AP
The outcomes for the buildings varied: some faced lease termination, others were consolidated, backfilled, leased directly by agencies or moved to federal space.
The Social Security Administration is preparing to lay off at least 7,000 people from its workforce of 60,000, according to a person familiar with the agency’s plans who is not authorized to speak publicly. The workforce reduction, according to a second person who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, could be as high as 50%. More. Offices being closed Here
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannd nobody is impacted!
This is good! More and more good!
I humbly suggest that areas with a high proportion of retired old farts, fogeys, curmudgeons, blue-hairs, hags, and beldams be toward the bottom of those offices considered for closure. SW Florida and Arizona come first to mind.
Another thing to consider that would save a fair amount would be to change all the systems that use the first of the month for EVERYBODY when it comes to calendared events. This applies to lots of various govt offices. There’s typically a work crunch immediately before and after the 1st that has to be staffed for, and then three or so weeks when a lot of those bureaucrats are relatively idle¹. Space out the deadlines and date triggers to smooth things out and I’d bet money it would make it possible to shrink headcount mostly by attrition. Just a thought.
1. I know. Be quiet.
MOST of the folks in any SS office are there to feed off SSI (disability payments). Stop this heavily abused program and nearly all the offices could be closed. I guarantee that there are better ways to address the needs of those truly unable to provide for themselves because of a permanent disability.
Automate the submission process. It takes forever now because it is manual and all these losers drag it out way longer than necessary.
The disabled have suffered. If we still had DEI one of them could be president of General Motors
My local SS Office haven’t answered their phone in years. Either do it online or go down in person to schedule an appointment.
Imagine, if you can, allowing the worker to plan ahead and provide for him/herself and use that money to safely invest for their own future.
I’m guessing those unable to plan properly will become lingering federal employees or homeless.
Gawd. I hope Social Security didn’t lay off anyone who speaks English.
Many horror stories from people with life altering, permanent injuries and severe medical conditions who have run the gauntlet of the Social Security slugs employed in their office.
My sister-in-law had a terminal illness, she was denied twice (Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI)) over a period of 2+ years.
Finally approved on the 3rd year. She died during the 4th year.
It should never take 3 years when you have been diagnosed with a terminal illness by several Board certified Doctors.
Something is not right with the Process or the people. Maybe both.
I have to travel 125 miles now when I’m unfortunate enough to have to visit an office now.
I had occasion to phone SSA’s 1-800 number a couple of weeks ago. The 1st two times I tried, a robot asked the reason for my call and my SSN, then transferred me to another robot that stated the wait time exceeded 120 minutes, to call back later, and hung up. The 3rd time, I got lucky, the robot announced the wait time was only 100 minutes and it did not hang up on me. Prior to retirement in 2017, I worked in the field office structure in SSA for 40 years, 31 of them in supervision, middle, and upper management. I worked hard, climbed the ladder through merit only, and the Agency was good to me. Every service we provided was monitored and measured-wait times, percentage of applications processed error free, average processing time of all the many types of applications processed, etc. We, in management, lived and died by those monthly report cards. I strove to make the numbers look good and excel in our level of service and I was proud of our accomplishments. That was then. Now, it’s OK not to come to work, to almost never answer the phone, and to take as long as they wish to process your application. This rot began at the top. There is no longer any accountability. It is disgusting and shameful, but they have no shame. The place is a shambles and I no longer am proud to tell anyone that I worked there.
Oh no! Are those the Socialist Security support personnel for the illegals using number that belong to 150 year olds?
SSA headquarters is just outside of Baltimore. That explains a lot.
went into the ss office near me and was immediately struck by the fact that i had left the united states of america.
Worked TIs in SS offices, VERY SELDOM saw an elderly person on the customer side. Very seldom saw a white person on either side.
@cato-Terrible what happened to your S-I-L. It is often unfair. After finishing at Indiana University a very long time ago, my first 9 years working for SSA in a field office I interviewed face to face, took all types of claims (retirement, auxiliary, survivor, Medicare, Disability, and SSI), and adjudicated them to allowance or denial. I took hundreds of disability applications & was surprised many times by the decisions. Some I interviewed were slam dunks. I was certain. The claim came back from the state agency that makes the decisions (state employees) as denied. Others, I knew there was no way this person will be eligible & the state’s decision came back as an allowance. I wondered sometimes if the state examiners simply rolled the dice. The definition of disability for SSA purposes is “a permanent condition or combination of conditions that prevent a person from engaging in any substantial gainful activity or is expected to result in death.” Permanent means 12 months or more. If the claim is denied, there are appeal rights and they are time limited. Everyone who is denied needs to file an appeal. If the appeal is denied, that decision can be appealed to an administrative law judge. Here’s where an experienced attorney may be of benefit. The last stats I read showed that about 40% of all denied disability applications are reversed at this level. If the judge denies it, then file an appeal to the appeals council which is a 3 member panel. If they deny it, then you’ll need an attorney to sue SSA in federal court. Lesson here is to always appeal. The state workers do not have a final say.