Social Security has sent out its first staff instruction on what to do with same sex marriages in the wake of the Supreme Court decision that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional. The instruction is to "Take and hold all claims by individuals who are filing for benefits that are dependent upon the existence of a same-sex marriage." This is not just for those who have moved from the state in which they were married. This is for all cases. The instruction to 800 number operators is to "Please advise callers that we are working with the
Department of Justice to review the decision and how it impacts our
programs -- including benefits administered by this agency – to ensure
that we implement the decision swiftly and smoothly."
The Supreme Court decision that DOMA is unconstitutional didn't come as a surprise to anyone who had been paying attention. I think that Social Security could have been better prepared. How long will it take them -- and the Department of Justice -- to write staff instructions?
The Supreme Court decision that DOMA is unconstitutional didn't come as a surprise to anyone who had been paying attention. I think that Social Security could have been better prepared. How long will it take them -- and the Department of Justice -- to write staff instructions?
This could not have come at worse time. Shrinking staff, frozen pay and now, extra work to "hold".
ReplyDeleteThis will not go well.
The other down side, you're going to be paying more out while taking nothing extra into the trust fund. I wonder if they have run a calculation estimating the impact of the new pay outs?
Seriously on the workload issue, it is not that big of a population involved, so how can it be such a disruption?
ReplyDeleteEven in states that have had the law on the books for a while there are not that many people married. Not all of them are getting a benefit or applied. Be serious.
That would depend what state you work in I suppose. If you're in a state that doesn't recognize it, you're probably right.
DeleteNot that many married huh? Well, now they have a reason to get married so I'm assuming that number (whatever it is) is sure to rise.
Ironically, this will be disadvantageous to same-sex couples involved in SSI due to deeming rules and SSI-couples comps. May start having to due holding-out determinations on same-sex households, whether or not they allege being couples. Could get awkward.
ReplyDeleteExactly right. I brought that up in a previous thread. Unless you're prepared to grill everyone about their sexual preferences, "holding out" will almost certainly get scrapped for being disadvantageous to opposite sex couples.
DeleteDeeming should apply in any situation in which both natural parents are in the HH even if they are not married.
ReplyDeleteThat's not the same argument as listed above. Besides, natural wouldn't include step patents. The issue is relevant for parent-child deeming and certainly for spousal deeming.
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