What’s The Backup Plan?

     From CBS:

Frank Bisignano, commissioner of the Social Security Administration, told CBS News that he believes technology, and specifically artificial intelligence, could be the key to improving his agency's customer service, despite recent changes that have prompted concern among some of the nearly 69 million Americans that receive Social Security each month. 

"We're bringing a massive technology effort to transform the servicing agenda," Bisignano said. "We're gonna bring AI into the phone system...I intend it to be completed this year."  …

      From the New York Times:

… “The technology we’re building today is not sufficient to get [to Artificial General Intelligence or A.G.I. which would be needed to switch Social Security phone service mostly to A.I.]”,  said Nick Frosst, a founder of the A.I. start-up Cohere who previously worked as a researcher at Google and studied under the most revered A.I. researcher of the last 50 years. “What we are building now are things that take in words and predict the next most likely word, or they take in pixels and predict the next most likely pixel. That’s very different from what you and I do.”

In a recent survey of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, a 40-year-old academic society that includes some of the most respected researchers in the field, more than three-quarters of respondents said the methods used to build today’s technology were unlikely to lead to A.G.I. …

         The AI phone system that Social Security has tried to implement has been a complete failure so far. I’m not aware of any institution that has an AI phone system that would come close to what Social Security needs. There is good reason to believe that no such system will be in the offing any time soon, if ever. My question is, what’s your backup plan, Mr. Bisignano?

Visiting Offices In New Jersey

 

Rulings Rescinded

      From a notice posted by Social Security in the Federal Register:

By this notice we are rescinding the following [Social Security Rulings]:

• SSR 83-33: Titles II and XVI: Determining Whether Work Is  Substantial Gainful Activity--Employees;
• SSR 83-34: Titles II and XVI: Determining Whether Work Is  Substantial Gainful Activity--Self-Employed Persons;
• SSR 83-35: Titles II and XVI: Averaging of Earnings in Determining Whether Work Is Substantial Gainful Activity;
• SSR 84-25: Titles II and XVI: Determination of Substantial  Gainful Activity If Substantial Work Activity Is Discontinued or Reduced--Unsuccessful Work Attempt; and
• SSR 84-26: Titles II and XVI: Deducting Impairment-Related Work Expenses From Earnings In Determinations As To Substantial Gainful Activity Under Titles II And XVI And As To Countable Earned Income Under Title XVI. ….

     The stated reason for rescinding the SSRs is that subsequent regulations have superseded them. 

Dudek Pens Op Ed

      Former Acting Commissioner Leland Dudek has written an Op Ed for the New York Post about the “media’s Social Security hysteria”. It’s about what you’d expect.

Memorial Day 2025

 

South And Midwest Rely More On Social Security

     From Southern and Midwestern districts are the most vulnerable to Social Security cuts and disruptions posted by the Economic Policy Institute (click on image to view full size):

 

Recording Of A Small Part Of Bisignano’s Talk To Staff Surfaces

     If this was the worst issue with Bisignano I wouldn’t be concerned but here’s the part where Bisignano talks about googling his new job. There are worse things than sounding a bit goofy. I’m afraid we’ll see those worse things.

Here’s An Idea For The Commissioner

      From Social Security’s Office of Inspector

 While SSA has made progress implementing corrective actions for both the OASDI and SSI programs, the Agency did not demonstrate improvements to payment integrity or achieve its tolerable improper payment rate for the SSI program. The SSI improper payment rate increased from 9.41 percent (approximately $5.3 billion) in Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 to 10.62 percent (approximately $6.5 billion) in FY 2023.

According to SSA, the Agency’s reliance on self-reporting by beneficiaries, recipients, and their representative payees—who are required to notify SSA when a change occurs affecting their SSI eligibility or payment amounts—leads to many improper payments.  Failure to report these changes continues to be a primary cause of overpayments. 

One of the leading causes of overpayments to SSI recipients is recipients’ unreported resources in financial accounts that exceed allowable amounts. SSA has tools, such as the Access to Financial Institutions (AFI) program, to help identify excess resources.  Using AFI, SSA verifies alleged bank account balances with financial institutions and searches for undisclosed accounts at geographically relevant locations.  SSA uses AFI when it processes initial SSI applications and periodic eligibility redeterminations.

However, according to SSA, in FY 2023, 89 percent of overpayments resulting from excess resources in financial accounts occurred because of recipients’ changes after SSA approved their initial SSI applications or completed eligibility redeterminations. 

OIG estimates SSA could have prevented approximately $2 billion in overpayments in FY 2023 had it performed AFI searches between approving recipients’ initial applications and completing redeterminations.

OIG previously recommended SSA conduct a study to expand the use of AFI.  SSA has not implemented this recommendation.

     The problem with implementing this is probably the delay it would cause but, hey, it’s only SSI so it wouldn’t matter to a Republican if the benefits are never paid!