HOW WILL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN AFFECT SSA?

Just as occurred in 1996 when Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R) GA and Bill Clinton faced off, President Obama & the Republican led House of Representatives have partially shut-down the federal government. The Congress has not passed a budget or continuing financing resolution over the issue of funding (or at least delaying) implementation of the Affordable Care Act, known as “Obamacare”.

How is this shut-down affecting Social Security? Quite a bit.

It’s pretty quiet behind the scenes at the Office of Disability Adjudication and Review (ODAR). Other than 1 employee at the reception desk the only employees at work are the Administrative Law Judges. They have a union and they are protected so long as they show up for work. They will receive retroactive pay when the shutdown ends.

The scheduled hearings will be held. The hearing monitors and vocational experts are contract employees and they will be paid. But all other employees of the ODARs are off work.

So although the cases will be heard and decisions made by the ALJs, decisions won’t be written, hearings won’t be scheduled, electronic files won’t be prepared for access, cases won’t be exhibited for hearing, the phone won’t be answered and cases won’t be screened for “on-the-record” decisions.

In other words, the ODARs are effectively dead in the water.