We realize it may be a stretch for ordinary people to want to keep up with the comings and goings of the Social Security Administration, but sometimes circumstances permit where someone does want to follow the latest news regarding the agency due to a possible retirement or disability interest. This blog is a piecemeal of recent stories that have involved Social Security. Some are tidbits and some are important things that should be known in the world of retirement or disability and others are just interesting stories and nothing more.
The latest figures on the number of employees the Social Security Administration has on-hand to do the work of the agency was recently released. As of March 2016 there were 64,264 employees at Social Security. This is the lowest employee total at Social Security since June 2014 when the total number was 62,651. Some people may applaud the fact that the agency’s number of employees is being reduced, but considering there is more work for the employees than at any other time it seems like a bad decision to continue to reduce the total number of employees. As we have said previously, there are more than 1 million Americans waiting for disability hearings across the country, something that has never previously happened before.
Social Security has revised its Listings for neurological disorders. The new listings go into effect September 24, 2016. Social Security’s Listings are a set of impairments and their severities related to the rules of disability. Some of Social Security’s Listings have not been changed in quite some time. Because a new diagnosis and how it impacts people can change over the years, and the understanding of certain conditions change, it is important for Social Security to review and revise its Listings to make them more relevant to today’s standards. The last time Social Security revised the Listings for neurological disorders was December of 1985. To learn more about the changes to the Listings click here.
Social Security recently closed a district office due to some graffiti being written on the outside of the building. The words spray painted on the building were “Bomb the System.” The Green Bay, Wisconsin Social Security office was closed June 28 after the graffiti was discovered. Police said the decision was made by Social Security to close the office, but the agency cannot really be held accountable for closing the office after a threat is initiated no matter how small the perceived threat is. The knucklehead who decided to deface the building is the one who made hundreds of people have to waste their time going to Social Security that day when the office was closed.
There are a lot of good services to be accessed at Social Security’s website – www.ssa.gov – but the agency’s website is not without its glitches. In late June there were reports that people were having difficulty accessing any kind of service on the website. We too have noticed some recent issues with the site while trying to complete appeals for clients. The good thing is Social Security usually resolves any sort of technologic problem with its website rather quickly and the problems did not persist for too long. Social Security now provides its own blog on the agency’s happening at its website and also provides another section on the latest news impacting the agency. Considering Social Security is in charge of this information you probably won’t find any negative information here.
