"Plan F"?

     Mike Causey at Federal News Network has penned a column saying that there may be a "plan F" to force employees at Social Security and other agencies such as the I.R.S. to return to the office, despite the risks posed by Covid-19. He says that there may be a desire to force experienced employees to retire. This would fit in with the Trump Administration push to reopen the economy, consequences be damned, as well as the Administration's general contempt for federal employees. Causey quotes some federal employees who state their fears there is a plan to force federal employees back to the office but the column is elliptical. It sounds like Causey has some information suggesting that these fears are grounded in fact. Where did he get this "plan F" business?

They Really Don't Want You To Read This

     Earlier this month I posted about a large cache of "proactive" disclosures of information posted on Social Security's Freedom Of Information Act Reading Room. That large cache has been completely taken down. But, you know what? It's all still stored on Google Cache!

No, Internet Services Aren't Causing The Field Offices To Fade Away

     One of the proactive disclosures recently posted by Social Security is data on in-person visits to Social Security field offices in Fiscal Year 2019. There were 43,467,832 of them. They have it broken down by field office.

A Minimum 2.5% COLA Every Year: If The UK Can Do It, Why Can’t We?

     From Forbes:

In the United States, Social Security benefits increase in line with inflation, that is the CPI-W. Presumed Democratic nominee Joe Biden, as well as others advocating for boosts for recipients, support a shift to a special (but currently experimental) windex for elderly-specific inflation. Others support a shift to the “chained-CPI” in which weightings are adjusted whenever people shift their buying patterns due to disproportionate price hikes (e.g., buying more chicken, less beef, means that the lower CPI for chicken would be more relevant than the higher CPI for beef, in a “chained” calculation). But ...  the U.S. is actually in the minority, in terms of developed countries, in adjusting its Social Security benefits solely based on inflation; other countries are likely to use wage increases or a combination of both inflation and wage increases. (Should the United States make such a change? In a perfect world, maybe — but it’s hardly practical when we’re still unable to make the necessary changes to restore the system to sustainability in the first place.) 

But the UK goes even further: its pensions increase each year by the greater of inflation, the average wage increase, or 2.5%. ...

OIG Report On Field Office Service

     In response to a request from Congressman John Larson, the Chairman of the House Social Security Subcommittee, Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) has produced a report on Field Office Customer Service. Below are some tables and charts from that report. Click on each image to view full size.

     By the way, the transmittal letter from Gail Ennis, the Inspector General, says that "My office is committed to combating fraud, waste, and abuse in the Agency’s operations and programs." That's fine but there's no mention of customer service being part of OIG's mission even in a report on customer service. That may tell you something there about how Ms. Ennis views her office's responsibilities. Would her office ever look at customer service without being prodded to do so by Congress?

This Must Be Why There Will Be A Social Security Subcommittee Hearing Tomorrow

     John Larson, the Chairman of the House Social Security Subcommittee, has come up with a bill that would make some modest changes in Social Security aimed at reducing inequities caused by Covid-19. He's asked Social Security's Chief Actuary to tally the costs. It's pretty much small bore stuff -- $75 billion over ten years, all to be reimbursed out of general revenues. It will certainly be going nowhere in this Congress. Who knows about the next Congress? I imagine this proposal will be the focus of tomorrow's Subcommittee hearing.

Arrests In Large Impostor Scheme

     From a press release:

The Inspector General for the Social Security Administration, Gail S. Ennis, is announcing the arraignment of two individuals in a significant Social Security imposter telephone scam case. Chaitali Dave, 36, and Mehulkumar Patel, 36, both of Lexington, South Carolina are facing Federal charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering in the Northern District of Georgia. ... This husband and wife are alleged to have retrieved over $400,000 from at least 24 victims of Social Security and tech support scam phone calls. 

According to the indictment, Patel and Dave are members of a network based in India that defrauded U.S. residents, including senior citizens, by using technical support and Social Security number scams. The scheme often involved call center employees pretending to be government officials. These scammers deceived victims by telling them their Social Security numbers were involved in criminal activity. They threatened arrest and loss of assets if the victims did not send funds via FedEx and UPS. 

Patel and Dave allegedly facilitated the scheme by collecting and transferring funds received from scam victims nationwide to those running the scam operation. Our investigation found evidence they defrauded at least 24 victims from May 2019 to January 2020, causing financial and emotional harm. ...

All Quiet On The Reopening Front

     From Federal News Network:

As several large departments make plans to reopen their offices to employees and the public during the pandemic, one agency has been relatively quiet.

The Social Security Administration, which made a series of contentious cuts to its telework program in the month leading up to the pandemic, has not called employees back to their offices en masse, nor has the agency indicated when it might do so.

Several agencies have published or distributed multi-phase reopening plans to their workforces in recent months, which describe, in varying levels of detail, how employees will gradually return to their offices and what to expect upon arrival.

Neither employees nor the unions that represent the SSA workforce have seen any kind of “reopening plan” from the agency, though they acknowledged it didn’t mean SSA doesn’t have one. ...

SSA declined to comment on its specific reopening plans, and it didn’t offer any timelines or details on how telework might fit into the agency’s future.

“We are monitoring the COVID-19 situation closely and are evaluating guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management,” an SSA spokesman said in a statement to Federal News Network. “Many of our visitors are at higher risk for severe illness from COVID-19. Our goal is to continue to serve the American public while doing what we can to reduce the risk to our employees and visitors.” ...