Social Security Administration

  • The Social Security Administration used excess desktop computers and an open source platform to tackle its big data challenge. For its efforts, ACT-IAC named SSA's improper payments and data analytics program a finalist in the Igniting Innovation awards.

    February 06, 2015
  • The Social Security Administration is shedding its reputation as an agency stuck in the 1980s when it comes to IT. SSA cobbled together a few leftover computers and took advantage of an open source platform to develop a new approach to conquering its big data problem. Ann Am-Rhein is SSA's deputy associate commissioner for the Office of Earning, Enumeration and Administrative systems. Ron Sikes is SSA's director of business intelligence and analytics. They tell Federal News Radio Executive Editor Jason Miller why their new approach earned honors in the Igniting Innovation awards.

    February 05, 2015
  • The Center for Plain Language issued its annual plain language report cards Tuesday, with the Homeland Security Department, Social Security Administration and Security Exchange Commission earning top scores.

    January 27, 2015
  • The Social Security Administration says a budget increase this year will allow it to keep field offices open an extra hour on most weekdays, starting in March.

    January 22, 2015
  • Disability fraud and deceased benefit fraud are two of the biggest threats to the integrity of the Social Security Administration, according to the agency's Inspector General. Patrick O'Carroll says preventing those types of fraud before they start is his number one priority this year. He shared his Top 3 for 2015 on In Depth with Francis Rose. He tells Federal News Radio's Sean McCalley how his office plans to meet its goal.

    January 06, 2015
  • As agencies decide on a two-year plan for structuring their senior executive workforce, one agency head says that the Office of Personnel Management is keeping some of the best and brightest from joining the SES.

    December 30, 2014
  • Your agency has less than two weeks to decide on a two-year plan for how to structure its senior executive workforce. Once that workforce plan is in place, your agency can refocus back to an ongoing morale problem affecting the entire federal workforce. Mike Astrue is former commissioner of the Social Security Administration. On In Depth with Francis Rose, he shared ways to start progressive leadership strategies at your agency.

    December 19, 2014
  • By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama’s pick to head the Social Security Administration has run into more trouble after Senate Democrats canceled a procedural vote on her nomination. Obama nominated…

    December 15, 2014
  • Women of Washington radio show hosts Aileen Black and Gigi Schumm talk to Brenda Sulick, director of the Eleanor's Hope project at the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.

    October 23, 2014
  • This is the third year in a row that cost-of-living adjustments for federal retirees, Social Security recipients and disabled veterans will be less than 2 percent.

    October 22, 2014
  • The Social Security Administration has found a new home for all of its data. The agency recently unveiled its new National Support Data Center in Urbana, Maryland. The 300,000 square foot facility replaces the 30-year-old Woodlawn facility that couldn't adapt to changing technology or meet electricity requirements. Chief Information Officer Bill Zielinski joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive with details.

    October 08, 2014
  • The Senate left Washington without confirming several of President Barack Obama's nominees for the executive branch, including Carolyn Colvin, his choice to lead the Social Security Administration.

    September 22, 2014
  • The Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General almost tripled its goal to return $8 for every $1 spent on the agency. Between October 2013 and March 2014, the IG recovered millions in criminal convictions, audits and legal penalties, contributing to an overall 20-to-1 return on investment for American taxpayers. In part two of our special report, Rainmakers and Money Savers, Federal News Radio goes behind the scenes of the SSA OIG to examine the work federal employees are doing on a daily basis, resulting in billions of dollars going straight into the federal coffers.

    August 13, 2014
  • Carolyn Watts Colvin, the nominee to be Social Security Administration commissioner, vowed to Senate lawmakers to soothe turbulent relations between the agency and its labor unions. Colvin also said she plans to tackle troubled IT systems that still run COBOL.

    August 01, 2014