Huge New Workload For Field Offices

     From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is overwhelming its local offices by forcing millions more people to seek in-person service while cutting thousands of staff who provide that help. These offices, which primarily serve seniors, people with disabilities, and bereaved families, helped nearly 32 million visitors last year. But under a new policy set to take effect in August, beneficiaries will be forced to take millions of unnecessary trips to field offices, where they will face longer waits for appointments and slower processing times.

As of mid-August, SSA will no longer allow Social Security beneficiaries to perform routine tasks solely by phone — changing their addresses, checking the status of claims, requesting benefit verification letters, or asking for tax forms — as they’ve been able to do for decades. Instead, beneficiaries seeking to complete those tasks by phone will need to complete a multi-factor, multi-step online verification process to generate a one-time PIN code to help prove their identity.

The new PIN code process will be impossible for many beneficiaries to complete. And if they can’t, they’ll need to travel to a field office. That will require 3.4 million more people to travel to SSA offices annually, by the agency’s own estimates. This will create a significant new burden, particularly for those who live in rural areas or have transportation or mobility difficulties.

    The AARP is expressing opposition to this decision. 

Scare Tactics Having An Effect

      From USA Today:

In an AARP survey released July 22, only 36% of Americans voiced confidence in the future of the retirement trust fund, down from 43% in 2020.   

AAnother July survey, from the nonprofit Alliance for Lifetime Income, found that 58% of older Americans fear Social Security cuts because of recent news about potential changes to the program.  …

In the new AARP survey, 25% of people ages 18-49 voiced confidence in the program’s future, compared with 48% of those 50 and older. …

Senator Warren Isn’t Done

      From The Hill:

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is asking Social Security Administration (SSA) Commissioner Frank Bisignano to provide additional information about the wait times for phone calls, amid reports of discrepancies in data.

In a letter sent Sunday evening to Bisignano, provided exclusively to The Hill, Warren followed up on her meeting with the SSA chief last Wednesday, when, the senator said, she secured a commitment from Bisignano “that SSA would undergo a public audit by the Inspector General regarding your phone call wait time data reporting and that you would publish additional wait time data.” …

She asked Bisignano to provide data by Aug. 11, including on the total number of calls received; details about the calls taken by an artificial intelligence tool — including the percentage of calls dropped, transferred, or ended without resolving the issue; the same details about the calls taken by a human customer service representative. …

Going On From Social Security To Even Bigger Things

Winant

      Tom Margenau, a retired Social Security employee, writes a syndicated newspaper column about Social Security. Most recently he has written about rereading a favorite book, Citizens of London by Lynne Olson, which is about Americans who lived and worked in London during World War II and helped Britain survive. One was Edward R. Murrow, who needs no introduction. Another was Averell Harriman, who was in charge of the Lend-Lease program. Without Lend-Lease Britain could not have survived the Blitz.  The Social Security connection comes with John Gilbert Winant, the U.S Ambassador to the U.K. The Social Security connection is that prior to heading to London Winant had been the first Chairman of what was then the Social Security Board during the agency’s formative years. Winant was a Republican, by the way.

Union Victory Over Trump Administration

      From Reuters:

A federal judge has dismissed a bid by President Donald Trump's administration to obtain judicial permission to cancel dozens of collective bargaining agreements between eight federal agencies and unions representing their employees.

Waco, Texas-based U.S. District Judge Alan Albright decided late on Wednesday that the agencies do not have legal standing to bring a lawsuit to implement a Trump executive order exempting them from having to bargain with unions, handing a victory to the American Federation of Government Employees union, or AFGE. …

The Departments of Defense, Justice, Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, Agriculture and Housing and Urban Development, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Social Security Administration, filed the lawsuit in March. The American Federation of Government Employees represents 800,000 federal workers. …

Are You Suggesting That There’s A Relationship Between Staffing And Productivity? That’s Crazy Talk!

      From a press release issued by Social Security’s Office of Inspector General:

From FY 2019 to FY 2023, Disability Determinations Services (DDS) productivity, measured as Production Per Work Year, decreased by 21 percent, and average processing time increased by 81 percent from 121 to 219 days. The lower productivity and increase in processing times coincided with the loss of key technical staff, including disability examiners who evaluate disability claims and make disability determinations in accordance with laws, regulations, policies, and procedures governing Social Security Administration (SSA) disability programs.

Social Security Always Chickens Out

     From CBS News:

The Social Security Administration said it will continue issuing paper checks to the retirement program's beneficiaries, backing away from a previously announced plan to switch all payments to electronic deposits after Sept. 30. 

On Wednesday, the Social Security Administration told CBS MoneyWatch it would continue issuing paper checks for beneficiaries, including recipients of retirement and disability benefits, who have no other means of getting payments. But the program will also emphasize the advantages of electronic transfers to its roughly 70 million beneficiaries in an effort to encourage check recipients to switch, a Social Security spokesperson added. ...

    I've seen this same scenario play out at least a couple of times before. 

OIG To Audit SSA Performance Data

     From Nextgov:

Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano has agreed to have the agency’s inspector general audit SSA’s performance data and to publicly report a broader list of data, Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said Wednesday after meeting with the longtime financial services businessman who took over the agency in May.

SSA changed what data it reports publicly last month, removing many metrics on the agency’s phone line — such as current call wait times, callback wait times, the number of people waiting on hold and the number waiting for a callback — and processing times for some benefits. 

“More accurate data is absolutely essential to oversight,” said Warren. “So we've gotten commitment to an independent audit of those data and much more transparency about the data that will be posted.” …

     Of course, the IG will take many months to do anything and may shade its report since it’s no longer truly independent.