The Shutdown's Impact on Social Security

Can’t get into a national park due to the government shutdown? Publicity stunt… for both Democrats and Republicans.

Family of a veteran denied death benefits? Stupidity on the part of the President, the Democrats and the Republicans… not to mention a shameful oversight.

(Contrast those with the little reported fact that there are 800,000 federal employees furloughed because they hold “non-essential” jobs. If their jobs are “non-essential,” why are they employed? Not enough room here to go into the vagaries of bureaucracy, pork barreling, affirmative action, the various federal departments of redundancy departments, etc.)

Ah, but fool with Social Security and you’re fooling with a voting bloc that can knock your you-know-what right out of Congress... and many of them have been asking questions about what effect the government shutdown will have on Social Security operations.

To wit: Social Security benefits will be paid on time, and Social Security offices are supposedly open to take new benefit applications, so one might not notice a difference UNLESS the U.S. reaches the debt ceiling and defaults this week, then millions of Americans probably won’t get their SSA checks as scheduled.

Make no mistake… as with past shutdowns, SSA will likely develop a backlog of unprocessed work that will take significant time and money to clear. The SSA website has a useful list of which services will continue and which will not be available during a shutdown.

We Know This:Social Security benefit payments will be made on time and in full;  local Social Security offices will be open to the public in order to accept benefit applications and address problems with receiving benefits for current beneficiaries (e.g. change of address request, lost checks, etc.); and, the SSA’s 800-number will be operating on a normal schedule. 

However, we also know the SSA will NOT issue new or replacement Social Security and Medicare cards or verify Social Security numbers. (For example, during the 1995-1996 shutdowns, the SSA was forced to turn away hundreds of thousands of applications for new or replacement Social Security cards. In addition, student loan applications were delayed because the SSA couldn’t verify SSNs and INS couldn’t verify immigration status.)

The processing of appeals and decisions for disability appeals hearings will be delayed and NO new hearings will be scheduled until after the shutdown. What's the problem? There are currently 850,000 waiting for an appeals hearing, and the average waiting time is over a year anyway!

Also, the processing of disability insurance and supplemental security income disability benefits will be delayed. This is because SSA contracts out with states to evaluate disability claims, and the states cannot be paid for this work during a shutdown.

News You Can Use: Did you know the federal Anti-Deficiency Act prohibits federal agencies from spending money or incurring obligations without an appropriation from Congress but INCLUDES EXEMPTIONS to protect health, safety, and federal assets. More importantly for Social Security, the Justice Department has always interpreted the law to allow agencies to continue to pay benefits that have ongoing appropriations which have not lapsed (Social Security benefits are permanently appropriated) even if the agency staff are paid with annually-appropriated funds. (BTW: It will get worse before it gets better... and event that'll take a long time.)