A local official reports on personnel cuts in SSA

A report from an employee of the Social Security Administration, who wishes to remain anonymous. We have not confirmed the details, but I suspect that this is likely accurate. I am passing it on because of its likeliness. The employee reports these 10 actions have quietly taken place during the past two weeks without any press coverage

1. probationary attorney-level decision writers who are responsible for assisting Administrative Law Judges were terminated and at a time when the agency has massive backlogs in cases at the hearing level.
2. The new acting commissioner gloated about firing 14 employees as an “accomplishment” in his commissioner broadcast to the agency
3. The entire Office of Transformation, and its 60+ employees were dissolved. Their whole purpose was to promote agency-wide efficiencies and faster processing times through oversight over SSA systems and use of information technology.
4. The entire Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity and its 190 employees were dissolved, including the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner of Civil Rights. OCREO conducts statutorily mandated requirements for employees and members of the public including the reasonable accommodation request process, the public facing discrimination complaint process, and the EEOC employment discrimination complaint process. The National RA Coordinator at OCREO whose position was court ordered was also terminated.
5. component heads and executives were told to draft plans to slash administrative SSA staff by 50% and to reduce the total SSA workforce by seven to eight thousand
6. SSA staff were sent an email threatening massive reorganization of SSA followed with significant workforce reduction. The email pressured seasoned employees, even front-line employees, with monetary incentives to resign or take early retirement and threatened to fire employees for cause should they not retire or resign.
7. Executive staff responsible for overseeing regional field office operations were terminated, I know that one region had all but 3 out 72 staff members terminated and it is very likely that the other ten regions had similar terminations. These regional executive offices oversee hundreds of field offices.
8. The Acting Commissioner sent out a memo to SSA staff indicating significant restructuring of the agency due a “bloated workforce and organization structure,” even though staffing at SSA has been the lowest it’s been in 50 years. The reorganization includes taking the 10 regions that SSA’s serves and consolidating into 4 regions; and combining multiple independent SSA components together in an effort to “downsize” or “streamline”. This could potentially lead to massive closures in field offices, a reduction of services, and a significant number of terminations of agency employees.
9. Terminations are happening swiftly and often late in the day to avoid bringing attention to any media or congressional attention to them.
10. The trauma they are creating for SSA staff is unreal. I am aware of at least three terminated SSA employees who have committed suicide, one of which I personally knew