The Federal Government Shutdown and Social Security – Due to the Federal Government Shutdown, which began today, the Social Security Administration has made available its plan for operating during the shutdown. Out of SSA’s 62,343 employees, 18,006 will be furloughed. Most of the furloughed employees work in SSA’s Office of Disability Adjudication and Review (ODAR). The ODAR offices plan to proceed with the hearings that are already scheduled, but they are currently not scheduling any new hearings. I spoke to a staff person at an ODAR office this morning, and she said that she was the only support staff working there with the Administrative Law Judges, and she had just been answering the phone all morning and had not had a chance to do any other work. An Administrative Law Judge even called me today to confirm a schedule change!
Government Shutdown
According to the Social Security Administration’s website, the SSA field offices can:
- Help you apply for benefits
- Assist you in requesting an appeal
- Change your address or direct deposit information
- Accept reports of death
- Verify or change your citizenship status
- Replace a lost or missing Social Security payment
- Issue a critical payment
- Change a representative payee
- Process a change in your living arrangement or income (SSI recipients only)
- The SSA field offices cannot:
- Issue new or replacement Social Security cards
- Replace your Medicare card
- Issue a proof of income letter
Additional information about Social Security’s operating plan can be found here.
We will continue to monitor the situation and keep updating our information.
Related Topic: Am I Eligible for Social Security Disability?
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