Most people realize that the Social Security Administration provides disability and retirement payments to millions of Americans every year, but few people have any idea how the agency is organized.
In all, Social Security has more than 1,400 offices across the country and has a presence in United States embassies all over the world.
At the head of the agency is the Social Security commissioner who has a staff of nearly 60,000 employees. The central office is located in Baltimore, Maryland, but the agency also has 10 regional offices, six processing centers and roughly 1,230 field offices.
Assisting the commissioner are several deputy commissioners in all sorts of different departments, actuaries, legal counsel, administrative law judges and many other employees. The commissioner has a full-time chief of staff and even the chief of staff has a deputy.
In addition to the commissioners and all the deputy commissioners, there are 10 regional commissioners. These commissioners in the states of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Kansas City, Denver, San Francisco and Seattle territorially oversee offices all across the country.
At one time or another you may have wondered if there is any significance or criteria used when people are given Social Security numbers, there is. The first three numbers of a Social Security number are assigned by the geographical region in which the person was born or at the time the Social Security number was provided. Because numbers were assigned beginning in the northeast and moved westward, people on the east coast tend to have the lowest numbers and those on the west coast have the highest numbers.
In 2011 Social Security decided to change how it applied Social Security numbers, going to a more random system to better protect Social Security numbers for individuals. To learn more click here.
