Issue refreshed Open Government Plan and share it with public and employees |
Completed |
View the Open Government Plan 3.0 released on June 2, 2014.
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Identify data assets to include in agency’s enterprise data inventory and public data listing for harvesting by the Data.gov catalog |
Completed |
- Sep 2016 – In FY 2016, SSA added 170 public datasets to the Public Data Listing, representing a 12.5% increase since the end of FY 2015. Datasets added in FY 2016 included the following:
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Foster use of agency data and solicit input from the public for prioritizing future data releases |
Completed |
- Jan 2016 – We use both Data.gov and SSA owned/administered tools. New data is released on an ongoing basis based on public input.
- Feb 2015 – After receiving feedback on Open Data Customer Engagement, added instant download of tax form SSA-1099 to suite of services available through a my Social Security account.
- We continue to solicit customer feedback on open data through Idea Scale engagement tool, available to the public through our agency Open Data page. Please give us your thoughts on Open Data.
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Build an application to register new and update existing data assets |
Completed |
- Nov 2015 – Application went to production and generated files.
- The development team has finished coding and testing the application. We are now working on deploying through the lifecycle to production. We created a SharePoint site in February of 2014 that is currently being used by SSA agency components to create and update data assets as part of our ongoing effort to document and maintain our Enterprise Data Inventory. Development efforts are underway to create a new web application in a fully supported production environment that will provide similar functionality along with enhanced features to validate data input and provide automated JSON generation of the Enterprise Data Inventory and Public Data Listing. We anticipate that the application will be available for use by the 3rd quarter of FY15.
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Within the data creation process, develop checkpoints to capture and promote open data |
Completed |
In the planning and analysis lifecycle phase, we have a checkpoint to capture information necessary to support Open Data. Another checkpoint captures the implementation of the data asset in the construction lifecycle phase. The combination of these two checkpoints allows us to identify and register new data assets in a repeatable process. As we mature and refine our process we will continue to make strides to enable open data throughout the information lifecycle.
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Incorporate data transparency considerations into the systems development lifecycle so we can release data in standard formats in a more efficient and automated way |
FY 2016 |
In FY15, SSA issued an Open Data policy to provide further guidance to the agency. Using this new policy, we will further incorporate a level of transparency into the lifecycle to become more efficient in releasing data.
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Engage the public in providing input for disability program policy development |
Completed |
- July 16 2014 – Utilized IdeaScale to solicit feedback from frontline employees and advocacy groups on comprehensive Continuing Disability Review training. Received over 200 comments.
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Provide the public with the opportunity to comment on our proposed regulations |
Completed |
Regulations and other proposals are posted for public review and comment on Regulations.gov, and can be accessed by clicking here.
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Hold additional engagements on other potential areas for regulations changes |
Completed |
- June 10, 2016 – SSA hosted a listening forum for advocates to discuss topics related to the Office of Disability and Adjudication Review. This session was a result of the recent disability forum to provide advocates an opportunity to exchange many ideas about disability policies and procedures.
- May 2016 – Hosted the quarterly National Quarterly Social Security and SSI Advocates Meeting in Washington, D.C. Topics discussed included repealing 11-1P, transitioning youth out of foster care, and language access at Disability Determination Services. Twenty-seven advocates attended the meeting.
- Mar 2016 – Fourth National Disability Forum held in Washington D.C. Topic of discussion was “Developing and Assessing Medical Evidence for Extreme Limitations in the Ability to Focus on Tasks”
- As part of the medical listings business process, we continue to host engagements seeking stakeholder input to inform our work to update and revise the Listing of Impairments (the Listings). This activity will be ongoing as we plan to host an engagement for each of the Listings. We recently hosted the following IdeaScale engagements:
- In January 2016, we plan to solicit public input on Special Senses – Vision loss.
- In December 2015, we solicited public input on the Genitourinary body system.
- In October 2015, we asked for public feedback using IdeaScale on Special Senses- Hearing loss.
- In August 2015 we solicited public input regarding the endocrine body system.
- In August 2015, we also solicited public comments on the cancer body system and specifically asked about a new approach in clinical trials called “basket therapy” that uses drugs or drug combinations based on the genetic profiles of patients’ malignancies.
- Nov 2015 – Third National Disability Forum held in Washington D.C. Over 700 Twitter followers and over 200 individuals’ participated in-person or by telephone in the discussion on “The Realities of Work for Individuals with Disabilities: Impact of Age, Education, and Work Experience.”
- The second National Disability Forum held on 7/15/15. The topic was “Transitioning SSI Childhood Beneficiaries to Successful Adulthood.” IdeaScale was used to engage stakeholders in follow-up discussion as well as to solicit topics for future Forums.
- September 2014 – Launched the National Disability Forum, an open forum moderated by Social Security that gives all interested stakeholders an opportunity to share their unique insights on topics of particular interest to SSA early in the process and directly with policy makers. Topics vary per forum, but can include regulations currently under review.
- June 2014 – ODP invited stakeholders to participate in an IdeaScale online comment forum to capture innovative training ideas and comments for improving the disability decision process for CDR adjudication.
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Provide information on other means to provide feedback on various topics |
Completed |
- Feb 2016 – Launched Open Government Plan 4.0 Feedback Process, using IdeaScale tool, to gather input from public for use in drafting the forthcoming Open Government Plan 4.0.
- Oct 2015 – On October 7, 2015, SSA collaborated with the Job Accommodation Network (JAN) for a Twitter chat celebrating National Disability Employment Awareness Month.
- Jun 2015 – On April 27, 2015, SSA released its Vision 2025 webpage, which included a dedicated feedback page with three avenues for engagement: a Survey Monkey survey, an Idea Scale engagement community, and a dedicated Vision 2025 email address.
- April 2015 – Launched Social Security Matters blog, a platform for Social Security to share our goals, programs, and online services with the American public and stakeholders, while providing a forum for readers to share their feedback on various topics.
- Aug 4, 2014 – Held an “Ask Me Anything (AMA)” public engagement on social media service Reddit. AMA sessions are an online interview forum where online users post live questions for a designated person to answer. Chief Actuary Stephen Goss hosted this session on the topic of Social Security’s long term solvency.
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Use focus groups for public input and usability testing before launching online services |
Ongoing |
- Mar 2016 – Fourth National Disability Forum held in Washington D.C. Topic of discussion was “Developing and Assessing Medical Evidence for Extreme Limitations in the Ability to Focus on Tasks”
- May 2015 – Tested the Dynamic Help (DH) and Click to Call Back (CTCB) screens
- June 2014 – Tested Message Center draft screens
- July 2014 – Tested Social Security replacement card draft screens
- July 2014 – Tested SSI Mobile Wage Reporting screen changes
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Hold engagements with the public and advocates regarding agency's services and programs |
Completed |
- July 27, 2016 – SSA and the U.S. Department of Labor, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the Administration on Community Living co-presented on a retirement webcast, Taking The Mystery Out of Retirement Planning: A Focus On Women. Social Security discussed our retirement program and promoted our online tools to help women plan for retirement. We promoted the webcast on our Twitter account and on Social Security’s “What is New” webpage
- June 15, 2016 – SSA hosted a conference call around LGBT Pride Month with LGBT advocates. We discussed our goal to develop a yearlong marketing plan fully engaging the LGBT community and introduced our newest publication, Social Security: What Same- Sex Couples Need to Know, and directed their attention to our redesigned Same-Sex Couples website
- June 10, 2016 – SSA hosted a listening forum for advocates to discuss topics related to the Office of Disability and Adjudication Review. This session was a result of the recent disability forum to provide advocates an opportunity to exchange many ideas about disability policies and procedures.
- May 2016 – Hosted the quarterly National Quarterly Social Security and SSI Advocates Meeting in Washington, D.C. Topics discussed included repealing 11-1P, transitioning youth out of foster care, and language access at Disability Determination Services. Twenty-seven advocates attended the meeting.
- April 5, 2016 – SSA and the US Chamber of Commerce worked together to co-host “Promoting Retirement Security Makes Good Business Sense” in Washington, D.C. The purpose of the event was to advance the business community’s interest in Social Security SSA’s social media team live tweeted during the event which amplified speaker messages and allowed engagement with external audiences through social media.
- January 28, 2016 – SSA conducted a joint webinar with the Small Business Administration, to provide information about our programs, benefits, and online services for small business owners and employees. We also highlighted Social Security’s dedicated website called the Business Services Online Suite of Services that allows organizations, businesses, individuals, and employers, to exchange information with Social Security securely over the internet. We posted the webinar on our YouTube channel and promoted the webinar via Twitter.
- Nov 2015 – Third National Disability Forum held in Washington D.C. Over 700 Twitter followers and over 200 individuals’ participated in-person or by telephone in the discussion on “The Realities of Work for Individuals with Disabilities: Impact of Age, Education, and Work Experience.”
- Aug 2015 – Agency hosted a webinar on iAppeals, providing an overview of the latest iAppeals enhancements with a live Q and A session for advocates, social services agencies and other third parties.
- Jul 2015 – National Disability Forum, held in Washington, DC, engaged disability advocates and other public and private stakeholders in a public meeting on the topic of “Transitioning SSI Childhood Beneficiaries to Successful Adulthood.”
- Jun 2015 – On April 27, 2015, SSA released its Vision 2025 webpage, which included a dedicated feedback page with three avenues for engagement: a Survey Monkey survey, an Idea Scale engagement community, and a dedicated Vision 2025 email address. As of June 2015, the Survey Monkey page has garnered 1,066 responses from managers, 651 responses from employees, and 122 responses from the public; the IdeaScale engagement has garnered 106 Ideas, 174 Comments, and 690 Votes; and the Vision 2025 email inbox has received 31 messages.
- May 2015 – We will participate in a brainstorming session with the Center for Disease Control to explore opportunities for data sharing collaborations and data exchange.
- March 2015 – National Quarterly Advocates Call, for Women’s History Month, to discuss retirement security. Guest speakers included Women’s’ Institute for a Secure Retirement, Operations Hope, and the Department of Treasury.
- March 2015 – Delivered a presentation of Continuing Disability Reviews to the National Association of Disability Representatives Annual Social Security Law Conference.
- November 2014 – March 2015 – Policy staff hosted Federal Expert Panel on Disability Policy, a series of three discussions with federal experts from other agencies about how the vocational factors of age, education, and past work experience affect the ability to adjust to other work.
- November 2014 – Met with representatives from Huntington’s Disease Society of America and gave an overview of the Huntington’s Disease Compassionate Allowance template.
- Sept 2014 – Disability Forum (formerly Disability Coalition) engaged disability advocates and other public and private stakeholders in a public meeting regarding key policy topics.
- Sept 2014 – National Quarterly Advocates Engagement, for the first time broadcast as a Webinar. To date, has received 360 views (live webinar/YouTube views combined).
- August 2014 - Met with representatives of the Desmoid Tumor Research Foundation who provided information about the condition. We gave background on the Compassionate Allowance List (CAL) templates.
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Further enhance our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) website and online reading room |
Completed |
November 2014 – Updated the system of records notice section of our FOIA website. The compilation contains a notice of each system of records and related appendices that we maintain, and now includes the actual Federal Register publication for each of the systems of records.
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Review FOIA cases to determine practicality of posting information on FOIA Library |
Completed |
You can review the list of Proactive Disclosure items added to the Proactive Disclosure page of the FOIA Library, in row below
SSA’s Office of Privacy and Disclosure received several inquiries regarding the Sanctioned Representatives list, and has added it to the Proactive Disclosure tab in the FOIA Library.
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Add items to the Proactive Disclosure webpage |
Completed |
- Aug 11, 2016 – Updated list of Sanctioned Representatives
- Sep 14, 2015 – Added FY 2014 Workload Data – Disability Decisions
- Sep 14, 2015 – Added State of Georgia Appeals Council Request for Review Actions 2009-2014
- Jul 2015 – Added list of Sanctioned Representatives
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Examine alternatives to FOIA system |
Completed |
SSA has completed its review of alternative FOIA systems and has concluded that EPA’s FOIA online solution provides the best capabilities that suits SSA’s needs. We are beginning the procurement process and are hopeful in transitioning to the new system beginning by mid- 2017. The new system provides numerous benefits that will enable SSA to better track requests, and more accurately reflect FOIA figures for the Department of Justice annual report.
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Give open government honor awards for employees to recognize achievements in advancing open government principles |
Annually – Completed |
- Jun 2016 – Awards for FY 15 given in June 2016, including awards for the teams behind the National Disability Forum and the Congressional Testimony Search Tool
- Awards for FY 14 given in January 2015, including awards for interagency collaboration, stewardship of open data, and fostering internal and external engagement.
- Created an Open Government Honor Awards page highlighting current and past honorees, with descriptions of their projects.
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Post our open government goals and our performance against the goals on our website |
Completed |
Implementation progress chart updated throughout the year
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Build our online repository of congressional and legislative materials that may be of interest either for historical reasons or to promote transparency |
Completed |
- Jun 2015 – Launched an online tool to search through past congressional testimony from 1995 to the present. Testimony is searchable by subject, names, and year.
- Nov 2014 – Social Security History page contains chronological set of legislative documents from 1935-2004 pertaining to Social Security, including committee reports, records of congressional debates, legislative bulletins, Administration statements, and other pertinent reference material.
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Expand the use of social media tools to support transparency, participation, and collaboration |
Completed |
- July 27, 2016 – We promoted our webcast, Taking The Mystery Out of Retirement Planning: A Focus On Women, on our Twitter account and on Social Security’s “What is New” webpage. SSA and the U.S. Department of Labor, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the Administration on Community Living co-presented on the retirement webcast. Social Security discussed our retirement program and promoted our online tools to help women plan for retirement.
- April 5, 2016 – SSA’s social media team live tweeted during our event, “Promoting Retirement Security Makes Good Business Sense” SSA and the US Chamber of Commerce worked together to co-host this event held in Washington, D.C. in Washington, D.C. The purpose of the event was to advance the business community’s interest in Social Security
- January 28, 2016 – SSA conducted a joint webinar with the Small Business Administration. After the webinar, we posted the webinar on our YouTube channel and promoted the webinar via Twitter. The webinar provided information about our programs, benefits, and online services for small business owners and employees. We also highlighted Social Security's dedicated website called the Business Services Online Suite of Services that allows organizations, businesses, individuals, and employers, to exchange information with Social Security securely over the internet.
- Oct 2015 – On October 7, 2015, SSA collaborated with the Job Accommodation Network (JAN) for a Twitter chat celebrating National Disability Employment Awareness Month.
- Jun 2015 – On April 27, 2015, SSA released its Vision 2025 webpage, which included a dedicated feedback page with three avenues for engagement: a Survey Monkey survey, an Idea Scale engagement community, and a dedicated Vision 2025 email address. As of June 2015, the Survey Monkey page has garnered 1,066 responses from managers, 651 responses from employees, and 122 responses from the public; the IdeaScale engagement has garnered 106 Ideas, 174 Comments, and 690 Votes; and the Vision 2025 email inbox has received 31 messages.
- April 2015 – Launched Social Security Matters blog, a platform for Social Security to share our goals, programs, and online services with the American public and stakeholders, while providing a forum for readers to share their feedback.
- Jan 2015 – Piloting SkillsConnect program, a talent-sharing model that allows employees the opportunity to apply for and participate on projects across the agency.
- Utilized IdeaScale to solicit discussion items for National Disability Consortium meeting, held on September 24, 2014.
- Aug 2014 – Utilizing IdeaScale to solicit public feedback on agency’s Vision 2025 plan.
- Aug 21, 2014 – Held Twitter chat titled “mySocialSecurity: Planning for your Financial Future”.
- Aug 4, 2014 – Held an “Ask Me Anything” public engagement on social media service Reddit, hosted by Chief Actuary Stephen Goss, on the topic of Social Security’s long term solvency.
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Improve the open government portal |
Completed |
- Aug 2016 – Updated content on Crowdsourcing and Participation page
- Jul 2016 – Launched GeoMaps @ SSA page, featuring geospatial maps created using Social Security data.
- Jul 2015 – We published an Open Data Progress web page with a chart tallying the data assets added to the enterprise data inventory. This chart is updated monthly and contains data totals back to August 2014.
- May 2015 – Updated the Participation page to include collaboration and feedback opportunities for the agency’s Vision 2025.
- Provided links to Open Data public engagements.
- Using feedback from Open Data engagement, created Open Data Themes page, with common themes that emerged from public feedback.
- Created Open Government Honor Awards page highlighting current and past honorees, with descriptions of their projects.
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Participate in projects with the Department of Treasury’s Do Not Pay (DNP) Program |
Completed |
On September 18, 2015, under reimbursable agreement between SSA, Treasury’s Bureau of Fiscal Service (FS), and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), SSA sent FS 1.1 million prisoner records and FS passed this information to IRS for tax administration purposes.
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Review the Annual Performance Plan to incorporate open government principles and activities |
Completed |
We have an institutionalized process for reviewing agency documents
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Display Whistleblower Protection informational posters throughout the agency and post to appropriate agency intranet pages |
June 2014 |
Completed
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Provide new employees with written materials about the Whistleblower Protection Act |
June 2014 |
Completed
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Issue statement to all agency employees about the Whistleblower Protection Act |
June 2014 |
Completed
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Prepare and begin to show all new hires a video on demand to educate them about the Whistleblower Protection Act |
August 2014 |
Completed
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Include Whistleblower Protection Act information with annual personnel reminders |
Oct 2014 |
Completed
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Achieve certification in compliance of Whistleblower Protection Act |
FY 2016- Completed |
May 2016- Achieved certification
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Improve secure access to personal data and other online services |
Completed |
- Aug 2015 – Released Dynamic Help (DH) which includes a widget located in the my Social Security portal. DH displays available help features and communication channels. When the customer engages the widget, it immediately displays three, context-specific, FAQs based on page location. If those FAQs are not helpful, the customer can ask a question to get more help.
- July 2015 – Added the ability for a my Social Security user to download or save the Online Social Security Statement. This enhancement provides the public with the ability to upload the information into financial planning software, or provide the information to the financial planner of their choice in an electronic format.
- Feb 2015 – Added instant download of tax form SSA-1099 to suite of services available through a my Social Security account. Our agency mails out 62.5 million tax-related forms our each year. This new online service allows those millions of people to access their personal data instantly and securely, and replaces a paper-based replacement form process.
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