The final 2014 figures for payments of fees to attorneys and others representing Social Security claimants are in. These are amounts paid by the claimants themselves out of their back benefits. Social Security is only a conduit. The total amount paid in 2014 was $1,140,183,312.10. This is 8% less than the 2013 total of $1,226,129,697.74. Fee payments have been going down since 2010. The total fee payments per year are now down 20% from their 2010 peak.
ummm....look at the chart in the post below. Lower fees are a natural result of decreasing numbers of newly disabled workers along with an increased percentage of disability findings made at the DDS level.
ReplyDeleteThis isn't including EAJA fees, which is doing wonderfully at the moment.
ReplyDeleteI've been litigating truly incoherent decisions from the past few years.
Any by incoherent, I mean that the decisions don't make logical sense.
Remember - these numbers are for title II direct paid fees only. These numbers do not include title XVI (SSI) fees, fees where the rep waived direct payment, EAJA fees as mentioned above, nor fees collected directly from claimants for reps not entitled to direct payment, situations where the approved fee exceeds the 25% withheld from past-due benefits, or where there are no past-due benefits that are subject to withholding. It also does not include fees paid by 3rd parties such as insurance companies or state/local entities.
ReplyDeleteIf SSA ever got really efficient in processing SSDI claims and there was no longer a backlog, attorneys wouldn't make hardly any money and would go out of business since the past due benefits would be low.
ReplyDeleteIf SSA ever got really efficient in processing SSDI claims and there was no longer a backlog, attorneys wouldn't make hardly any money and would go out of business since the past due benefits would be low.
ReplyDeleteYeah! Thank God for SSA inefficiency. Actually, there was a time in the past (mid 80's i believe) when hearings were routinely held in six months and the Appeals Council made their determination in three or four months. But those days are long gone. Unless substantial funds are added to the SS budget, efficiency in processing cases is just not going to happen.
This points out the absurdity of the Republican position re SSDI is a failed program. It grew due to demographics (as predicted by SS actuaries in 1983 and 1994). Now it will level off and go down due to the same reasons. Applications are down 10% since 2010 and hence fees are also down. This isn't something magical or mysterious or fraudulent but rather demographically based for anyone who takes the 30 minutes necessary to read and understand it.
ReplyDelete