Included in the “Social Security Administration Accountability Act are the following administrative improvements:
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Americans contact the Social Security Administration at the most vulnerable points in their lives — upon the death of a loved one, retirement, or when facing a life-changing disability. The last thing they need is a hassle in securing benefits.
After all, they paid for those benefits during their working years through Social Security payroll taxes. But thanks to draconian budget cuts to the Social Security Administration (SSA), too many applicants face long hold times and busy signals— or deadly-long waits for disability hearings.
Literally thousands of disabled Americans die every year waiting for adjudication of claims. Meanwhile, some 10,000 Baby Boomers become eligible for Social Security retirement benefits every day. You don’t have to be an actuary to figure out: When workloads increase and funding is cut, service suffers.
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Americans contact the Social Security Administration at the most vulnerable points in their lives – upon the death of a loved one, upon retirement, or when facing a life-changing disability. At those points, these individuals should receive compassionate, timely, and efficient service in response to their needs. After all, they have paid their Social Security taxes for years, earning the benefits they seek, and the right to high quality service when applying for those benefits. Unfortunately, after years of Congressional cuts to Social Security’s administration, many individuals do not receive the service they have earned and deserve.
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We do actually know why all of these offices have closed… It’s because Congress continues to pass woefully inadequate funding plans for operating the Social Security Administration,
via CBPP.
Related Reading:
Rallying to Stop Social Security Office Closings.
- Closing Social Security field offices like the one here in Arlington causes undue difficulty for elderly and working-class claimants who rely on public transportation to get here.
- If the office is shuttered as planned in June, these individuals will have to travel nearly two hours round-trip on Metro and Metrobus to the nearest Virginia office in Alexandria.
President Trump’s proposed fiscal 2019 Social Security Administration (SSA) budget would cut staffing, a recipe for long waits in agency offices and on the telephone for those trying to navigate the often-difficult world of old-age, disability, survivor and Medicare benefits. Retirement and survivor benefits would not be hit…
…The advocacy group, National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, provides these stats to illustrate the problem: About 10,000 baby boomers hit retirement age every day. The increase in workloads coupled with a decrease in staffing led to a 627-day wait for disability applicants’ hearings in 2017. The three-minute telephone wait that callers had for SSA’s 800 number in 2010 was six times longer last year. Despite SSA attempts to direct traffic to its website, there were 2 million more field office visits in 2016 than 2015. “More than 16,000 visitors were forced to wait more than hour for service each day in August 2017,” the committee said.
Promising to become “more efficient and effective” for the 71 million people who receive monthly benefits, Social Security Administration statements say Trump’s budget “will allow us to support our front line operations, such as our field offices, processing centers, and National 800 Number, by providing some critical hires and expanding our additional service delivery channels and online service options.”
via Washington Post.
Related Reading:
The Social Security Administration Needs the Funding to Provide the American People the Service They Deserve.
- Social Security’s core operating budget shrank by 11 percent from 2010 to 2017 in inflation-adjusted terms. This occurred even as 10,000 baby boomers a day reach retirement age. When workloads increase and staff is reduced due to inadequate funding, service deteriorates.
- The media has focused on the unprecedented delays disability applicants face when waiting for a hearing on their case – the wait in August 2017 was 627 days – but service in other areas has deteriorated as well.
Senator Bernie Sanders said it best when he told the crowd gathering at the Dirksen Senate Office building on Jan. 18 that the Republicans’ plan to cut the Social Security Administration’s budget by nearly half a billion “is not cost saving. It’s an effort to destroy Social Security.”
Indeed, the same politicians who want to gut America’s retirement security are the same ones who voted to give the rich and corporations a massive tax break only weeks ago…
…AFGE joined Sens. Sanders, Warren, and Bob Casey in delivering a petition signed by 250,000 American taxpayers opposing these cuts to SSA. We were also joined by the Alliance for Retired Americans, the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, and numerous advocates and seniors.
via AFGE.
Related Reading:
SSA Funding Cuts Will Hurt the Disabled, Retirees, and Children.
- In fact, some 10,000 disabled Americans died last year waiting for a Social Security disability hearing. That shameful figure alone should be a compelling enough argument for restoring SSA’s funding to adequate levels.
- Budget cuts have forced SSA to close more than 60 field offices across the country, reducing in-person access to services.
- The average wait time on SSA’s toll-free number is 18 minutes. The average national wait time for a disability hearing exceeded 600 days in 2017.
- Ironically, these service cuts come at a time when 10,000 Baby Boomers become eligible for Social Security every day.
The Social Security Administration plans to close its Arlington field office and one of its Baltimore locations in June, part of a series of shutdowns across the country that activists and political leaders say is causing major difficulties for the elderly, people with disabilities and other beneficiaries.
The number of Social Security office workers has dropped by 3,500 since 2010, and under the funding level proposed by the Trump administration, another 1,000 jobs would be lost, said Max Richtman, chief executive of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, a Washington-based advocacy group. Congress cut the agency’s operating budget every year from 2010 to 2017, before increasing it this year, he said. But with 10,000 Americans turning 65 every day, the demand for Social Security services is not going away.
“Despite the recent funding boost, SSA continues to close field offices, primarily in urban neighborhoods,” Richtman said.
via Washington Post.
Related Reading:
Social Security Administration should stop closing field offices.
- But another, more likely cause, is the failure of Congress to adequately fund SSA’s administrative budget.
- Congress shouldn’t be cutting funds for SSA operations when Social Security’s administrative costs are already paid for by workers’ payroll contributions.
It only took President Trump a scant 16 months to nominate someone to head the Social Security Administration (SSA), which oversees the Social Security program and Supplemental Security Income for some 67 million Americans. Trump’s nominee, Andrew M. Saul, is a New York businessman, Republican donor, and former chairman of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, which administers the retirement plan for U.S. government employees.
Though he served on the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board for nine years, Andrew Saul has no real public record – good or bad – when it comes to Social Security. But his alignment with Republican politics (he was a top fundraiser for George W. Bush, who famously tried to privatize Social Security) and his membership on the board of a right-wing think tank, The Manhattan Institute, is not encouraging.
We need look no further than the Manhattan Institute’s website to glean the organization’s position on Social Security. In an article entitled, The Social Security Façade, the Institute propagates rightist myths that the program is going bankrupt and will no longer be able to pay benefits when today’s young people retire. In other words, it employs the time-worn tactic of dividing the generations to undermine Social Security:
“Young Americans are stuck paying into programs that, absent reform, will only partially be there for their retirements – if they’re around at all.” – Manhattan Institute website
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Let’s be realistic. Starving the Social Security Administration’s administrative funding is a backdoor attempt to dismantle Social Security by eroding the public’s confidence in the program, especially since these funds come from Social Security’s Trust Fund and not general revenues.
President Trump’s proposed fiscal 2019 Social Security Administration (SSA) budget would cut staffing, a recipe for long waits in agency offices and on the telephone for those trying to navigate the often-difficult world of old-age, disability, survivor and Medicare benefits. Retirement and survivor benefits would not be hit.
via Washington Post.
Related Reading:
Unfortunately, after years of Congressional cuts to Social Security’s administration, many individuals do not receive the service they have earned and deserve.
Administrative Budget Requests Have Been Cut for Years:
- Social Security’s core operating budget shrank by 11% from 2010 to 2017 in inflation-adjusted terms. This occurred even as 10,000 baby boomers a day reach retirement age.
Chiquita Brooks-LaSure becomes the first black woman to lead the agency that oversees #Medicare and #Medicaid. She is a major improvement over President Trump’s CMS administrator, who undermined Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/25/us/politics/chiquita-brooks-lasure-medicare-medicaid.html @CMSGov