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Field Office Losses Under VSIP

     Voluntary Separation Incentive Program is one of several programs designed to induce Social Security employees to leave their jobs. It's probably the most important of the programs as far as the agency's field offices are concerned. Below is a map showing where the worst field office losses have occurred followed by a list of those offices with a 25% or greater loss. As always, click on the image to see it full size but the map is still a bit hard to read even then. The bottom line is that green represents less than 15% loss. Yellow represents 15-25% loss. Red represents greater than 25% loss.

 

Southwest	713-MINDEN LA	37.50%
	A15-COLORADO RIVER BASIN /	28.57%
	840-LAREDO TX	27.78%
	B57-FLAGSTAFF AZ	27.27%
	E24-EL PASO DOWNTOWN TX	25.00%
	B50-MARSHALL TX	25.00%
	859-ROSWELL NM	25.00%
	766-RUSSELLVILLE AR	25.00%
	852-SAN ANTONIO NW TX	24.56%

Frank Bisignano Ringing The Closing Bell At The New York Stock Exchange Yesterday On The Stock Market's Worst Day In Five Years

RIFs Threatened Soon

   From the Washington Post:

The Social Security Administration — already reeling from plunging customer service following a rapid downsizing under the Trump administration — is drafting plans to begin layoffs of potentially thousands more employees as soon as next week.
The cuts have been ordered by leaders of Elon Musk’s cost-cutting team, the U.S. DOGE Service … 

The DOGE team did not provide a specific number of jobs that must be eliminated, officials said, but asked for staff reductions to broad areas of operation, including communications, personnel, legislative and congressional affairs, retirement and disability policy, and other “support components.” Also on the list is the information technology department of about 4,000 employees, which is confronting a flurry of website crashes that has shut out customers from accessing their benefit information. Up to 800 people could be laid off in that department, according to one senior official. …

       And from CNN:

The Social Security Administration plans to slash its technology team by nearly one-third at a time when the agency’s complex and fragile computer systems are crashing more often. Top executives in the agency’s Office of the Chief Information Officer, known as OCIO, have been tasked with cutting 30% of its staff as part of a large-scale reduction-in-force being implemented across the federal government, according to two former employees with direct knowledge of the plan. The office had about 3,200 employees, though it has already lost hundreds of experienced workers due to retirement and separation incentives. (It has also gained some staffers after the agency shuttered other divisions and transferred the functions to OCIO.) …

     If you were trying to crash the agency, this would be how you would do it. I’m not sure that’s the intent. It really doesn’t matter. That’s the effect. 

    

Does This Register With Republican Politicians From Rural Areas?

     From The Administrative Burden Experienced by U.S. Rural Residents Accessing Social Security Administration Benefit Programs in 2024 by Debra L. Brucker, Stacia Bach, Megan Henly, Andrew Houtenville and Kelly Nye-Lengerman

Abstract: This project used a community-engaged qualitative research approach to address the following research aims: 1) examine information- and service-related barriers that rural persons with disabilities, family members of persons with disabilities, and older adults face in accessing information about and services related to U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) benefit programs, and 2) solicit recommendations for community-level and SSA-level actions that could improve rural resident access to information and services. ... Conducted in 2024 in the State of New Hampshire, the research team first engaged with twelve individuals who had lived experience of disability and/or were older adults (age 62+) to jointly develop focus group questions and recruitment strategies. The research team then held in-person and virtual focus groups and interviews with 40 rural residents to address the research aims noted above. The qualitative analysis revealed that rural residents, particularly those attempting to access or receiving disability benefits, experienced high levels of administrative burden. Persons with stronger social networks were better able to overcome these barriers to services. Regardless of type of benefit receipt, people very strongly preferred having access to an SSA field office in person instead of communicating with SSA by e-mail, mail, or phone. Most rural residents did not prefer using technology to communicate with SSA as many had limited access to and knowledge about technology.  ...

Another Day, Another Lawsuit

     From CNBC:

A group of disability advocates filed a federal lawsuit against the Social Security Administration and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency on Wednesday aimed at stopping cuts to the agency’s services.

Recent changes at the Social Security Administration under DOGE — including staff reductions, the elimination of certain offices and new requirements to seek in-person services — have made it more difficult for individuals with disabilities and older adults to access benefits, the lawsuit argues.

The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

The plaintiffs include the National Federation of the Blind, the American Association of People with Disabilities, Deaf Equality, the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, the Massachusetts Senior Action Council and individual beneficiaries. ...

    There is a staggering amount of litigation against the Trump Administration for the brutality it has caused across the government. If you're on X or Bluesky follow the feeds of the Trump Litigation Bot if you dare. You'll be overwhelmed. This litigation has to be sapping the resources of even the Department of Justice.

Bisignano Received No Democratic Votes From Finance Committee

      The Bisignano nomination to become Commissioner of Social Security advanced out of the Finance Committee on a narrow 14-13 party line vote. Not a rousing endorsement.

Social Security Doing A Poor Job Of Resolving Critical Issues

      From a recent report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General:

Objective
To determine whether employees submitted and processed Manager-to-Manager (M2M) requests in accordance with Social Security Administration (SSA) policy.

Background
When a field office (FO), processing center (PC), or teleservice center employee identifies a critical issue for a beneficiary that requires another office’s action, managers can expedite action for the beneficiary by initiating an M2M request. Managers should only use M2M for high priority requests, such as beneficiaries who have terminal illnesses; made homicidal, suicidal, or potentially violent behavior threats; or are in dire need situations, such as facing eviction or homelessness.

Given the critical nature of M2M requests, FO and PC employees must address them within 5-business days or provide an interim reply to the requesting manager explaining the delay.
We reviewed a random sample of 100 M2M requests: 50 in a “resolved” status from June 1, 2021 through June 1, 2023 and 50 in a “pending” status as of June 1, 2023.

Results
SSA employees generally submitted M2M requests according to SSA policy; however, they did not always follow policy when they processed M2M requests. Of the 100 M2M requests we sampled, FO and PC employees did not process 57 requests according to policy.

• For 48 requests, FO and PC employees did not process them timely, resulting in delays in employees addressing critical issues and beneficiaries waiting weeks or months to receive the benefits they were due. 
  

• For 9 requests, PC employees placed them in a “resolved” status in the M2M application before completing all necessary actions to address the requests.
  

SSA managers provided reasons for delays, and we identified control weaknesses that contributed to delays, such as: (1) case complexity; (2) insufficient communication between offices, including no notifications in the M2M application when employees take action on requests; and (3) the absence of controls that prevent employees from prematurely closing M2M requests.  ...

    This is the sort of thing that drives me and other Social Security attorneys crazy We can't get problems resolved.