Mass Killing By Social Security

     From The News Advance of Lynchburg, VA (emphasis added):

The Luedkes — husband George and wife Ann — had just returned from vacation in late August when they learned the unthinkable.

Ann Luedke was dead, and had been for 12 years, according to the Social Security Administration. Within days, tens of thousands of dollars would be withdrawn from their joint bank accounts by the U.S. Treasury Department — repayment, the federal government reasoned, for Social Security benefits paid to Ann for the three years in which she had been drawing benefits.

“I don’t remember dying,” Ann said, laughing. “I would have noticed.” ...

On Sept. 6, Ann visited the local Social Security Administration office on Timberlake Road and met with an employee who found that Ann was declared deceased. Ann recalled that her record was partially corrected.

The next day, George and Ann visited the local office together. Later the same day, Ann received a voicemail by an employee in the local office informing her that she was among several thousand people affected by a system input error and the Social Security Administration was working on the problem. ...

[Social Security spokesman Daniel O'Connor] said he could not comment on the Luedke case specifically, citing privacy laws.

When speaking of the assertion that several thousand people were erroneously declared deceased, O’Connor referenced an audit conducted by the Office of the Inspector General in 2015 that raised concerns about the accuracy of death records collected by the Social Security Administration.

 The Social Security Administration reached out to five states — including Virginia — to conduct a pilot by which the agency sought to obtain “historical death data” to “further explore filling potential gaps in our records,” O’Connor said. In August 2016, the Social Security Administration posted approximately 40,000 death records from Virginia and two other states in the pilot. While around half of those records reflected true deaths that matched records of the Social Security Administration, it was discovered that some of the remaining 19,000 matches were in error, O’Connor said. ...

     Are you kidding me? Why has there been no public announcement on this? Why no Emergency Message? Did Social Security think no one would notice? Having one's name wrongly added to the Death Master File causes massive problems.

Since We're So Close To An Election There's No Social Security News So Here's An Interesting Picture

From an exhibition at the NC Museum of Art

Clinton Plan Popular

     From Public Policy Polling:

Do you support or oppose increasing – not

cutting – Social Security benefits by asking

millionaires and billionaires to pay more into

the system?

72%

Support increasing – not cutting - Social

Security benefits by asking millionaires and

billionaires to pay more into the system

16%

Oppose increasing – not cutting - Social

Security benefits by asking millionaires and

billionaires to pay more into the system

12% 

     Even 51% of Republicans support increasing Social Security benefits while asking the wealthy to pay more.

All The COLA Adjustments

     Some excerpts from Social Security's notice of cost of living and other adjustments for 2017, which will appear in the Federal Register tomorrow:

• The maximum Federal Supplemental Security Income (SSI) monthly benefit amounts for 2017 under title XVI o f the Act will be $735 for an eligible individual, $1,103 for an eligible individual with an eligible spouse, and $368 for an essential person;
• The dollar fee limit for services performed as a representative payee remains at $41 per month ($78 per month in the case of a beneficiary who is disabled and has an alcoholism or drug addiction condition that leaves him or her incapable of managing benefits) in 2017;
• The dollar limit on the administrative-cost fee assessment charged to an appointed representative such as an attorney, agent, or other person who represents claimants remains at $91 beginning in December 2016;
• The Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) contribution and benefit base will be $127,200 for remuneration paid in 2017 and self-employment income earned in taxable years beginning in 2017;
• The monthly exempt amounts under the OASDI retirement earnings test for taxable years ending in calendar year 2017 will be $1,410 for beneficiaries who will attain their Normal Retirement Age (NRA) ... after 2017 and $3,740 for those who attain NRA in 2017;
• The taxable earnings a person must have to be credited with a quarter of coverage in 2017 will be $1,300;
• The monthly amount deemed to constitute substantial gainful activity (SGA) for statutorily blind persons in 2017 will be $1,950. The corresponding amount for non-blind disabled persons will be $1,170;
• The earnings threshold establishing a month as a part of a trial work period will be $840 for 2017;
• The cost-of-living increase is 0.3 percent for benefits under titles II and XVI of the Act. Under title II, OASDI benefits will increase by 0.3 percent for individuals eligible for December 2016 benefits, payable in January 2017.

SSA Employee Indicted

     From a press release:

U.S. Attorney Kenneth A. Polite announced that MICHAELLE MARTINEZ, age 38, of Marrero, was indicted today for Theft of Government Funds.

According to the Superseding Indictment, MARTINEZ identified beneficiaries who were entitled to receive retroactive or back payments from the Social Security Administration (“SSA”).  MARTINEZ would change the recipient’s deposit information and would divert the SSA money bank accounts controlled by the defendant.  MARTINEZ then changed the deposit information back before the beneficiaries would notice a problem. ...

If convicted, MARTINEZ faces a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment, followed by up to three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine.

One More Extension For DEA

     From today's Federal Register:

We are extending, until December 28, 2018, the expiration date of our disability examiner authority (DEA) rule, which authorizes State agency disability examiners to make fully favorable determinations without the approval of a State agency medical or psychological consultant in claims that we consider under our quick disability determination (QDD) and compassionate allowance (CAL) processes. This is our last extension of this rule because we will phase out the use of DEA during the extension period under section 832 of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (BBA). This extension provides us the time necessary to take all of the administrative actions we need to take in order to reinstate uniform use of medical and psychological consultants.

How Long Have You Been Suffering From This Delusion?

     Erik Sherman at Forbes Magazine believes that Hillary Clinton may be moving towards privatizing Social Security.

Hildred Appointed To SSAB

     The Speaker of the House of Representatives has appointed Kim Hildred to the Social Security Advisory Board. She had been staff director of the House Social Security Subcommittee.

Social Security Means What It Says -- Until It Becomes Inconvenient

     From Emergency Message 16036 recently issued by Social Security:

A. What is the purpose of this Emergency Message? This emergency message clarifies the following sentence in Social Security Ruling 83-20 – Titles II and XVI: Onset of Disability (SSR 83-20), “At the hearing, the administrative law judge (ALJ) should call on the services of a medical advisor when onset must be inferred.” 

B. What is the background behind this Emergency Message? There has been confusion as to whether the above-quoted sentence in SSR 83-20 imposes a mandatory requirement on an ALJ to call on the services of a medical expert when onset must be inferred. 

C. Does SSR 83-20 impose a mandatory requirement on an ALJ to call on the services of a medical expert when onset must be inferred? No, SSR 83-20 does not impose a mandatory requirement on an ALJ to call on the services of a medical expert when onset must be inferred. 

Instead, the decision to call on the services of a medical expert when onset must be inferred is always at the ALJ’s discretion. 

Direct all questions to your hearing office management chain or the Office of Appellate Operations Executive Director’s office, as appropriate.

Unsuccessful Work Attempt Regulations Improved

     This is Social Security's summary of new rules it recently published in the Federal Register:

The final rules at 20 CFR 404.1574(c), 404.1575(d), 416.974(c), and 416.975(d) remove the additional conditions that we used when we evaluated a work attempt in employment or self-employment that lasted between 3 and 6 months and use the current 3-month standard for all work attempts that are 6 months or less. Under these rules, ordinarily, work you have done will not show that you are able to do substantial gainful activity if, after you worked for a period of 6 months or less, your impairment forced you to stop working or to reduce the amount of work you do so that your earnings from such work fall below the substantial gainful activity earnings level. The new rules at 20 CFR 404.1592c and 416.999a allow a previously entitled individual to request EXR [Expedited Reinstatement] in the same month they stop performing SGA [Substantial Gainful Activity].

     The new rules are effective on November 16, 2016, except for the Expedited Reinstatement changes which are effective on April 17, 2017.

Tiny COLA

     The annual Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) for Social Security benefits for this year is only 0.3%. For the average recipient of benefits this is less than $4 a month. For the vast majority of beneficiaries this increase will be completely taken away by the increase in Medicare Part B premiums.

OIG Report On Hearing Backlog Initiatives

     Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently issued a report on the agency's numerous and varied attempts to reduce its hearing backlog, none of which is working very well.

OIG Report On PASS Plans

     From a recent report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG):

PASS [Plan for Achieving Self-Support] is an employment support program designed to help disabled individuals return to work. Congress established the PASS program as part of the original Supplemental Security Income (SSI) legislation in 1972, and the program went into effect in 1974. Congress intended employment support provisions, such as PASS, to provide disabled beneficiaries with the assistance needed to move from benefit dependence to independence. The legislative history also indicates that Congress expressed a “. . . desire to provide every opportunity and encouragement to the blind and disabled to return to gainful employment.” ...

SSA did not have sufficient information to evaluate the success of its PASS program . Nevertheless, the Agency was not effectively managing the program. For example, SSA lacked basic data on PAS S program participation, costs, and outcomes. In addition, SSA had not evaluated the PASS program’s impact on the di sability rolls . Finally, SSA did not routinely monitor the PASS program or conduct quality control reviews.

Internal control weaknesses leave the PASS program vulnerable to misuse . For example, PASS program guidelines were broad and vague . In addition, there were no limits on PASS benefits, such as caps on expenditures, time limits to complete work goals, or restrictions on the number of PASS work goals a disabled individual may have. Further , some individuals exploit ed the program by misusing PASS benefits to obtain items or services that were unrelated to their work goals....

     My experience with PASS is that it is ridiculously difficult to get a PASS plan approved. Maybe OIG just wants Social Security to effectively repeal PASS by making it literally impossible to get a plan approved.
     Of course, no matter how PASS is administered it's not going to have a significant effect upon the number of people drawing SSI. It's just part of the Congressional fantasy world where SSI recipients will stream off the disability rolls if we just give them enough encouragement. Hint to Congress: It's really tough to get on SSI disability benefits, so tough that very, very few on the benefits have any realistic hope of ever returning to work no matter what anyone does to help them.

NADE Newsletter

     The National Association of Disability Examiners (NADE), an organization of the personnel who make initial and reconsideration disability determinations for Social Security has issued its most recent newsletter, full of summaries of presentations that Social Security management personnel made at a NADE conference.

One Judge Holds Terminations Of Benefits For Eric Conn Clients Unconstitutional

     A United States District Court judge has held that Social Security's termination of disability benefits for Eric Conn's former clients is unconstitutional. Don't think this is resolved. Two other judges on the same court have upheld the terminations. The issue now heads to the Court of Appeals. Interestingly, the judge who found the terminations to be unconstitutional, Thapur, is on Donald Trump's announced list of possible Supreme Court nominees, not that he's likely to have a chance to use that list.

     I'm sorry to be so late posting this but I've been off the net while traveling.

New Somatoform Listing

     From Social Security's new mental impairment Listings effective January 17, 2017:

12.07 Somatic symptom and related disorders (see 12.00B6), satisfied by A and B

     A. Medical documentation of one or more of the following:

          1. Symptoms of altered voluntary motor or sensory function that are not better explained by another medical or mental disorder;

        2. One or more somatic symptoms that are distressing, with excessive thoughts, feelings, or behaviors related to the symptoms; or

      3. Preoccupation with having or acquiring a serious illness without significant symptoms present.

AND

     B. Extreme limitation of one, or marked limitation of two, of the following areas of mental functioning (see 12.00F):

          1. Understand, remember, or apply information (see 12.00E1).

          2. Interact with others (see 12.00E2).

          3. Concentrate, persist, or maintain pace (see 12.00E3).

          4. Adapt or manage oneself (see 12.00E4).

New Personality Disorder Listing

     From Social Security's new mental impairment Listings effective January 17, 2017:

12.08 Personality and impulse-control disorders (see 12.00B7), satisfied by A and B:

     A. Medical documentation of a pervasive pattern of one or more of the following:

          1. Distrust and suspiciousness of others;

          2. Detachment from social relationships;

          3. Disregard for and violation of the rights of others;

          4. Instability of interpersonal relationships;

          5. Excessive emotionality and attention seeking;

          6. Feelings of inadequacy;

          7. Excessive need to be taken care of;

          8. Preoccupation with perfectionism and orderliness; or

          9. Recurrent, impulsive, aggressive behavioral outbursts.

AND

     B. Extreme limitation of one, or marked limitation of two, of the following areas of mental functioning (see 12.00F):

          1. Understand, remember, or apply information (see 12.00E1).

          2. Interact with others (see 12.00E2).

          3. Concentrate, persist, or maintain pace (see 12.00E3).

          4. Adapt or manage oneself (see 12.00E4).

New Neurodevelopmental Listing

     From Social Security's new mental impairment Listings effective January 17, 2017:

12.11 Neurodevelopmental disorders (see 12.00B9), satisfied by A and B:

     A. Medical documentation of the requirements of paragraph 1, 2, or 3:

          1. One or both of the following:

           a. Frequent distractibility, difficulty sustaining attention, and difficulty organizing tasks; or

            b. Hyperactive and impulsive behavior (for example, difficulty remaining seated, talking excessively, difficulty waiting, appearing restless, or behaving as if being “driven by a motor”).

        2. Significant difficulties learning and using academic skills; or

       3. Recurrent motor movement or vocalization. [So in the original; must be typo. They only had a few years to work on it.]

AND

     B. Extreme limitation of one, or marked limitation of two, of the following areas of mental functioning (see 12.00F):

          1. Understand, remember, or apply information (see 12.00E1).

          2. Interact with others (see 12.00E2).

          3. Concentrate, persist, or maintain pace (see 12.00E3).

         4. Adapt or manage oneself (see 12.00E4).

Errors In Applying WEP

     From a recent report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG):

SSA [Social Security Administration] needs to improve its controls to ensure WEP [Windfall Elimination Provision] is timely and accurately applied for Federal pensions. We determined WEP should have been applied to 14 of the 250 beneficiaries sampled . We did not identify any beneficiaries for whom GPO should have been applied. Although SSA was aware these 14 beneficiaries had a government pension, the Agency did not reduce their benefit payments for WEP. The 14 beneficiaries received about $372,000 in overpayments. Based on our sample results , we estimate SSA overpaid about $129 million in Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance benefits to about 4,900 beneficiaries.

If There's Another Side To This Story SSA Better Start Telling It

     From KOAT:

On Thursday, Congresswoman Michelle Lujan-Grisham walked into Albuquerque's Social Security Office, just like anyone else who needs help - but she said she didn’t receive a warm welcome and after an hour, was escorted from the building by federal officers. ...

 

The democratic representative was accompanying a 90-year-old woman to an appointment. 

She wanted to stay incognito - to see first-hand how the office is handling requests. In the past, Lujan-Grisham has criticized the local Social Security Administration for not offering a drop-off zone at its new downtown location. 

After an hour wait with the elderly woman, she said they got help but then got an alarming surprise. 

“Two armed officers show up, tap me,” Lujan-Grisham said during an interview with KOAT-TV Friday. “They challenge me about my access, they challenge me about my right to be there.” 

She said she told them like any citizen, she has a right to be there because it’s a public building, but they persisted. 

“They ask me to leave where I am,” Lujan-Grisham said. “They want to escort me and have a conversation with me.” 

After a few more minutes, Lujan-Grisham said the officers booted her from the building.

“It was purposeful, it was deliberate,” Lujan-Grisham said. 

She’s spent the last day trying to get an explanation from the Social Security Administration and from Federal Protective Services, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, with no luck. 

No one from either agency returned phone calls and emails KOAT either on Friday. ...

New Childhood Listings For Depression, Bipolar And Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder

     From Social Security's new mental impairment Listings for children:

112.04 Depressive, bipolar and related disorders (see 112.00B3), for children age 3 to attainment of age 18, satisfied by A and B, or A and C: 

     A. Medical documentation of the requirements of paragraph 1, 2, or 3: 

          1. Depressive disorder, characterized by five or more of the following:

               a. Depressed or irritable mood; 

               b. Diminished interest in almost all activities; 

              c. Appetite disturbance with change in weight (or a failure to achieve an expected weight gain); 

               d. Sleep disturbance; 

               e. Observable psychomotor agitation or retardation; 

               f. Decreased energy; 

               g. Feelings of guilt or worthlessness; 

               h. Difficulty concentrating or thinking; or

              i. Thoughts of death or suicide. 

          2. Bipolar disorder, characterized by three or more of the following: 

               a. Pressured speech; 

               b. Flight of ideas; 

              c. Inflated self-esteem; 

              d. Decreased need for sleep; 

              e. Distractibility; 

            f. Involvement in activities that have a high probability of painful consequences that are not recognized; or

              g. Increase in goal-directed activity or psychomotor agitation. 

         3. Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder, beginning prior to age 10, and all of the following: 

               a. Persistent, significant irritability or anger; 

               b. Frequent, developmentally inconsistent temper outbursts; and 

               c. Frequent aggressive or destructive behavior. 

     AND 

     B. Extreme limitation of one, or marked limitation of two, of the following areas of mental functioning (see 112.00F): 

          1. Understand, remember, or apply information (see 112.00E1). 

          2. Interact with others (see 112.00E2). 

          3. Concentrate, persist, or maintain pace (see 112.00E3). 

          4. Adapt or manage oneself (see 112.00E4). 

     OR 

     C. Your mental disorder in this listing category is ‘‘serious and persistent;’’ that is, you have a medically documented history of the existence of the disorder over a period of at least 2 years, and there is evidence of both: 

          1. Medical treatment, mental health therapy, psychosocial support(s), or a highly structured setting(s) that is ongoing and that diminishes the symptoms and signs of your mental disorder (see 112.00G2b); and 

          2. Marginal adjustment, that is, you have minimal capacity to adapt to changes in your environment or to demands that are not already part of your daily life (see 112.00G2c).

NRA Does Its Thing

     According to a recent report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG), the agency received 90,920 comments on the recent Rule-Making proposal to have the agency report the names of individuals who have been assigned a representative payee to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, where it could be used to prevent individuals from purchasing firearms. The agency must go through all of these comments. I'm sure that the vast majority are nothing more than the repetition of National Rifle Association talking points but it's still a huge number of comments to go through, by far the most in Social Security's history. I can predict that without a lot of pressure from the White House, this one will go on the back burner.

Security Issues With Social Security's Online Systems

     Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) has released only a stub of a report on security in Social Security's online services but it's enough to strongly suggest there are problems. The agency admits that it needs a "higher degree of confidence in users’ asserted identities" and OIG says it is "imperative" that the agency do so "as soon as possible."

The Backlogs Are Horrible

     From a recent report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG):

As of March 2016, ODAR [Office of Disability Adjudication and Review] had about 1.1 million pending claims awaiting a hearing decision with the average age of 318 days, measured as the time from the date of the hearing request. The volume and age of pending hearing cases has increased since FY [Fiscal Year] 2010.

With respect to the claims awaiting a decision, we found:

• claimants’ average age was 45, and about 6 percent of pending claims involved claimants under age 19;

• about 45 percent of hearing requests nationwide awaited assignment for pre-hearing preparation; and

• approximately 7,400 claimants were deceased.

We found wide variations in workloads by hearing office nationwide. For instance, the average pending cases per ALJ ranged from 502 in the Boston Region to 972 in the New York Region. We also found that the proportion of individuals awaiting a decision in Georgia as related to the number of disability beneficiaries in the State was three times higher than that in Massachusetts.

Click on image to view full size

Click on image to view full size

Are You Kidding Me? A 48% Error Rate?

     From a recent report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG):

Our objective was to determine whether the Social Security Administration (SSA) correctly completed manual actions to bill for Medicare premiums owed by beneficiaries whose monthly Social Security benefit was less than the monthly Medicare premium. 

When an individual entitled to Medicare Part B receives a monthly Social Security benefit, SSA deducts the monthly Medicare premium from the benefit . However, some individuals’ monthly Social Security benefit is lower than the monthly Medicare premium. SSA must bill these individuals for the remaining amount of the Medicare premium. ...

 SSA incorrectly calculated the Medicare premium owed for 120 (48 percent ) of the beneficiaries we reviewed who had a monthly Social Security benefit lower than their monthly Medicare premium. Based on these results, we project 33,092 beneficiaries paid incorrect amounts totaling almost $21.9 million for Medicare premiums because of SSA’s errors. These errors included miscalculations, erroneous system inputs, and failure to update beneficiary records correctly. As a result, some beneficiaries paid more than the correct amount for Medicare premiums, while others paid less ....

This Is Outrageous

     From a recent report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) (emphasis added):

We continue to find that SSA [Social Security Administration] needs to improve controls to ensure it pays child beneficiaries’ withheld benefits pending the selection of a representative payee. Based on our random sample, we estimate that SSA did not pay 6,615 beneficiaries approximately $9.2 million in withheld benefits.

Finally, we estimate that SSA only paid 2,423 of the 13,464 beneficiaries we identified during our 2010 audit. This occurred, in part, because SSA did not send letters to 4,233 beneficiaries and pay 214 beneficiaries who were in current pay on another record. ...

New Neurocognitive Listing

     From Social Security's new Listings of impairments for mental disorders effective January 17, 2017:

12.02 Neurocognitive disorders (see 12.00B1), satisfied by A and B, or A and C:

      A. Medical documentation of a significant cognitive decline from a prior level of functioning in one or more of the cognitive areas:

          1. Complex attention;

          2. Executive function

          3. Learning and memory;

          4. Language;

          5. Perceptual - motor; or

          6. Social cognition.

AND

     B. Extreme limitation of one, or marked limitation of two, of the following areas of mental functioning (see 12.00F):

         1. Understand, remember, or apply information (see 12.00E1).

         2. Interact with others (see 12.00E2).

         3. Concentrate, persist, or maintain pace (see 12.00E3).

         4. Adapt or manage oneself (see 12.00E4).

     C. Your mental disorder in this listing category is “serious and persistent;” that is, you have a medically documented history of the existence of the disorder over a period of at least 2 year s, and there is evidence of both:

         1. Medical treatment, mental health therapy, psychosocial support(s), or a highly structured setting(s) that is ongoing and that diminishes the symptoms and signs of your mental disorder (see 12.00G2b); and

       2. Marginal adjustment, that is, you have minimal capacity to adapt to changes in your environment or to demands that are not already part of your daily life (see 12.00G2c) .

How Do You Spell That?

     From Psychology Today:

Naming a baby is a big decision, one many parents agonize over. ...

In discussion groups online for expecting mothers, many say they want to choose a unique name because “different is good” or “I want him to stand out.” Others dismiss names that are “too popular” because “I don’t want them to be one of three kids with the same name in their class.” ...

In a 2010 paper, my co-authors and I found that the use of common names declined precipitously between the 1950s and 2007 in the Social Security Administration database of the name of every American with a Social Security number (which is nearly everyone). In the 1950s, 1 out of every 4 boys had one of the 10 most popular names. By 2007, only 10% did. Fitting in went from being desirable to being undesirable, and uniqueness went the opposite way. It was yet another sign of American culture becoming more individualistic – more focused on the self and less on social rules. ...

But then the Great Recession hit. People started talking about a “cultural reset,” and in fact charity donations and interest in social issues did go up, suggesting a rise in communalism. But signs of a sustained increase in individualism, such as a continuing rise in positive self-views, also appeared.

So what happened with names? In a paper published today, we found that the trend toward unique names continued during the recession, especially for boys. Unique names are more common now than they were 10 years ago. Thirty-four percent of boys received a name among the 50 most popular in 2004-06, compared to only 30% during the 2008-10 recession years and 28% in post-recession 2011-15. For girls, the decline was from 24% to 22% to 21%. ...

This research shows the hidden power of culture. Across the country over the last few decades, parents were collectively deciding not to choose common names for their children. How does something like that happen? It’s a mysterious process – somehow the value of uniqueness became more prominent. We know it happened, but exactly how and why is a bit of a mystery. For now, we can take comfort that our kids will be less likely to be confused with another who has the same name – but more likely to be asked the question “And how do you spell that?”