When were those corrections made, what was the cost to make them, and what money was saved? Presumably this happened some time after mid-February? Where was it reported? For a sense of scale, the Office of the Inspector General released an audit report in July 2024 that had the total of "improper payments" coming in at 0.84 percent of total payment value. I wouldn't, on my own, know whether that's a good or bad figure compared to other organizations in the same kind of work. A fellow at Brookings (Henry J. Aaron, also a former chair of the Social Security Advisory Board) reportedly told Poynter in an email interview it’s "better than any private insurance company in the nation," and with a lower cost of administration. I don't have corresponding figures for private insurers to do any of my own verification of what Aaron said there, but it does seem like a comparison worth thinking about. (And also, where the curves cross of what you can save versus what it costs to drive the figure much lower.)
What is being discussed - Workforce Trimming- if I'm understanding correctly, goes on in Private Industry constantly. My Company offered severance programs many times at the end of my career for people who had worked at the Company for a specific length of time if they would exit the Company. It was a way to trim the payroll, reduce head count and hire younger new people for long term stability and at a lower rate of pay. It was expected that you had competently trained a replacement for your job and had procedures in place to standardize your job duties. As I remember the time for the acceptance of the separation package and when you actually left varied from 6 months to 1 year. An interesting point: in two of the positions I held within the Company I was actually required to show a Job ROI (Return on Investment) where I had generated enough Process Improvements (Kaizens), Cost Savings, Material Reduction etc. to exceed my salary, or I would have been unceremoniously relieved of my position as dead weight. This took place at a Yealy Job Performance Review and was serious business. We had self-funded 401K programs, and they were your only retirement. Unfortunately, Government Critters (as some call them) have Federal Pensions where they feed at the Public Money trough for the rest of their life at public expense. I am not sure that getting rid of them frees the Public from the albatross of funding them for the rest of their lives. Thankfully many Government position are now changing over to self-funded retirements -but the old guard still has the public pensions which can sometimes meet or exceed their current salaries.
They found erroneous data. They did not find evidence of fraudulent payments going out to deceased people. The first was announced without specifying the second, so the public could assume fraud was happening. Social Security has systems in place that stop payments to exceptionally old beneficiaries until the person proves they are still alive. The supposed money savings comes in the form of reduced service offices to make it harder for those and others to get help with their Social Security. The old system ended in 1986. Not many left under that plan still in service. The current retirement plan is inline with what with much of the private sector gets. There is still a small pension, but the employee is paying into it. Plus Social Security that the employee is paying into at the same rate as everybody else. Then there is a 401k-like savings plan. Government matching for that stops at 5%. FERS Information' Federal Employees Retirement System - Wikipedia
I'm still waiting for you to show us that happened. Questions like why it happened are more interesting if it happened.
Until you check the facts and data. That is why I open and read sources found in many posts. If nothing else, to get what was omitted in the original post. Which is why everyone should read all my cited sources because I often leave out some of the most damaging claims. For example, who is 'the sociopath in Chief.' Bob Wilson
Who said that? Musk? DOGE? Their announcements of savings have been full of errors, and is constantly being revised downward.
Trump has declared war on science and education (both lower and higher education). Why? He is not the kind of guy who believes in science and education, and neither does his base of voters.
I just returned from the Raadfest convention in Las Vegas. One of the comments I noticed was that the first person to live to 150 is alive today. Such a lifespan will be achieved with the use of gene therapy and biochemicals that are in current research. My Tesla Model 3 drove me there and back, about 1150 miles total. It drives better than I do.
