What's Going On At OIG?

Ennis

      Back in October there was a report of serious employee dissatisfaction at Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG), centering on actions taken by the agency's Inspector General, Gail Ennis, a Trump appointee, that were viewed as hostile to the workforce.

     There may be no connection whatsoever but OIG's production of reports seems to have dropped down to near zero over the last two months. While I'm sometimes critical of OIG's reports, they're still vital to good management at Social Security.

Another CR Coming

      A continuing resolution (CR) is what Congress does when it can't reach agreement on appropriations. CRs allow agencies to continue spending money at the same rate as in the previous fiscal year. The alternative to a CR is a government shutdown. It looks like there will be a new CR coming up soon. Great new, right? We'll avoid a government shutdown! Actually, while a government shutdown is definitely a bad thing, CRs are worse for Social Security. Without a new appropriation, the agency has little money to spend on overtime and new hires. Backlogs get worse and worse. The damage is minor if the CR is only short term. However, we're already more than a third of the way through the federal fiscal year and there's still no agreement on appropriations. You can blame it on the Republican "rule or ruin" strategy. It's becoming more likely that we'll see a full year CR, which would be disastrous for Social Security. With field offices likely to open soon, the agency will need to spend a lot of money on overtime but it won't have the money.

    Watch out for the length of the CR. If it's short, say a week or two, maybe they're getting closer to an agreement. If it's long, say a month or longer, maybe we're in for a full year CR.

     Update: There's a report out this morning that the CR may be for three weeks, until March 11. The end of March would be halfway through the federal fiscal year.

A Poll

web survey

LGBTQIA+ Forum On February 17

      Social Security will be holding a National Disability Forum on Equitable Access to Social Security Disability Programs for LGBTQIA+ Communities on Thursday, February 17, 2022 via Microsoft Teams from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET.  The agency wants "to learn from stakeholders, advocates, researchers, medical experts, and the public how SSA can provide equitable access to the LGBTQIA+ communities to our disability programs."

OHO Caseload Analysis Report

    The report shown below 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. It contains basic operating statistics for Social Security's Office of Hearings Operations (OHO). 

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. ...