ERE Workaround

     Social Security has finally issued an alert about the ERE problem that has mostly been blocking access to its online systems for attorneys and others who represent claimant. The alert includes a workaround. Scroll halfway down the page to where it says "'Click this link to go to login page." That seems to work.

Briefs Filed In Puerto Rico SSI Case

      Probably before the end of this year the Supreme Court will hold an oral argument in the case of U.S. v. Vaello-Madero, which presents the issue of whether it is constitutional to deny SSI benefits to U.S. citizens who reside in Puerto Rico. If the Supreme Court holds that it is unconstitutional it is estimated that several hundred thousand Puerto Ricans will file SSI claims. The brief on the merits on behalf of the U.S. was filed on June 7. The brief on the merits on behalf of Mr. Vaello-Madero was filed on August 30.

Online System Failure

      There's a major problem with the system that attorneys use to access their clients' files at Social Security. It's mostly been down since sometime Friday. We're getting the screen you see reproduced here. I've heard reports from some that they can get in but most can't. 

     Social Security has our e-mail addresses. Occasionally, they send out a blast e-mail to us all. For this major system failure? Nada. It's not like they can keep this system failure a secret from us. We know it's not working. A little e-mail saying "We're working on it. We'll let you know once we've got it back up and running" would be appreciated.

     By the way, Social Security employees use a somewhat different version of the same system. Is that working?

Social Security Headcount Declines To Lowest Level Since At Least 2008

  The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has posted updated numbers showing the headcount of employees at each agency. Here are Social Security's numbers as of June with earlier headcount numbers for comparison:

•  June 2021 59,707
  
• March 2021 60,675
• December 2020 61,816
  
• September 2020 61,447
  
• June 2020 60,515
  
• March 2020 60,659
  
• December 2019 61,969
  
• December 2018 62,946
  
• December 2017 62,777
• September 2017 62,297
• June 2017 61,592
• March 2017 62,183
• December 2016 63,364
• December 2015 65,518
• December 2014 65,430
• December 2013 61,957
• December 2012 64,538
• September 2011 67,136
• December 2010 70,270
• December 2009 67,486
• December 2008 63,733

Good Report From CBO While Social Security Actuary Points Finger At Treasury

      From Marketwatch:

… According to the just-released analysis, Social Security’s Old Age and Survivor Insurance (OASI) trust fund will remain solvent a year longer than previously thought. This is the trust fund from which Social Security benefits are paid. …

This new analysis was produced by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the non-partisan agency that analyzes the budget impact of various legislative proposals. To put its findings in context, it’s helpful to remember that every year the office of Social Security’s chief actuary updates its assessment of the OASI trust fund’s solvency. Its annual report typically is released in the spring.

No such report has been forthcoming this year, however. In an email, the chief actuary’s office told me that the decision about when to release its annual report is not theirs to make but instead is made by the U.S. Treasury Department. An email earlier this summer to that department asking for when this report will be forthcoming went unanswered. …

     Anyone want to speculate on why Treasury is holding this up?

What's Going On With The Delay In The Trustees Report?

      Senator Mike Crapo, the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee (which has jurisdiction over Social Security), is asking the Comptroller General of the United States and the head of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to look into the question of why the annual report of the Social Security trustees is so late.

    If nothing else, I think that the public as well as Crapo deserve an explanation on why the trustees report is so late. It was due by April 1, 2021. Nobody gets excited if it's a little late (which it usually is) but a delay of nearly five months needs an explanation.

Silly Fibs Happen When SSA Employees Are Stretched Past Their Limits

      I seem to be hearing an increase in silly fibs from Social Security employees designed to terminate telephone calls without the Social Security employee having to actually do something about a problem. Example: We called to ask about a missing SSI attorney fee payment and were told "You've already been paid. What you thought was just your Title II attorney fee payment was actually a payment for both the SSI and Title II attorney fees."  No, it doesn't work like that. Title II and SSI payments are never mixed. Field office employees know this as well as I do. Yes, the windfall offset can wipe out an SSI attorney fee but it would have been simple to have told us that but that's not what we were told and there's certainly been no notice to that effect or we wouldn't have been calling in the first place.

     My point here isn't that Social Security employees are liars. No, they're generally truthful and helpful but things are just a mess at Social Security now. There are huge backlogs everywhere. Field office and payment center employees are overwhelmed. Stretch good employees past their limits and things happen that shouldn't happen. Social Security's grossly inadequate operating budget is the problem here.

Grim Numbers

      From David Weaver writing for The Hill:

Last week, for the first time, the Social Security Administration (SSA) released information on the number of beneficiaries who died in 2020, the year the COVID-19 pandemic began. There were nearly 400,000 more beneficiary deaths in 2020 than the agency tabulated for 2019, representing a 17 percent year-over-year increase. ...

SSA’s statistics almost certainly reflect the concentration of COVID-19 deaths among the populations the agency serves. The CDC's death data, which includes all individuals and not just Social Security beneficiaries, indicates about 500,000 more deaths occurred in the United States in 2020 than in 2019. The CDC estimates that approximately 375,000 deaths in 2020 were due to COVID-19. ...