Ralph de Juliis On Social Security Service Problems

de Juliis

      Ralph de Juliis, the head of the union that represents most Social Security employees, has written a piece for Federal News Network on the subject of the service that his union members are giving the public. To understand this piece, you must know that de Juliis is highly focused on keeping his members working from home for as long as possible, ideally for ever. Thus, even though he acknowledges that there are problems, he claims that telephone service has gotten better during the pandemic. I don't know how he can say that with a straight face. He also tells us that Social Security should reorganize its operations so union members don't have to come back to their offices. Somebody, anybody other than his union members, should be helping claimants with their sensitive documents. He doesn't address the manifold other service delivery problems at Social Security. He could make a claim that bringing employees back to their offices wouldn't help so much with all these other problems -- and he might be at least partially right -- but he doesn't even address the massive backlogs that Social Security has in every part of its operations apart from holding hearings and issuing ALJ decisions. 

    The argument for getting agency employees back in their offices is fairly simple. Service took a nosedive once the pandemic hit and employees started working from home. Wouldn't getting these employees back to their offices as soon as possible help? You can say that the sharp decline in service has a lot to do with the agency's poor appropriations but claiming that none of the decline in service has to do with work from home?

     In any case, Social Security employees will soon start heading back to their offices at least part of the time. Let's hope that helps because things are in bad, bad shape.

How Long Can Kijakazi Stay As Acting Commissioner?

      Questions have been asked about the length of time that Kililo Kijakazi has served as Acting Commissioner of Social Security. The Vacancies Reform Act places limits on the length of time that a person can serve in an acting capacity as head of a federal agency. The contrary argument has been that the Vacancies Reform Act doesn't apply to an Acting Commissioner of Social Security since the Social Security Act itself has a specific provision concerning the designation of an Acting Commissioner which supersedes the Vacancies Reform Act. For whatever reason, the job of deciding how the Vacancies Reform Act applies to various positions has been lodged with the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The GAO has now issued an official ruling on the question. Kijakazi can continue to serve as Acting Commissioner because the Vacancies Reform Act doesn't apply to Social Security.

     The GAO ruling, of course, gives no answer to the question of why the President hasn't nominated a Commissioner. My guess is that because of the firing of Andrew Saul that Republicans would mount a pitched battle against the confirmation of anyone as Commissioner and the President, or more likely Senate Democratic leaders, don't want to waste the time on it. 

    I don't like the idea that only Republicans can be confirmed as Commissioner of Social Security.

OK, We Know Nobody Cares About Disabled Claimants, What About Widows? Do We Care About Them?

      From TheNews.com:

The day after her husband’s funeral, Rondell Gulick called Social Security. Now alone with their nine children, the stay-at-home mom faced what would become a months-long process of claiming the benefits she was counting on to keep her family afloat.

Gulick, like many people trying to access benefits, is at the mercy of phone calls. Across the country, Social Security Administration offices have been closed since the start of the pandemic and with nearly 900,000 additional deaths caused by coronavirus, there are thousands of people seeking Social Security survivors benefits, some who know little about the process. The majority of people seeking survivors benefits, by far, are women. ...

Applications that could be completed in one in-person visit in a normal year are taking weeks and even months to complete. 

Gulick has spent hours and hours on the phone in the weeks after her husband’s death to try to get the benefits most of her children qualify for. ...

Ben Gulick’s death was sudden: He was only 45 when he died January 2 from complications related to COVID-19. Donations from family and friends have helped, but they will keep them going for only so long. 

“Dealing with so many hurdles on top of dealing with loss, while also trying to help nine children grieve this process” has been stressful, Gulick said. “I do not know what our future holds. I just don’t know.”  ...

Brianna Berry, 31, only started to seek out survivors benefits after other widows told her she could apply. Her husband, Lewis, was one of the earliest and youngest deaths from COVID-19 in the state of Indiana. He died in April 2020 at age 37. 

Berry spent a part of those early months after Lewis died on the phone trying to reach someone at Social Security. At first she didn’t know if she could go in person, or even who to call. She couldn’t find information on how to apply on the website or what she qualified for. When she found a number to call, she bounced around between different phone numbers and representatives until she was finally able to apply.  ...

Jolene Reeves hasn’t been able to get through to Social Security. After half a dozen calls spending 45 minutes to more than an hour on hold, the Georgia resident only has a phone appointment scheduled for the end of March. ...

 

Miscellany

      Some stories from the weekend:

• Washington Post article on Social Security's field office problems;
• Nancy Altman urges an end to the "starvation" of Social Security's field offices;
• Binder and Binder -- the law firm -- gets a big payday.
  

Seditious Conspiracy And Social Security Benefits

One of those charged

      Eleven individuals have been charged with seditious conspiracy in connection with the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. Did you know that they can lose their Social Security benefits if convicted? It's right there in 42 U.S.C. §402(u). It's not automatic. It's at the discretion of the judge in sentencing. The way it's accomplished is by wiping out any existing wage credits so it would be possible to re-establish entitlement to benefits by continuing to work but, of course, after conviction there's likely to be a significant prison sentence.

     I'll bet that Social Security hasn't had to deal with this provision too often.

     Perhaps some of the accused are among those on the right who go around saying "I'll never receive a penny in Social Security." If so, I wonder how they will react to the possibility that their prediction will come true -- but just for them.

Don't Think We'd Have Seen This While Trump Was In Office

      From a new update to Social Security's main operating manual (POMS):

Transgender individuals contact us for all of the same reasons other people do. ... During and after any interaction with a transgender individual, be mindful to:

• Protect the confidentiality of each individual;
• Always treat the individual with dignity and respect;
• Ask only questions that are necessary to complete the transaction;
• When speaking to or calling a person, use the name and pronouns appropriate to the individual’s self-identified gender, even if the person has not changed his or her name or updated his or her records; and
• Be aware that the individual’s gender transition is a personal matter. Questions or comments regarding a person’s medical treatment and appearance are inappropriate.

Nomination To SSAB

     From a press release:

President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Sharon Lewis of Oregon to serve on the Social Security Advisory Board ... The position is subject to Senate confirmation.

Lewis is a Principal at Health Management Associates, where she consults with government entities, providers, and advocates to advance opportunities for people with disabilities to fully participate in all aspects of their communities. Before that, Lewis served nearly six years in presidentially appointed roles at the Department of Health and Human Services. There, she was one of the chief architects of the Administration for Community Living and worked to improve access to quality integrated home and community-based services by working with states, stakeholders, and other federal agencies, including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Social Security Administration, and the Departments of Labor, Education, Transportation, and Justice.

Before joining the Obama administration, Lewis worked as a Senior Disability Policy Advisor to the House Committee on Education & Labor and as a Kennedy Public Policy Fellow for the Senate HELP Subcommittee on Children and Families. Lewis is the recipient of the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities Chairman’s Award and is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis. ...

Walk In Service Matters -- Especially If SSA Can't Answer Its Phones

     From HuffPost:

Byron Jones just wanted a printout with his Social Security number on it so he could apply for an apartment.

But when Jones showed up to the Social Security office in Northeast D.C. with a receipt saying he’d filled out an online application for a replacement card, a man at the door turned him away, explaining the office is closed except for appointments.

Jones, a 45-year-old hospital worker, didn’t know what else to do. If he has to wait until the replacement card arrives in the mail, he said, he’ll miss his chance this week to fill out a rental application for the apartment he wants.

“No one answers the phone,” he said. “It hangs up on me and then when I get down to the Social Security place, they say I’m not allowed to come in.” ...

Jones ...  was just one of five people HuffPost observed knocking on the Northeast D.C. field office door Monday and being turned away — all within half an hour.  ...

In May 2021, the Social Security Administration announced people who need replacement cards can arrange special “express interviews,” but only if they’re unable to order a new card online, as Jones had already done. Jones said he had planned to apply for an apartment this week and the card won’t arrive on time, and all he needed was some other document proving he had a Social Security number.

The field office worker who turned Jones away gave him a number to call. He dialed it right away and got a busy signal.

     I keep posting this sort of thing because the biggest issue facing the Social Security Administration now, by far, is its inability to do that which it was created to do, serve the public. I see an agency in the midst of a crisis. It seems incapable of doing anything other than urging the public to use its online systems, even though it knows that the online systems are incapable of handling many issues and many people with issues are incapable of using the online systems for anything.