Below is a chart from Social Security showing the number of claims for Disability Insurance Benefit taken, sent for adjudication and approved since 1996. Note that everything declined during the pandemic but the decline seems to be part of a longer term decline that has been ongoing since about 2011. We do not have such a chart for SSI disability claims. There's no doubt, however, that an SSI chart would show a precipitous decline during the pandemic.
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… Mr. Biden campaigned on increasing Social Security benefits for many Americans and moving to shore up the program’s finances, funded by higher payroll taxes on workers who earn $400,000 or more.
But his $4 trillion agenda has thus far excluded those efforts, which were also excluded from his first formal budget request as president. Administration officials have suggested privately that Mr. Biden will wait to push Social Security changes later in his term, once he has completed work on infrastructure and other efforts to remake the American economy with a larger role for government.
Mr. Brady and Mr. Crapo [two Republican Senators] alluded to that proposal in their reaction to the firing. “We are concerned that this politicization of the Social Security Administration is just the beginning of efforts to raise payroll taxes,” they said, “and seriously undermines bipartisan efforts to save Social Security for future retirees.
Do Republicans want to filibuster a bill that would increase Social Security benefits in an election year? Is opposing an increase in the FICA tax that would only apply to those with high incomes a political winner for the GOP?
… Less access to application support services from community-based caseworkers to help their clients with the disability application process, needed medical care, and the associated medical records are all potential barriers that research suggests are more likely in communities of color and can prevent people from applying for federal benefits, for which they are eligible. Other research has shown that access to local Social Security offices can affect applications. …
With no fanfare, the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice issued an opinion yesterday that the President may remove the Commissioner of Social Security from office notwithstanding the statutory provisions limiting removal from office. An opinion had been requested by the Deputy Counsel for the President.
Update: Senator Grassley has tweeted that he's hearing that the President may oust Andrew Saul from his position as Commissioner. Senator McConnell has retweeted this saying "httI agree with @ChuckGrassley. This removal would be an unprecedented and dangerous politicization of the Social Security Administration."
Further update: I've received several reports that there was a blast e-mail to Social Security employees at 4:30 today from an Acting Commissioner of Social Security indicating that Saul and Black are gone.
And another update: The Washington Post reports that Saul still believes he’s Commissioner and plans to report for work on Monday — remotely from his home in New York city. Who’s going to break it to him?
ps://twitter.com/LeaderMcConnell/status/1413584718684168197?s=20
From Government Executive:
More than 900 Security Administration employees were left wondering Thursday how much of their regular paycheck they would receive at the end of the week, after a mishap caused their internal payroll software to report they would receive deposits of $0.00 for the pay period that ended July 2. ...
On Thursday, Social Security Administration spokesman Darren Lutz said the agency were still working with the Interior Business Center, which provides payroll services to around 150 federal agencies, on determining the cause, but that all 922 affected employees would receive at least a partial paycheck by Tuesday, SSA’s “official” pay day. ...
The Partnership for Public Service does an annual survey to determine the Best Places to Work in the Federal Government. The 2020 results are out and Social Security didn't do well at all. The agency came in as the 15th best place to work out of 17 large agencies.
They also rated agency components. Here are the rankings for Social Security's components, out of 411 total agency components:
