Congress needs to restore billions of dollars in funding for the Social Security Administration that has been cut over the past decade and begin rehiring tens of thousands of workers who were fired or forced to quit due to budget cuts and poor working conditions, SSA’s union leaders told members of the press last week.
SSA’s administrative budget has fallen from 1.2% of benefit outlays in 2017 to 0.86% today, which represents an annual loss of $3 billion in operating revenue. SSA’s staffing currently is at a 59-year low, and the agency’s hostile workplace policies are pushing experienced workers out the door.
The result for SSA recipients is clear: longer wait times, delays processing their benefit claims, and worsening service.
“If we cannot attract talent to do the work of the federal government, how are we going to serve the public? It’s going to become increasingly harder, and the public is going to have a harder and harder time in accessing these benefits, especially with Social Security benefits that they have paid into,” said Angela Di Deronimo, executive vice president of AFGE Council 220, which represents SSA field office employees, during a media briefing Aug. 7.
Social Security lost more than 6,500 employees last year alone through early retirement and separation incentives and by eliminating telework and flexible schedules, which forced some workers to quit. Those actions alone cost taxpayers up to $175 million, said Rich Couture, spokesperson for the AFGE SSA General Committee and president of AFGE Council 215, which represents SSA hearings and appeals employees.
Yet the agency keeps proceeding down the same dangerous path. Rather than address the chronic understaffing, the agency is investing millions in artificial intelligence instead of hiring frontline workers and is cutting workplace benefits like advanced leave and telework that risk pushing more staff out the door.
“We want the American people to understand that it’s not the Social Security worker’s fault that the delays are happening on their benefits and services. We are human beings. We’re doing the best that we can. We’re being treated very poorly. We have been for the last year and a half. We need that to improve,” AFGE Council 220 President Jessica LaPointe said.
The AFGE SSA General Committee is calling on Congress to restore the agency’s funding to 1.2% of benefit outlays, with those extra funds earmarked to improve pay and benefits and hire 20,000 additional workers. Private insurance companies are funded at roughly 20% of their benefit outlays, so SSA is woefully underfunded.
“We need more of everything at SSA, not less,” LaPointe said.
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Congress needs to restore billions of dollars in funding for the Social Security Administration that has been cut over the past decade and begin rehiring tens of thousands of workers who were fired or forced to quit due to budget cuts and poor working conditions.
Read More
