From Michael Hiltzik writing for the
Los Angeles Times:
Since they’ve been unsuccessful (thus far) at cutting Social Security
benefits, congressional Republicans are continuing to resort to the
backdoor assault on the program by starving its administrative budget.
In the latest versions of the agency’s budget under consideration in
Washington, the House is planning to keep the budget at the same
inadequate funding level as the current year. The ever more ambitious
Senate is trying to cut it by $400 million, or nearly 4%.
To retirees, near-retirees, and disability applicants the effects aren’t
invisible. They show up in deteriorating customer service at every
level. ...
The sole area of long-term growth in the budget has been a separate
appropriation for “integrity funding,” which essentially means ferreting
out waste, fraud, and abuse in the disability program, a favorite
Congressional hobby horse. That line item has grown to about $1.7
billion (in the budget proposals of President Trump, the House, and the
Senate) from an inflation-adjusted $871 million in fiscal 2010 ...
Whether that search for fraud is worth the money is hard to gauge, since the level of improper payment
in Social Security disability has been estimated at less than 1%, with
underpayment a bigger problem than overpayment. A far greater impact on
disability applicants is the record backlog. The Social Security
Administration has been struggling with that issue for nearly two decades,
but has been unable to get a handle on it consistently because of
Congressional budget cuts. The backlog came down sharply from fiscal
2008 through fiscal 2012, a period in which the average wait time for a
disability decision fell from more than 500 days to 350 days, the first
time the wait had been less than a year since 2003.
Since
2012, wait times have again climbed steeply, as a surge of applicants
during the recession combined with an inability to hire disability
judges and support staff. The average wait time is back up to 626 days. ...
2 comments:
One of the very few journalists who actually understands what's going on and the significance of it. Bravo, Mr. Hitzik.
Underpayments happens with those who have work related injuries. One IW received SSDI & then arbitrarily cut off 3 years later. SSA waited 10 years to finally approve and she got SSI. She lost all of her retro payment plus a huge loss of monthly benefits. The congressional staffer and the SSA CR AIDED & ABETTED in making sure she only received SSI, knowing all of those years she went to them both for help. After receving a letter stating that I was getting a larger amount and was not, well try telling that to a SSA employee. AND yet trying to get information one one's SSA documents from the SSA is just downright impossible!!! But this sure it isn't the only time that this has happened. So there is something else going on here. The SSA is running a scam on injured workers for over 3 decades with employers too in not having to pay their share of SSDI & Medicare benefits per federal law. The injured worker also ends up paying medicare out of their pithy SSI benefits for medical care they cannot receive until the employer pays up the on WCMSA and do not pay out, an agreement not mandated by law. This is where the AFLCIO with the DOL got involved via union contracts unbeknownst to the union members and none of the rest of the U.S. workers at large.
Starving out folks who end up with as little as possible. I'd go so far to say that this is a massive fraud perpetrated on the tax payers who are the injured workers themselves who paid into the system and end up paying for their injuries sustained on the job, through their mandated FICA but on a much lesser benefit scale. It's a win win for employers & the SSA/Medicare but a lose lose for injured workers. The congress members on both sides have let this happen and will not help these injured workers to receive their rightful benefits and I want to know why! Waiting for for up to 3 decades for the SSA TO provide the underpayment benefits is outrageous and needs an investigation ASAP. The SSA & MEDICARE has been running a scam for itself and employers on the backs of injured and ill workers for far too long and it needs to stop and the underpayments need to be paid back with interest! If not today but sometime soon, this too will rear its ugly head and no one will be able to stop it as all things come to a head at some point!. The truth as always, shall prevail!
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