Vance Angry About Illegal Immigrants Receiving Social Security Benefits

      From The Economic Times:

US Vice President JD Vance delivered a fiery message during a discussion about illegal immigration and Social Security benefits. Vance argued that encouraging people who are in the country illegally to claim Social Security benefits would undermine the program rather than protect it. “If you are encouraging illegal aliens to sign up for Social Security and steal Social Security benefits, you're not protecting Social Security, you're destroying it,” Vance said.

     Of course, illegal aliens are already ineligible for U.S. Social Security benefits so there would be almost none of them receiving benefits. Maybe Trump needs to issue an executive order slamming immigrants and forbidding them from receiving Social Security benefits. An imaginary solution to an imaginary problem. 

Many Errors In Disabled Adult Child Cases

      From a report by Social Security’s Office of Inspector General:

… The Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance program provides benefits to wage earners and eligible family members in the event a wage earner retires, becomes disabled, or dies. Child benefits under this program include benefits for minor children, students, and disabled adult children.

SSA initially processes most disability claims through local SSA field offices and state disability determination services that make disability determinations for SSA. 

We reviewed a random sample of 100 claims from a population of 5,237 child’s insurance benefits claims that were filed from January 2023 through November 2025 that SSA initially denied because it determined the claimants were not disabled. 

Of the 100 initial claims we reviewed, SSA correctly denied 49 for child’s insurance benefits based on medical eligibility requirements. When SSA subsequently approved the 49 claims, it correctly paid the claimants. However, SSA did not correctly deny, pay, and/or document decisions for the remaining 51 claims. 

 SSA employees incorrectly denied 11 claims. Based on our sample, we estimate the Agency incorrectly denied about 600 claims.

 SSA employees did not document whether they completed all required actions when they requested required forms orevidence from the claimants before they denied eight claims. Based on our sample, we estimate this occurred in about 450 claims.

 SSA employees did not correctly pay benefits to 32 claimants after they subsequently found the claimants were disabled and approved their claims. Based on our sample, after SSA approved the claims, we estimate employees did not correctly pay about 1,100 claimants, resulting in underpayments of approximately $1.2 million. Additionally, based on our sample, we estimate SSA employees properly paid about 340 claimants; however, the Agency did not establish the correct dates they were entitled to Medicare benefits.

We could not determine why employees made these errors.

I Can’t Wait

      From MSN:

The Trump administration has built a tool powered by artificial intelligence that its developers promise will serve as a “concierge” to the federal government, as it attempts to modernize the relationship between citizens and the state. 

 

“Instead of forcing citizens to search through the endless maze of tens of thousands of terrible government websites,” President Trump said at a Tuesday event launching the website, “you’ll now have one front door for every single question.”

 

Joe Gebbia, co-founder of Airbnb and head of the White House’s National Design Studio, said the online portal will function as a new digital front door to the federal government. He said the technology—in time—will serve as the final destination for all federal constituent services, setting a standard “you’d expect of a superpower.” 

 

Renew a passport or start Medicare enrollment. Reserve a federal campsite or check on the status of federal student loans. Eventually, all of those tasks, and more, Gebbia said, can be started and completed, on America.gov. ...

 

 Version 1.0 of the product will launch Tuesday, said General Services Administrator Edward Forst, whose agency will provide what he described as “the ongoing backbone” of the technology as more advanced iterations are released. ...

     The hubris of people like Gebbia knows no bounds. They just can’t comprehend that government operations are vastly more complex than anything they’ve ever dealt with in the private sector. Other than as a collection of links this project will have essentially zero ability to help the public interact with Social Security in the foreseeable future.

ERE Down

      I am hearing reports that Social Security’s ERE system that allows attorneys representing claimants access to their clients’ files and the ability to upload medical and other records is down this morning. I don’t know whether it’s working for agency employees.

Advances For My SSA Accounts But Problems Persist

      From NextGov/FCW:

… The Social Security Administration hit its target of reaching 105 million 'my Social Security' accounts — an online portal Americans use to access services — by the end of the month, an agency spokesperson told Nextgov/FCW on Friday. The agency now aims to reach 110 million by the end of next September, per a strategic plan released in August. 

But that 110 million goal is far less lofty than the target SSA Commissioner Frank Bisignano told Congress about last year: 200 million online accounts by the end of 2026.

The SSA spokesperson said the agency continues to strive for 200 million my Social Security account holders, but they did not offer a target date. …

Adults generally interact with SSA in very specific moments of their lives, which explains much of the tepid adoption in the younger age bracket, Arabella Crawford, a civic tech consultant and Tech Viaduct contributor, told Nextgov/FCW. Those moments include turning 65, being diagnosed with a disability or changing their legal name, she explained. …

Many [potential claimants] are also not technologically savvy, lack internet access or have disabilities that make it difficult to use technology …

Clients ran into issues using my Social Security accounts’ digital identity verification services, she explained. For example, some clients found it difficult to use video proofing on ID.me — a digital identity validation service used across several agencies — while others had to wait for the government’s in-house option, Login.gov, to send codes through the mail, she said. …

How Much Money Is Paid To MEs And VEs?

      Social Security has posted data showing how much is being paid to each individual or entity providing testimony for the agency as Vocational Experts (VEs) or Medical Experts (MEs) at hearings on disability claims.

     Let me note a couple of things. First, the entities probably include more than one VE or ME. Somebody correct me if I’m wrong but I think some of the VEs and MEs let an entity handle the paperwork for them in exchange for a cut of the fees. Second, don’t take these numbers as gospel. Social Security also posts numbers on payments of fees to attorneys and law firms representing claimants before the agency. I deliberately don’t post links to these numbers since they have always contained inaccuracies that were obvious to me. I know the rough size of some firms and the numbers given for those firms align poorly with what I know. I don’t know about the VE or ME numbers.

Not All Children Paid Properly

      From a report by Social Security’s Office of Inspector General:

… The Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program provides monthly benefits to retired and disabled workers and their dependents as well as the survivors of deceased workers. The minor child of an insured worker may receive Social Securitybenefits until they reach age 18. A child beneficiary may continue receiving benefits after they reach age 18 if they qualify as a student beneficiary. …

We identified 521,393 beneficiaries who were entitled to student benefits for 1 or more months from January 2022 through December 2024. We randomly selected 100 of these beneficiaries to determine whether SSA accurately paid student benefits to eligible beneficiaries.  Of the 100 beneficiaries we reviewed, SSA correctly paid benefits to 71 in accordance with policy. However, SSA did not correctly pay benefits to 17 beneficiaries. In addition, SSA did not retain documentation to support benefit payments to 12 beneficiaries. SSA did not correctly pay benefits to 17 beneficiaries as follows.

 For nine, beneficiaries and school officials did not provide SSA accurate or current school attendance information that affected eligibility for student benefits, and SSA was unaware the information contained errors.

 For eight, SSA employees did not correctly use available school attendance and graduation information to determine the duration of student benefit eligibility.

In addition, SSA employees did not retain completed Forms SSA-1372 for 12 of the 100 beneficiaries, as required. Without evidence, we could not determine whether the individual  were entitled to the student benefits SSA paid them. As a result, SSA improperly paid beneficiaries $49,447 and could not support an additional $93,466 in benefit payments. Based on our sample results, we estimate SSA improperly paid approximately $211 million to about 89,000 beneficiaries. In addition, we estimate SSA made approximately $342 million in unsupported payments to about 63,000 student beneficiaries. …

I Have Never Heard Of This Kind Of Fraud Before

      From Clickon Detroit:

A Detroit-area mother allegedly kept nearly $30,000 in Social Security benefits intended for her son -- even bringing an imposter to a medical appointment to keep the money coming in, according to a federal criminal complaint.

Keshaune Pace, a.k.a. Keshaune Jenkins of Eastpointe, is accused of theft of government funds and Social Security representative payee fraud. The complaint filed Sept. 18 covered the period from July 2021 through October 2024.

Pace began receiving Social Security benefits on behalf of her son after applying for benefits when he was four years old, according to the Social Security Administration’s Office of Inspector General.

The benefits were based on alleged mental disabilities, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and oppositional defiant disorder. As her son’s representative payee, Pace was required to use the money for his care and report changes that could affect his eligibility, including changes in his living arrangements and income.

Investigators say her son moved out of Pace’s home in or around July 2021, a few months before his 18th birthday. School records later indicated he was living outside his mother’s custody and was considered an unaccompanied homeless youth.

But Pace continued receiving the benefits, the feds said. …

In January 2023, Pace allegedly took someone other than her son to a psychiatric consultative examination required as part of a review of his continuing eligibility for benefits.

The person who appeared at the examination was listed as 6 feet tall, while her son is 5 feet 7 inches, according to the feds. The person claimed to hear voices and said, “I need help for the voices in my head,” court records said. …

When the examiner allegedly asked Pace why there had not been any treatment since her son was 14 years old, Pace said, “It’s hard to get him out. Transportation is hard.”

The examiner questioned the person’s performance and described him as a “very poor historian” who “seemed to be greatly exaggerating.” The examiner also found that the person’s full-scale IQ score of 48 was invalid because it was inconsistent with records showing her son had been in regular education and had not received special education services.

Investigators said Pace eventually admitted the person she brought to the examination was not her son, saying she did it “to keep the benefits from being stopped.” …