Theresa Gruber, Head Of OHO, Alleged To Be Exhibiting Signs Of Serious Impairment

     From the Washington Post:

When the Social Security Administration’s inspector general investigated allegations earlier this year that one of the agency’s senior leaders was routinely impaired on the job, six witnesses painted an alarming picture.

Theresa Gruber, a deputy commissioner overseeing around 9,000 employees and a $1.2 billion budget in the hearings and appeals operation, displayed “significant anomalies” at work over the course of at least a year, including slurred speech in which she “appeared intoxicated,” leaving meetings without notice, slouching in her chair and aggressive behavior, witnesses told investigators.

 But five months after acting Social Security commissioner Kilolo Kijakazi was presented with the internal report, which The Washington Post obtained, Gruber remains on the job. The allegations by witnesses were corroborated to The Post by three members of Gruber’s senior staff, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters.

In recent months, Inspector General Gail Ennis’s office has received more formal complaints about Gruber’s conduct, according to people with knowledge of the communications. She has continued to act erratically, three agency employees said, and in recent weeks has missed several meetings of her leadership team. ...

 Staff members told investigators that while they did not directly witness Gruber consuming alcohol on the job, her comportment led them to wonder if she had been drinking. Gruber, 53, is also diabetic, the report notes, a condition that, when poorly treated, can cause irritability, disorientation or slurred speech. She told a close circle of colleagues that she was dealing with medical issues stemming from the condition, according to the report. ...

One high-ranking official interviewed by The Post described a “rudderless” department under Gruber, who sometimes does not communicate with her staff for days at a time, the official said. “She is MIA, and they’re not holding anyone accountable,” said this person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss matters publicly. Another official described “delays to decision-making” and important meetings and difficulty getting Gruber’s attention — factors they say threaten the department’s mission to conduct impartial hearings and issue decisions on appeals involving retirement and survivor and disability benefits for poor and elderly Americans. ...

House Approprations Committee Report On FY 2023 Bill Covering SSA

    From the House Committee Report on the FY 2023 appropriations bill covering the Social Security Administration (the Social Security part begins on page 315):

...  Within the total recommended increase, the Committee expects SSA to direct not less than $630,000,000 for field offices, teleservice centers, and program service centers, and $190,000,000 to replace losses and build capacity at the State Disability Determination Services (DDS) agencies that make disability determinations for SSA. ...

The Committee continues to consider the Final Rule ‘‘Hearings Held by Administrative Appeals Judges of the Appeals Council’’ (85 Fed. Reg. 73138, December 16, 2020) to be an unjustified erosion of due process for individuals who are appealing a denial of Social Security or SSI benefits. ...

The Committee directs SSA to submit a report to the Committee within 180 days of enactment of this Act exploring the feasibility of using employee incentives, including an agency student loan repayment program, to improve recruitment and retention for qualified candidates across the agency. ...

The Committee understands that the Office of Hearings Operations (OHO) relies on legal assistants to conduct a broad range of work supporting hearings and reviewing work of its administrative law judges, and urges SSA to examine the position descriptions of legal assistants, pay and actual work conducted, to ensure that job classifications and compensation are commensurate with current duties. ...

    Note that this is only the House version. The Senate version will be different. The Reports aren't mandatory in any case. Only the enacted provisions are mandatory. However, agencies ignore the Committee reports at their peril.

The Reports Of COBOL's Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

     In recent years many have decried Social Security's reliance on old mainframe computers running programs written in the very old COBOL language. Many have thought this to be a major problem holding back progress at Social Security. As this New York Times article demonstrates, maybe using COBOL isn't bad at all. At the least, COBOL remains in common use:

Caitlin Mooney is 24 years old and infatuated with technology that dates to the age of Sputnik.

Mooney, a recent New Jersey Institute of Technology graduate in computer science, is a fan of technologies that were hot a half-century ago, including computer mainframes and software called COBOL that powers them. That stuff won’t win any cool points in Silicon Valley, but it is essential technology at big banks, insurance companies, government agencies and other large institutions.

During Mooney’s job hunt, potential employers saw her expertise and wanted to talk about more senior positions than she was seeking. “They would get really excited,” Mooney told me. She’s now trying to decide between multiple job offers.

The resilience of decades-old computing technologies and the people who specialize in them shows that new technologies are often built on lots of old tech.

When you deposit money using your bank’s iPhone app, behind the scenes it probably involves computers that are the progeny of those used in the Apollo moon missions. (Also, half-century-old computer code is baked into the iPhone software.)

It’s often seen as a problem or a punchline that so much musty technology is still around. But it’s not necessarily an issue.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” joked Ellora Praharaj, director of reliability engineering at Stack Overflow, an online forum popular with tech workers. “Students out of school these days don’t necessarily want to work in uncool older languages. But the reality of the world is this is what powers many of our existing systems.”

Praharaj said she learned COBOL in college in the mid-2000s and “hated it.” But until about five years ago, she was regularly using a 1950s computer programming technology called Fortran in a former job in the financial services industry. The old stuff is everywhere.

Latin is dead, but old computer programming languages like COBOL live on. ...

Four Years In Slammer For Former SSA Employee

     From a press release:

Eric Lemoyne Willis, 46, of West Sacramento, was sentenced today to four years in prison for conspiracy to defraud the United States, theft of government property, and aggravated identity theft, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.

According to court documents, Willis and co-defendants, Darron Dimitri Ross, 36, of Charlotte, North Carolina, and Joshua Bilal George, 39, of San Diego, conspired to steal public money from the Social Security Administration (SSA). Willis worked as an SSA Operations Supervisor in Sacramento and Lodi from 2015 until his departure in January 2018. During this timeframe, Willis used his authority as an SSA employee to access the confidential Social Security records of numerous Social Security beneficiaries. These records contained personally identifiable information (PII) including names, addresses, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, account numbers, family information, and benefit payment amounts. Willis would seek out PII for beneficiaries who used direct deposit for payment of large benefits. Willis then gave this PII to Ross who resided in North Carolina.

Ross and George’s roles in these crimes included calling numerous SSA field offices across the country and using the stolen PII to impersonate the beneficiaries. Ross also opened at least 44 online bank accounts under fraudulent identities to receive diverted SSA benefit payments. If Ross succeeded in convincing an SSA representative that he was the beneficiary, he would request that the beneficiary’s direct deposit account be changed to one of the conspirators’ fraudulent accounts. ...

It's Brutal

     From WFTS in Tampa Bay:

...  Brett Chamberlin's letters from the Social Security Administration have piled up.

“They send me letters saying, you didn’t come for your interview. I didn’t have an interview. You didn’t submit the information we requested. You didn’t request any information,” Chamberlin said.

He has been going back and forth with the SSA office since 2017, when he was first diagnosed with Polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) and Giant Cell Arteritis. ...

Chamberlin depends on high flow oxygen 100% of the time and uses a wheelchair to get around. He tells ABC Action News he was declared disabled by his doctor but has been denied Social Security disability. ...

“We’re not able to survive. I have sold everything that I owned of any value with the exception of my wedding ring,” Chamberlin said. ...

Processing Times Continue To Creep Up Even Though OHO Receipts Continue To Drop

     A report from Social Security on operations at its Office of Hearings Operations (OHO).

Click on image to view full size

Getting There At 6:00 AM Isn't Early Enough

     From WESH:

Long lines were reported at the Orlando Social Security Office Wednesday.

One woman told WESH 2 she arrived at 6 a.m. ahead of the office opening at 9 a.m. As of 11:30 a.m., she was still waiting and it was her second day in line. She said she and her dad came yesterday morning at 7a.m. and was home because the lines were too long.

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Another woman said she came because the office misspelled her daughter’s name and they told her to come in person. ...

    There's a similar piece on another local station in Orlando.

Already Waiting Outside Social Security Field Office At 5:51 AM

Photo taken at 5:51 AM

     From Spectrum News:

The long lines outside Orlando's Social Security office have continued early Wednesday morning.

Dozens of Central Florida residents in search of Social Security services waited hours outside the Orlando Social Security office under the hot Florida sun Tuesday afternoon.

Some arrived as early as 2:00 a.m. Wednesday to try to guarantee an appointment this morning. The office opens at 9 a.m. ...

In a statement, a Social Security Administration spokesperson advised residents to book appointments over the phone or online to avoid waiting in lines.

However, people who waited in line told Spectrum News 13 that they tried, but were not able to book an appointment using those services.