Attorneys who represent Social Security claimants normally receive as their fee one-quarter of their clients' back benefits up to $6,000. The fee is withheld from the back benefits by the Social Security Administration. Social Security keeps part of the fee, however, as a "user fee" for the costs of the withholding. Here are the updated figures for payments of fees and others for representing Social Security claimants. This matters more than you think. Generally, the attorneys are paid at the same time as the clients. If you see a speedup or slowdown in payments of fees, you're seeing a speedup or slowdown in payments to claimants. You can see below that things didn't go so well in October, the first month of the new fiscal year.
Fee Payments |
||
|---|---|---|
| Month/Year | Volume | Amount |
Jan-12
|
29,926
|
89,749,312.99
|
Feb-12
|
43,946
|
134,207,416.10
|
Mar-12
|
47,376
|
139,571,577.57
|
Apr-12
|
38,239
|
113,225,483.07
|
May-12
|
37,648
|
112,446,283.39
|
June-12
|
43,816
|
128,559,225.66
|
July-12
|
33,342
|
97,458,955.82
|
Aug-12
|
41,441
|
119,484,061.59
|
Sept-12
|
38,393
|
115,676,630.23
|
Oct-12
|
29,646
|
84,612,068.75
|
If you look at the numbers for the first month of earlier quarters, there is a big drop off from the last month of the prior quarter. SSA has always tried to squeeze out the last work credit as the quarter -- and in this case, the fiscal year -- comes to an end. No conspiracy, just typical bureaucratic numbers and goals garbage.
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