Planned Staffing Cuts and Potential Office Closings for the Social Security Administration

GAO presented its observations on the feasibility and impact of planned staff cuts and potential office closings on the Social Security Administration (SSA). In its proposed budget, SSA announced that it planned to cut 17,000 full-time equivalent positions over a 6-year period as part of its program to improve the management of the federal government. SSA objectives are to make the cuts without adverse impact on service to the public and without reductions in force. It hopes to achieve this through improvements in its claims modernization project, restructuring of its field office system, and ongoing system enhancements and procedural changes. SSA would like to achieve reductions through attrition, but that may not occur where it can afford cuts; therefore, staff retraining and/or relocation may be needed. SSA has drafted a study for restructuring the field offices which provides a uniform approach for all regions to follow in their assessments and is flexible enough to meet local needs. The major concern in the planned cuts and potential closings is the impact on service, which SSA will need to monitor closely. GAO believes that SSA should also consider measuring the impact of services from the viewpoint of the clients. The study represents a departure from its previous ad hoc policymaking process, because SSA headquarters has taken a more active role in the development of its field structure. SSA determines its staffing levels through analysis of its activities workload measurements. The ability to do more work with less staff because of expected productivity enhancements is the very process which will be the focal point for justifying staff reductions over the next few years.