     From the Federal Times:

The Social Security Administration has awarded a $253 million telecommunications task order to MelTel, according to a March 19 news release from the telecom company.

The task order is part of SSA’s Grand SLLAM contract vehicle, which procures local, long distance and access management telecommunications services.

According to the release from MelTel, the company will provide consolidated and centralized voice and IP-based services, toll-free services, audio conferencing, and other “ancillary” support services. ...

     Federal Times got something wrong. It's MetTel, not MelTel.

Fichtner Nomination Advances

     The nomination of Jason J. Fichtner to be a member of the Social Security Advisory Board has been voted out of the Senate Finance Committee favorably. However, there were four votes against Fichtner.

Social Security Finally Going To Telework Generally

     From Government Executive:

Officials with the American Federation of Government Employees said Friday that leadership at the Social Security Administration is instituting fulltime telework for the vast majority of the agency’s workforce beginning next week.

After weeks of resistance as the coronavirus outbreak grew, Social Security officials told union leaders on a conference call Friday that effective Monday, all of the agency’s teleservice centers would be closed. Every employee who is able to take phone calls remotely will do so from home, while those who cannot will be on weather and safety leave until the agency can acquire and distribute more softphones, a technology where employees can take phone calls on behalf of the agency through their laptops.

Additionally, the vast majority of employees of the agency’s processing and payment centers also are working from home. Those who already had telework agreements began working remotely on Thursday, while all other employees were trained to telework that day and began working from home on Friday.

Field offices, which were closed to the public earlier this week, will be fully shuttered by Tuesday at the latest. Most employees will move to telework at that point, although a “very limited” number of people may be recalled on occasion to handle nonportable work like the mail and facility issues, said Ralph Dejuliis, president of AFGE Council 220. ...

Hearings office employees also mostly are working from home full time now. But AFGE Council 215 President Rich Couture said some employees can be recalled to handle telephonic hearings.

“These hearings can be recorded remotely, so I’ve been working with hearings operations to get that applied more broadly so that they can further mitigate the need for anyone to come in at all,” Couture said. ...