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 an ongoing 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 Fight Over Funding
Now that we have one party in control of the U.S. House of Representatives (Republicans) and one party in control of the U.S. Senate (Democrats) funding for government agencies is expected to be contentious in developing a budget for the next fiscal year. Below we take a look at President Joe Biden’s proposed budget and how it would impact Social Security funding.
• Office of Inspector General would get only about a 5% increase in its operating budget. The rest of Social Security would get about 10%.
• “The Budget includes an increase of $60 million for teleservice centers to reduce wait times by over 40 percent and substantially reduce busy rates from 15 percent to 3 percent.”
• “Addressing Processing Center Backlogs. The Budget includes an increase of over $75 million for PCs to handle more work.”
• “To address the large backlog of initial disability claims and the additional claims we expect to receive in FY 2024, the Budget expands processing capacity by increasing staffing at the DDS offices. As a result, we expect the DDSs to process over 400,000 more initial disability claims and over 200,000 more reconsiderations than in FY 2023.”
Republicans in the House have proposed their own appropriations for the next fiscal years. This proposal is not what Social Security was looking for as it would reduce the funding level back to fiscal year 2022 number. If enacted Social Security says the agency would have to close fields offices and institute a hiring freeze. Below are the measures Social Security says it would need to take if the Republican proposal was passed.
• Close field offices and shorten hours we are open to the public, cutting off vital access to face-to-face service delivery.
• Increase the amount of time individuals wait for a decision on their initial disability claim, leading to an average wait time of 9 months, or up to 30 percent longer than today.
• Implement a hiring freeze for the agency and the DDS, which means a reduction of over 5,000 employees who are essential to processing retirement claims, making disability decisions, answering the National 800 Number, and issuing new and replacement Social Security cards.
• Furlough staff for over 4 weeks and lay off approximately 6,000 employees—producing even longer wait times than customers experience today on our National 800 Number and in our field offices, causing delays to decisions on retirement claims and delays in processing Social Security cards and verification of Social Security Numbers for individuals seeking employment.
• Eliminate overtime pay, reducing our ability to keep pace with claims and other service requests.
