This is not a question, but an observation. Things apparently have not changed since I was an examiner for Social Security. We constantly received updates and interpretations of Social Security law when I worked at the Great Lakes Program Service Center in Chicago, Illinois. At that time, examiners reviewed the file initiated by the local Social Security District offices. During the late 1970's I was part of a team that was sent out to the District Offices in Chicago for 2 weeks to do an onsite assessment of their accuracy. After two weeks, all 20 of us came back to meet with the senior staff at the Program Center. Everyone of us reported that the District Office was not able to process the initial claims intake with anything remotely resembling accuracy. However, the final report that was issued, claimed that all of the District Offices accuracy rates were in the 90% and above ranges.....then the big shots (guess you know some of these geniuses in D.C.) gave limited final approval of initial claims to the District Offices ...Fast forward to today, and I do not think that there is much if any, oversight in initial claims of any kind of complexity. The people who work in the District Offices and work with the public just do not have the time to keep up with the volumns of technical legal interpretation of Social Security law.
Hi,
Nice hearing from a former co-worker! I started work for the Social Security Administration in the '70s, and retired 36 years later as a technical expert. All of my years were spent working in district offices, though, so my perspective is undoubtedly different from yours.
I share your disdain for some of the decisions made by the 'higher ups', and I too worry about the accuracy of information that is currently being disseminated by SSA employees, who are understaffed and in many cases, undertrained. The vast majority of problems, I believe, are a result of unreasonable budget limits forced on the Administration by congress, rather than the decisions made by the agency heads.
On a positive note, however, I can tell you that the vast majority of benefit computations are now automated, and I never encountered a case in which an automated computation was incorrect. Even in most cases of dual entitlement (e.g. retirement and widow's benefits, retirement and spouse's benefits), the calculations are fully computer automated.
As you know, though, there are many very complex cases that require manual computations. In my office, we almost always had sufficient staffing to permit a technical expert to review all manual computations. That was one of my duties for many years, and I'm confident that virtually all of the benefit computations done by our office at that time were accurate upon final authorization. That's not to say, however, that I didn't find and correct a substantial number of errors. Unfortunately, many offices no longer review all manual computations due to lack of staffing, so I'm sure that some errors slip through.
Maybe some day congress will see the light and increase SSA's budget to a level necessary to handle the ever increasing workloads resulting from an aging population, but I'm not holding my breath.
Best, Jerry
