From a recent report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) (emphasis added):
... SSA [Social Security Administration] conducts redeterminations, which are reviews of SSI [Supplemental Security Income] recipients’ non-medical factors of eligibility, such as income, resources, and living arrangements. The redetermination process is a way of detecting any unreported changes in circumstance that would affect a recipient’s SSI eligibility. Redeterminations are scheduled annually if a change in circumstance is likely or once every 6 years if a change in circumstance is unlikely. We identified 53,744 SSI recipients (from 1 of 20 segments) who had not had a redetermination completed in longer than 10 years. We analyzed a random sample of 275 cases. ...
We estimated about 1.1 million SSI recipients — about 1 in 8 recipients — had not had a redetermination completed in longer than 10 years because SSA only did a limited number of redeterminations each year based on its budget. As a result, we estimate d about 77,060 SSI recipients might be overpaid approximately $381.5 million because SSA had not completed a redetermination in longer than 10 years. ...I keep making the same point again and again: Failing to adequately fund SSA costs money. An adequate administrative budget would at least pay for itself by reducing overpayments. Instead, Republicans pursue a wasteful "starve the beast" strategy. It’s ideology over common sense.
3 comments:
How much money did SSA/courts waste in denying Rossello (vs. Astrue)? Why does this agency fight some people tooth and nail to deny benefits while easily giving it to others? It seems to me that part of this is out of arrogance and pride: not wanting to admit they made a mistake! Part of these "recommendations" are for going after technicalities... In the examples given, I saw little that had anything to do with medical improvement. Seems to me a rather petty recommendation.
There is another example of how SSA wastes money in the SSI income and resource redetermination process. There is a numbers goal with redeterminations. A certain number to reach, but not go over, by the end of the fiscal year with percentage goals throughout the fiscal year. About this time of the year, September, an SSI supervisor spends a good part of each day analyzing the count; how many more clearances are needed before the end of the month. However, the target changes daily because of normal changes of address. And since going over the goal is also prohibited, employees are instructed to 'stage' redets ready for clearance and the supervisor then decides if they can clear the redet before the end of the fiscal year or if it would put the office over the limit. This silliness goes on for at least two or three weeks every September.
9:16. The same is true for continuing disability reviews in DDS. Once the quota is reached that is it for the fiscal year. Sometimes this happens in July. Then nothing might be done about any new ones until well after the new fiscal year starts in Ocober.
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