SAVE Award 2011 Ideas

We currently at Social Security Administration 800# number send out form IRS w-4v (Request for change in voluntary tax witholding) to those who request witholding over the phone. When we recieve the form back at the 800# number, we input the witholding. It would save money, time, and postage if after we properly and securely identify callers like we already do each time we make a change in a Social Security record, that... more »

There should be an option for permanant career employees to work part-time. (Perhaps 4 out of 5 days a week.) The employee could pay out a little more in insurance, etc. but, would have a more family-friendly manageable schedule.

Many professional offices have Monday-Friday hours only. For some employees the higher cost of insurance, etc. may outweigh the burden of scheduling leave and juggling family responsibilities... more »

These can be for permanant career employee positions who have the necessary security-enhanced equipment or for those who do not handle personally identifiable information.

Include subordinate employees' ratings of supervisors and managers yearly reviews. Even if this accounts for %1 of %100, it will provide insight to that manager or supervisor's capabilities.

Routinely the DOJ and US Attorneys Office will subpoena Federal employees to testify in cases outside of the employee's geographical work area.

These cases can often be cross country in nature as currently my office on the West Coast is working to find funding to send an employee to the East Coast for under one hour of general background testimony.

A cross country flight and hotel for less than one hour of general testimony.... more »

SWAG

Stuff We All Get

You have seen it in your unit’s storage or at a recruiting event. We give it out to visitors at trade shows or at an unit open house event.

Coffee cups, calendars, key chains, pens, challenge coins, you name it and the only thing in common is the sticker on the bottom; Made in China.

It is time to impose immediate legislation that will prohibit the purchase of foreign made items for official... more »

Currently; Border Patrol, CBP, FPS, ICE, TSA and the US Coast Guard have their own facilities, policy, processes, and specialist personnel to handle seized property and contraband.

By consolidating all of these facilities and processes into one DHS seized property system, cost savings and efficiency will occur.

Why does ICE need a seized property vault in the same geographical location as CBP?

Consolidate these facilities... more »

Currently hard-working Americans who pay Social Security taxes have a cap on the maximum payable to their family. But a family receiving SSI payments can receive an unlimited amount of monthly payments because there is no cap on payments to households with children receiving SSI. I know of cases where SSI families receive much more than the maximum paid to tax-paying Social Security beneficiaries. This seems patently... more »

Ensure that Social Security benefits are automatically stopped at the time a Death Certificate is issued by automatically sending a copy of the Death Certificate to the Social Security Administration when the Death Certificate is issued. This would eliminate the lag time between the Date of Death and when the benefits are stopped by the Executor of the Will for the deceased. It would also eliminate unnecessary checking... more »

There are billions of dollars that were turned over to the 50 States by Banks, Employers, Insurance companies, Stock companies, etc. all belonging to millions of Americans who forgot they had this money. Match the Federal records (SSN's) of anyone receiving any Federal benefits (SSA, SSI, VA, Medicaid, Food Stamps, etc.), against those of the 50 States holding this Unclaimed Property we could reunite people with billions... more »

Currently there are 36.428 million people receiving SSA benefits and approximately the same amount of people receiving Medicare part B benefits over age 65.

My idea is to eliminate Section 1839(f) of the Social Security Act which allows for Variable SMI.

Doing this would save the government (a low-end estimate) $1.470 BILLION dollars a year.

(Not counting the disability beneficiaries that have part B Medicare)... more »

Prior to the creation of the DHS, the former US Customs Service was the primary entity for inspecting inbound and outbound foreign cargo at US International airports as well as compliance and control of related bonded facilities.

The events of September 11, 2001 resulted in the creation of DHS as well as the TSA with the consolidation of the Customs Service into CBP. Since 2001 the TSA has grown and expanded in mission... more »

SSA has an entire EMPTY floor YET we RENT across the street for $$$. We should use our SQ FT more efficiently, get rid of the rental & invited our extended employees onto our EMPTY floor.

Use all of our office space. We rent large SQ FT with not enough people to fill it.

If we rent large, use it. The govt is giving money away again.

The govt cannot afford to live in the nice neighborhood anymore. Humble pie.

As an example; an office of 24, management consists of 1 Associate Commissioner, 1 Deputy Associate Commissioner, 1 GS-15 Director, 1 Executive Officer, 3 GS-14 Division Directors, 1 GS-14 Senior Advisor, 1 GS-13 Supervisor; 9 managers to manage 15 people? This is not a joke, the staff could be more efficiently managed to ensure individuals have ample responsibility for the positions they hold. Perhaps I am the only one... more »