Union faults SSA H1N1 prevention efforts
November 6th, 2009 | Agencies Social Security Administration Unions | Posted by Rebecca Neal
The Social Security Administration isn’t taking swine flu precautions seriously and risks exposing employees and their families to the virus, the American Federation of Government Employees says.
In a Nov. 4 letter to SSA Commissioner Michael Astrue, AFGE Council 220 President Witold Skwierczynski said an SSA negotiator told Council 220 members in October that swine flu “is not a serious communicable disease.”
Skwierczynski also said the negotiator and other SSA managers have threatened employees with disciplinary action should they decline to do face-to-face interviews with people who appear to be ill.
The negotiator said anyone who appears to be sick could be taken to to a private room and an SSA employee could telephone the room to interview the client regarding benefits, Skwierczynski said. The union leader called on SSA to change its policies to meet Health and Human Services Department guidelines for swine flu prevention.
“We regret that Mr. Skwierczynski continues to fabricate reports for media attention on this important public health issue,” said SSA spokesman Mark Hinkle. “Our policies meet or exceed everything Health and Human Services is recommending.”
Barack: not such a unique name now
May 8th, 2009 | Agencies Social Security Administration | Posted by Rebecca Neal
Had a baby boy recently? Thought you’d be unique and name your child Barack after the new president?
You wouldn’t be alone.
The Social Security Administration released its Most Popular Baby Name list Friday, looking at the top 1,000 names for newborn boys and girls in the past year. While Barack didn’t make the top 1,000, it did enjoy a massive surge in popularity, jumping from 12,535 in 2007 to 2,409 in 2008.
SSA also noted many unusual names making the list for the first time: Isla (623), Mareli (718), Dayami (750), Nylah (821) and Jazlene (831) for baby girls, and Aaden (343), Chace (655), Marley (764), Kash (779), Kymani (836), Ishaan (851), Jadiel (874) and Urijah (889) for baby boys.
Celebrities also boosted some oddball names up the list. Beckham, as in British soccer star/tabloid staple David Beckham, came in at 893 for its first appearance on the list. The name Khloe, spelled the same as tabloid darling Khloe Kardashian from TV’s “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” jumped from 665 in 2007 to 196 in 2008. In 2007, it was near the bottom of the list at 960.
Miley, the moniker of teen music/pop culture phenom Miley Cyrus, jumped 152 spots to number 127 in 2008, only the second year the name has made the top 1,000 for girls.
Don’t want your children spending the rest of their lives having to spell their names out? Then pick one of the top 10 names for boys and girls. Jacob and Emma were the most popular names in 2008, according to SSA records.
Check out the full list here.
We need more power!
April 28th, 2009 | Congress Social Security Administration | Posted by Rebecca Neal
The Social Security Administration needs a new National Computer Center. The existing one near Baltimore is more than 30 years old and in perilous shape — so much so that the Social Security Advisory Board said it’s in danger of catastrophic failure, which could delay disability and seniors’ benefits from being paid on time.
Now Congress wants to know why SSA only let them know last fall that the building needs replaced as soon as possible. And that explanation is a simple one, said Mary Glenn-Croft, deputy commissioner for budget, finance and management for SSA.
By 2006, the SSA had converted much of its claims processing from paper to digital, creating a need to buy many more servers to store data, she told the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security Tuesday.
“Servers now come with two plugs, not one as they used to, because of (power source) redundancy. What happened was we realized we were running out of electronic capacity … we’re adding 25 servers a month. By 2012 we’ll run out of the ability to plug servers in.”
A replacement NCC is scheduled for completion by 2016. A supplemental computing center, which could act as a backup should a crisis ensue at the NCC, is scheduled for completion in North Carolina by 2012.