Social Security Administration
The United States Social Security Administration (SSA)[2] is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that administers Social Security, a social insurance program consisting of retirement, disability and survivor benefits. To qualify for most of these benefits, most workers pay Social Security taxes on their earnings; the claimant's benefits are based on the wage earner's contributions. Otherwise benefits such as Supplemental Security Income (SSI) are given based on need.
Agency overview
August 14, 1935
Woodlawn, Maryland, U.S.
60,000
$1.3 trillion (FY 2022)[1]
- Martin O'Malley, Commissioner
The Social Security Administration was established by the Social Security Act of 1935 and is codified in 42 U.S.C. § 901 (49 Stat. 635). It was created in 1935 as the "Social Security Board", then assumed its present name in 1946. Its current leader is Martin O'Malley.
SSA offers its services to the public through 1,200 field offices, a website, and a national toll-free number. Field offices, which served 43 million individuals in 2019,[3] were reopened on April 7, 2022 after being closed for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[4]
SSA is headquartered in Woodlawn, Maryland, just to the west of Baltimore, at what is known as Central Office. In addition to its 1,200 field offices, the agency includes 10 regional offices, eight processing centers, and 37 Teleservice Centers. As of 2018, about 60,000 people were employed by SSA.[5] Headquarters non-supervisory employees of SSA are represented by American Federation of Government Employees Local 1923.
SSA operates the largest government program in the United States.[6] In fiscal year (FY) 2022, the agency expects to pay out $1.2 trillion in Social Security benefits to 66 million individuals.[1] In addition, SSA expects to pay $61 billion in SSI benefits to 7.5 million low-income individuals in FY 2022.
Field offices[edit]
SSA has a network of more than 1,200 community-based field offices. In fiscal year 2019, 43 million individuals visited these field offices to apply for benefits, get an original or replacement Social Security card, or receive other services.[18] Field offices reopened in April 2022, after being closed for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
SSA provides a field office locator service, where members of the public can find office phone numbers and addresses.[19]
SSA also provides services through a national toll-free number (1-800-772-1213) and a website. Retirement and disability benefits can be applied for online.[20] For survivor benefits, however, members of the public must call or visit SSA in person to apply. In most states, individuals seeking a replacement Social Security card can apply for one online.[21]
Members of the public can also apply for Supplemental Security Income at SSA's field offices. Field office staff will also assist SSI applicants with an application for food assistance through the SNAP program.
Much of the actual processing of initial benefits and subsequent adjustments to benefits is done in six large Program Service Centers located around the country.[22]
The two main positions in Program Service Centers have long been Claims Authorizers and Benefits Authorizers.[23][24] Claims Authorizers, now sometimes called claims specialists, establish initial benefits for program recipients.[25] Benefits Authorizers process complicated changes of entitlements to existing beneficiaries, including life events, overpayments, underpayments, and so forth.[25][24] The claims position is the higher-ranking of the two and initially required a college degree whereas the post-entitlement position did not.[24] For decades, post-entitlement actions have been processed through a system known as Manual Adjustment, Credit and Award Processes (MADCAP).[26]
The six service centers are:[22]
They have been located in these six cities going back to at least the early 1950s.[29]
The origins of the payment centers date back to 1942, when they were known as Area Offices.[30] The first one was established in Philadelphia, with ones in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and New Orleans, Louisiana, soon following.[23]
In addition, there are specialized processing centers for the Office of Earnings and International Operations and the Office of Disability Operations, both located in Baltimore.[22]
Before the mid-1970s, the Program Service Centers were called Payment Centers.[31] By the late 1960s, the Payment Centers had acquired a reputation as sources of poor bureaucratic performance that people did not want to work in, and a reorganization under a modules system was undertaken during the 1970s in an effort to improve matters.[23] Each module would be assigned a certain block of social security numbers and it would process all aspects of a claim, from initial entitlement through various changes, notifications to beneficiaries, and so forth.[24] Decades later, the modules system was still seen as one of the great improvements in SSA processing.[24]
The centers have each employed around two thousand people or more, giving them a major local economic impact, and even relocations within the same metropolitan area have created political conflict.
When in the early 1970s, SSA and the General Services Administration said it intended to move payment center operations out of San Francisco and across the East Bay to Richmond, the move was opposed by San Francisco-representing Congressman Phillip Burton.[32]
Burton's efforts were in vain, however, as construction in a redevelopment area in Richmond commenced and the move was made around 1975.[28]
Similarly, in the late 1970s, SSA, the General Services Administration, and the Carter administration devised a plan to move the program service center from its main location, in two leased buildings on Horace Harding Expressway in Lefrak City in Rego Park, to a new federal building planned for a revitalization zone in the center of the Jamaica area of Queens.[33][34] The move was championed by Congressman Joseph P. Addabbo, who represented Jamaica and whose district would gain the over 2,000 federal workers involved, but was opposed by Congressman Benjamin Rosenthal, whose district would lose them.[35] According to Rosenthal, the potential negative impact of the move affected the Elmhurst and Corona neighborhoods most strongly.[36]
The move was also supported by Representative Geraldine Ferraro, another powerful Queens figure, who sat on the House Public Works Committee.[33]
The dispute was aired in Congressional hearings and embroiled Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan and developer Richard Lefrak, supporting and opposing the move respectively, as well.[37]
In the event, the move went forward and the new, 11-story building in Jamaica – by then named the Joseph P. Addabbo Federal Building, as the congressman had died in the interim – opened in 1988.[38]
