Social Security Rehires its Retirees

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Social Security Rehires its Retirees

Larry Margasak, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)

March 21, 2004

The Social Security Administration, which helps millions of Americans plan their retirements, underestimated the number of its own retiring workers and rehired 308 of them with both a salary and a pension.

The Bush administration approved and encouraged rehirings across the government to give agencies more flexibility, drawing criticism from Democratic Sens. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota and Ron Wyden of Oregon.

"It's a double ripoff," said Wyden. Based on a breakdown of salaries, the senators estimated that Social Security's actions cost more than $37 million in combined pay and pensions going back to Nov. 1, 2000. They asked Congress' General Accounting Office to investigate the program.

Administration officials said they promoted the program after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, in part to help with possible personnel shortages due to military activation of National Guard and reserve units.

The U.S. Marshals Service said it could find only two rehired workers, but the Department of Homeland Security has brought back about 400 federal employees since it was created in March 2003 by consolidating several agencies.

Homeland Security spokeswoman Valerie Smith said most of the retirees were rehired to train law enforcement officers, although some are air marshals assigned to commercial flights.

Mike Orenstein, a spokesman for the government's Office of Personnel Management, said federal agencies receive permission to pay dual compensation when they need the workers for critical positions.

Dr. Reginald Wells, Social Security's deputy commissioner for human resources, defended the retirement agency's projections.

"Even though you may have data showing the number of employees eligible [for retirement], it doesn't mean they'll retire," he said.

Wells said 22 judges were rehired to help reduce a backlog of 600,000 disability appeals. An additional 146 retired employees were called back to handle benefit claims, the majority of them working directly with the public.