Social Security Takes Y2K Measures By ALICE ANN LOVE Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Social Security Administration is taking extra precautions even though Year 2000 computer problems are not expected to interfere with January benefit payments to 44 million elderly and disabled Americans.

Paper checks and electronic files for direct-deposit benefits will be delivered to the U.S. Postal Service and banks a day earlier than usual, Social Security Commissioner Kenneth Apfel said Tuesday. Beneficiaries should expect to get their money on the normal day - Jan. 3, for most people.

``The people that depend on Social Security can rest assured that their payments will arrive on time,'' Apfel said.

Social Security transferred to the Treasury Department on Tuesday the last of the necessary Y2K-compliant files for electronic payments through bank accounts. From Treasury, they will go, through the Federal Reserve, to banks across the country by Dec. 30, a day earlier than usual, to ensure on-time posting of direct deposits to individuals' accounts.

About three-quarters of Social Security recipients' benefits get electronically, deposited into their bank accounts. For those who get paper checks through the mail, they are printed and will be at the post office early, Apfel said.

Supplemental Security Income benefits, known as SSI, which go to 6 million low-income older people and disabled Americans, are not affected because they normally are delivered on the last business day of the month. That's Dec. 30 this year, since the 31st will be a federal holiday with New Year's Day falling on a Saturday.

The Social Security Administration - among the first organizations to detect and begin to rectify Y2K problems, a decade ago - has been using Y2K compliant computer programs to send benefits out for more than a year.

``In many ways Social Security has been a leader in the federal government in dealing with the Year 2000,'' said John Koskinen, the White House's top Y2K advisor.

However, in case delays somehow occur in the first benefits payments of the new year, possibly caused by problems at local banks or with the nation's transportation system, the agency has emergency plans.

The 1,300 local Social Security service centers across the country, for example, will be capable of handing out checks to people in serious financial trouble, up to $999 per person.

In a normal month, about 40,000 people's Social Security benefits are reported late or missing, the vast majority paper checks misplaced during mailing. About 3,000 to 4,000 people who get electronically deposited payments report problems in a month.

Social Security plans to have an extra 2,500 operators working its toll-free help lines on Jan. 3, in case complaints are more numerous than usual.

In addition to paying benefits, Social Security also uses computers to keep track of taxes paid into the retirement system by 145 million working Americans, process 6.1 million new benefit applications each year, and issue 16.2 million new and replacement Social Security cards.

The agency says all its systems are ready and tested for the Y2K rollover, an effort which took $48.3 million to fix 35 million lines of computer code.

Nevertheless, the Social Security Administration is operating a Y2K command center out of its Baltimore headquarters from Dec. 20 to Jan. 21. Verification that systems nationwide are working will begin shortly after the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve.

And to make sure an electrical failure can't wipe out Social Security's main data center at the headquarters, it will switch just before midnight to jet-fuel generators and stay on its own power until service is confirmed by the local power company.

``We're taking every precaution,'' Apfel said.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/19991221/tc/y2k_social_security_2.html

-- LOON (blooney10@aol.com), December 21, 1999

Answers

2500 extra operators? Is that possible?

The thing that bugs me about Soc. Sec. is that people look at it and say "Oh great, they're done." But they never seem to make the connection about how long it took them. Do they think Social Security is the only organization with millions of lines of code?

I know. Too late to rant.

-- Clare (clarehamilton@mindspring.com), December 21, 1999.

>first benefit check of the year

Great plan. Now, what are they going to do about the second check of the year?.....

-- cgbg jr (cgbgjr@webtv.net), December 21, 1999.