A few days ago acting Social Security commissioner Nancy Berryhill released a memo to all Social Security employees about the federal hiring freeze issued by President Donald Trump January 25. Unfortunately there was not much to update as there has been no changes to this hiring freeze.
The hiring freeze requires that no new employees can be hired by Social Security even when vacancies in positions occur. Berryhill said that the agency will utilize “limited flexibilities provided to us by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM)” to combat the hiring freeze. She specifically mentioned “career ladder promotions or reassignments and details to fill positions.”
Unfortunately that does not make it clear how Social Security is really going to deal with the hiring freeze, but Berryhill insisted that the goal is to “ensure the continuation of essential services and benefit payments.”
Most people who are receiving Social Security benefits, or applying for disability, retirement or survivor’s benefits would argue that all the services they are trying to obtain are “essential.”
Berryhill is put in a difficult situation as the new acting commissioner. In all reality her hands are tied on how to deal with the hiring freeze and Berryhill is unable to replace open positions when Social Security is experiencing the largest backlog in the number of people waiting for disability hearings in history.
The only possible silver lining to this story is that the hiring freeze is not permanent, but no one knows whether or not Social Security can go back to staffing critical positions once the hiring freeze expires.
“Keep in mind, this pause is temporary while OPM develops broader plans for the federal workforce over the next few months,” Berryhill wrote. “I sincerely appreciate your dedication to our work and the public we serve.”
