The Social Safety Administration (SSA) in the present day introduced its progress implementing President Trump’s daring agenda to enhance providers to the general public whereas safeguarding taxpayer {dollars}. Working with the Division of Authorities Effectivity, SSA has charted a brand new course for the company that prioritizes enhancing customer support, lowering waste, fraud, and abuse, and optimizing its workforce in the direction of direct public service.
“I’m happy with the extraordinary work by our devoted staff at SSA to assist ship on President Trump’s promise to guard Social Safety,” stated Lee Dudek, Performing Commissioner of Social Safety. “Our staff perceive the urgency of the second and have labored onerous to revive the general public’s belief. Whereas a lot work stays to be carried out, there isn’t a query that SSA is taking the required steps to remodel the way it serves the general public whereas defending hardworking American taxpayers.”
Progress on the Social Safety Equity Act
SSA has made vital strides in implementing the Social Safety Equity Act, having paid over $14.8 billion in retroactive funds to greater than 2.2 million people affected by the Windfall Elimination Provision and Authorities Pension Offset. Underneath President Trump’s management, the company’s unique estimate of taking a 12 months or extra to difficulty funds now will apply to solely advanced circumstances that can’t be processed by automation. The company continues to speak updates and supply sources to the general public concerning this essential laws at ssa.gov/advantages/retirement/social-security-fairness-act.html.
Price Avoidance and Effectivity Initiatives
SSA has recognized over $1 billion in price avoidance or efficiencies for fiscal 12 months 2025 by way of new, common sense approaches in areas akin to payroll, data know-how, contracts and grants, actual property, printing, journey, and buy card insurance policies. These efforts mirror SSA’s dedication to being a superb steward of taxpayer {dollars} whereas enhancing service supply.
Workforce Optimization
SSA has damaged down work silos by combining comparable features throughout places of work. By streamlining outdated and inefficient organizational buildings at headquarters and within the areas, SSA has elevated accountability enterprise-wide. SSA has additionally carried out President Trump’s directive that teleworking staff should return to work in-person full time. As SSA reshapes its group to deal with direct customer support to the general public, all non-essential employees acquired the choice of deferred resignation. SSA additional prolonged to all employees the choice of voluntary early retirement, voluntary separation incentive cost, and voluntary reassignment to a frontline place. To this point, SSA has processed to completion about 350 deferred resignations, over 3,000 voluntary separations, and about 2,000 staff in help positions have accepted and will likely be reassigned on a circulation foundation to the places of work in most want of staffing sources. Importantly, studies that the company is completely closing native subject places of work are false. Since January 1, 2025, SSA has not completely closed or introduced the everlasting closure of any native subject workplace. Every so often, SSA should quickly shut a neighborhood subject workplace for causes akin to climate, harm, or amenities points, and it reopens when the problems are resolved.
Modernizing Phone Companies
SSA has begun rolling out to all of its subject places of work a contemporary, telecommunications platform that it efficiently carried out on its Nationwide 800 Quantity. As soon as absolutely carried out, this platform will enable the company to raised handle calls to its subject places of work nationwide whereas offering extra self-service choices for purchasers, together with synthetic intelligence (AI)-enabled enhancements. Thus far, SSA has migrated over 350 places of work within the Southeast and Northeast Areas. It expects to finish rollout to all subject places of work and card facilities nationwide by the top of the summer season 2025. Early outcomes present enhancements in workplace reply charges and common pace of reply. Roughly 30 % of calls are being serviced by automation, bettering effectivity.
Fraud Prevention
SSA has carried out enhanced fraud prevention instruments for claims filed over the phone, additional modernizing the company’s providers and strengthening program integrity. The brand new know-how permits SSA to establish suspicious exercise in phone claims by analyzing patterns and anomalies inside an individual’s account. If irregularities are detected, the person will likely be requested to finish in-person identification proofing to proceed processing their declare. These developments enable SSA to keep up the safety of its providers whereas persevering with to supply entry for purchasers who could also be unable to file on-line or go to an workplace in particular person. The company will proceed to conduct identification verification for all in-person claims. For the most recent data on identification proofing, go to ssa.gov/information/identity-proofing.html.
Addressing Aged Information
SSA has made vital progress in bettering the accuracy of loss of life knowledge, addressing a longstanding oversight concern. This initiative strengthened the company’s established procedures to establish individuals who have the next chance of being deceased because of their age or incomplete loss of life studies. Updating the information of people who’re implausibly outdated to be residing is a crucial anti-fraud measure. Criminals might use these people’ data to commit fraud. As a part of this effort, SSA has safeguards in place to make sure that it doesn’t replace information for people who’re nonetheless alive. No cases have arisen up to now the place an implausibly outdated particular person whose file SSA up to date really contacted the company for reinstatement. SSA has a course of in place to reinstate people in its information if the company ever makes an error.
Stewarding Taxpayer {Dollars} and Guaranteeing Program Integrity
SSA introduced it is going to enhance the default overpayment withholding fee for Outdated-Age, Survivors, and Incapacity Insurance coverage (OASDI) beneficiaries from 10 % of an individual’s month-to-month profit, leading to a rise in overpayment recoveries (i.e., program financial savings) of about $7 billion within the subsequent decade. SSA additionally introduced the rapid resumption of the Treasury Offset Program (TOP) for money owed accrued previous to March 2020. This choice got here after a suspension of collections because of the financial challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 1992, SSA has referred delinquent OASDI and Supplemental Safety Earnings (SSI) money owed to TOP as mandated by regulation. Previous to the suspension in March 2020, SSA had efficiently collected virtually $2 billion in beforehand unrecoverable delinquent debt by way of TOP. This system is important for sustaining the integrity of the OASDI and SSI packages.
Bettering Fee Accuracy
SSA has begun a phased rollout of the Payroll Info Trade (PIE) after years of delays. PIE permits the company to obtain automated wage data instantly from payroll knowledge suppliers. This knowledge trade improves cost accuracy, reduces improper funds, eases the reporting burden on people, and ends in extra environment friendly use of SSA’s restricted administrative sources. It’s estimated that PIE will save $1.1 billion in OASDI profit funds over the subsequent 10 years, along with $1.8 billion in Federal SSI cost financial savings over the identical time interval.
Increasing Health Info Expertise (Well being IT)
SSA is renewing its deal with increasing partnerships throughout the Well being IT program, which facilitates digital knowledge exchanges for quicker incapacity determinations. This initiative not solely expedites the advantages course of for candidates but in addition saves taxpayer cash by lowering the prices related to accumulating medical information, as every year SSA receives over 3 million new functions for incapacity advantages and spends over $500 million {dollars} to gather medical information for candidates.
Price Discount and Enhancements Plan for Social Safety Quantity Verification
SSA has developed a complete plan to enhance the Digital Consent Primarily based Social Safety Quantity Verification (eCBSV) service. This initiative is designed to make sure the continued viability of the eCBSV service whereas addressing the wants of shoppers, together with the monetary trade and varied governmental our bodies. Highlights of the plan embody a phased method to lowering working prices by as much as roughly 40 %; decreasing consumer charges by roughly 25 %, which permits for higher accessibility whereas nonetheless assembly price restoration necessities; and offering extra detailed data in no-match outcomes, which aids in decision-making.
Implementation of the Listening to Recording and Transcriptions (HeaRT) System
SSA is ready to finish the nationwide rollout of the HeaRT system, which replaces outdated {hardware} with a software program resolution for recording and transcribing hearings. This AI-enabled software is anticipated to save lots of roughly $5 million yearly whereas making certain due course of by way of extra correct transcripts.
Elevating Consciousness In opposition to Scams
In collaboration with the SSA Workplace of the Inspector Normal (OIG), SSA continues to boost public consciousness about Social Safety-related scams. SSA and OIG co-sponsored the sixth annual “Slam the Rip-off” Day on March 6, highlighting the steps the general public can take to guard themselves and their family members from Social Safety imposter scams. This can be a kind of rip-off the place fraudsters fake to be SSA staff and mislead victims into sharing private data, or making money, wire switch, or present card funds to repair alleged Social Safety quantity issues.
Enhanced Communication and Transparency
Consistent with President Trump’s perception that good authorities should serve the Individuals, SSA has commonly printed updates on company operations throughout all of its communications channels and can proceed to take action. This contains publishing on SSA’s web site key efficiency knowledge beforehand accessible solely to SSA staff. The company commonly updates the info, so the general public can see how the company is doing. The general public can entry the webpage at ssa.gov/ssa-performance.
For extra details about SSA’s communications, initiatives, and accomplishments, please go to the company’s Communications Nook at ssa.gov/information.
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