Prison For Man Who Threatened To Shoot Up Field Office

     From Michigan Live:

A Florida man who threatened in a phone call to “shoot everyone” at a Kalamzoo Social Security Administration office has been sentenced to a year in prison. 

Samuel Adam Santellan, 55, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids to the prison term. 

Santellan called the office from Florida in December 2018 about a rejected disability claim. He became angry at some point and told a clerk that he was going to "get a gun, come to the (Social Security) office and shoot everyone.” ...

Got A Plan?

Trust Funds Ratio -- Asset Reserves As Percentage Of Annual Cost

 

     The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) has an interactive website that lets you try out plans for bringing the Social Security trust funds into long term balance. It may be humbling if you think there's some painless way of doing this unless you think there's no pain in either benefit cuts or tax increases.

     The CRFB was formed by the late Pete Peterson, who spent a good part of his fortune campaigning against Social Security. This website displays the sort of tilt that one might expect. It uses the euphemism "Slow Benefit Growth" for dramatic cuts in benefits. The website projects that investing part of the Social Security trust funds into stocks and bonds would solve 22% of the long term funding problem. Sure, if you make assumptions that cannot be proven and you ignore the risks involved. While diverting trust fund assets to stocks and bonds remains a Wall Street pipe dream, otherwise even the right wing has pretty much given up on the idea. This website also includes a proposal that would absolutely gut Social Security disability that almost no one even on the right is calling for. On the other hand, the website ignores serious proposals for devoting estate tax revenues to the Social Security trust funds. Billionaires don't want anyone even thinking about estate taxes.

     Still, it's a useful introduction to the issues involved.

"I'm Starting To Stink Really Bad. No Embalming Fluid"

     From the Daily Sentinel in Grand Junction, CO:

Nine little numbers can kill you. Seriously. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust deadly.

That was what Ken Nesslage discovered to his untimely demise. RIP.

He was 77 and only trying to do the right thing when it happened, for heaven's sake.

He had gone to the Social Security Administration office out by the Grand Junction Regional Airport to notify them that his mother had died.

Roberta J. McDonough was 95 years, 1 month and 1 day old when she died on May 13 with her beloved small dog in her lap. Unfortunately, on July 1 it became apparent that the mortuary in Utah hadn't made the notifications for her that it was supposed to and it fell to Nesslage, the trustee for her estate.

A dutiful son to the end, he had all the proper paperwork. However, he was required to enter his own Social Security number into the system to get a ticket to be seen at the office window.

And with that nine-digit entry, Nesslage sent himself into the digital jaws of death.

Not realizing how bad off he was, though, he didn't go to the doctor for a week. He was told his Medicare was suspended.

As soon as he got home, he called Medicare.

"Are you sitting down, Mr. Nesslage?" the woman asked. "I'm going to tell you something that might disturb you greatly."

Then she told him he was dead. ...

He was back at the Social Security office in a hot second, much too upset to be a ghostly apparition.

But, alas, he was dead. As of May 13, in fact. The same day his mother died.

He was assured the error mixing up his mother's death with his own would be corrected.

However, in the days to come Nesslage began to realize it was much easier to die than to come back to life and found himself an odd member among the walking dead all headed downhill. ...

Still, he attempted to refill his blood pressure medication. His Medicare remained suspended.

Credit card — denied. ...

Meanwhile, Judy received another letter, this time from Social Security, telling her what her new monthly payments would be and that she would receive $255 for her husband's burial expenses.  ...

"I'm starting to stink really bad. No embalming fluid," Nesslage deadpanned. ...

On his fourth trip to the office on July 26 — everyone there now knows him by sight and certainly by name — he got a letter indicating he had been reported dead in error. ...

Disability Trust Fund Doing Fine

     After the balance in Social Security's Disability Insurance Trust Fund dipped to a low level in 2015, Congress passed and President Obama signed a bill that temporarily diverted more of the F.I.CA. taxes from Social Security's Retirement and Survivors Trust Fund to its Disability Trust Fund for three years, 2016-2018. So how's the trust fund doing in 2019 without the additional revenue? Not too bad. With the extra revenues, the Disability Trust Fund gained $18.1 billion in the first seven months of last year. In the first seven months of 2019, without the additional tax revenue, the Disability Trust Fund gained $2 billion. As of last month, the Disability Trust Fund balance was a healthy $99.1 billion.

Denying Disability Claims Doesn't Cause People To Go Back To Work; They Just Get Poorer And Poorer

https://www.cbpp.org/research/social-security/chart-book-social-security-disability-insurance

Explosion In Maryland

     A gas explosion destroyed a Social Security office building in Maryland yesterday. Because it was a Sunday, no one was injured. A Social Security employee who had come into work on Sunday to catch up was the first to report smelling gas. No one was injured.

What Happened In 2010?

https://www.cbpp.org/sites/default/files/styles/downsample150to92/public/atoms/files/7-30-18di-chartbook-f11.png?itok=0-H0V58i

Disability Associated With Higher Death Rates

https://www.cbpp.org/research/social-security/chart-book-social-security-disability-insurance

New Ruling On Headaches

     Social Security Ruling 19-4p on the evaluation of headaches in determining disability will appear in the Federal Register on Monday. You can read it today. Here is what appears to me to be the key language from the Ruling:

Primary headache disorder is not a listed impairment in the Listing of Impairments (listings); however, we may find that a primary headache disorder, alone or in combination with another impairment(s), medically equals a listing. Epilepsy (listing 11.02) is the most closely analogous listed impairment for an MDI [Medically Determinable Impairment] of a primary headache disorder. While uncommon, a person with a primary headache disorder may exhibit equivalent signs and limitations to those detailed in listing 11.02 (paragraph B or D for dyscognitive seizures), and we may find that his or her MDI(s) medically equals the listing or in combination with another impairment(s), medically equals a listing.

Epilepsy (listing 11.02) is the most closely analogous listed impairment for an MDI of a primary headache disorder. While uncommon, a person with a primary headache disorder may exhibit equivalent signs and limitations to those detailed in listing 11.02 (paragraph B or D for dyscognitive seizures), and we may find that his or her MDI(s) medically equals the listing. 

Paragraph B of listing 11.02 requires dyscognitive seizures occurring at least once a week for at least 3 consecutive months despite adherence to prescribed treatment. To evaluate whether a primary headache disorder is equal in severity and duration to the criteria in 11.02B, we consider: a detailed description from an AMS [Acceptable Medical Source] of a typical headache event, including all associated phenomena (for example, premonitory symptoms, aura, duration, intensity, and accompanying symptoms); the frequency of headache events; adherence to prescribed treatment; side effects of treatment (for example, many medications used for treating a primary headache disorder can produce drowsiness, confusion, or inattention); and limitations in functioning that may be associated with the primary headache disorder or effects of its treatment, such as interference with activity during the day (for example, the need for a darkened and quiet room, having to lie down without moving, a sleep disturbance that affects daytime activities, or other related needs and limitations). 

 Paragraph D of listing 11.02 requires dyscognitive seizures occurring at least once every 2 weeks for at least 3 consecutive months despite adherence to prescribed treatment, and marked limitation in one area of functioning. To evaluate whether a primary headache disorder is equal in severity and duration to the criteria in 11.02D, we consider the same factors we consider for 11.02B and we also consider whether the overall effects of the primary headache disorder on functioning results in marked limitation in: physical functioning; understanding, remembering, or applying information; interacting with others; concentrating, persisting, or maintaining pace; or adapting or managing oneself.

WEP Options

     The Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) that reduces Social Security benefits because of the receipt of pensions based upon income not covered under Social Security has been receiving a fair amount of attention lately, perhaps because many of those affected are in red states which are more likely to exclude state employee wages from the F.I.C.A. tax, giving them state pensions instead. The Social Security Bulletin, the agency's scholarly publication, has an article on the WEP and options for replacing it.

Mistaken Identity In Florida

     From First Coast News:

Johnnie Hills, 58, believes he is the victim of mistaken identity. He said proving that to Social Security Administration, however, has been difficult.

"The system is you're guilty until proven innocent and I didn't even do anything," he said.
On July 29, Hills received a letter at his North Jacksonville home from Social Security Administration. The document stated his monthly disability check of $1,600 was being suspended "because he is in prison for the conviction of a crime."

"I was like, 'it can't be me,'" Hill said. "It must be somebody else."

Hills said he made two trips to the local Social Security office to correct what he calls an obvious mistake. He said he found no empathy and no help. 

Hills, who is a former school board employee, was advised to check with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office for a criminal or prison record. He said there was none.

"The officer told me I wasn't in the system and there was nothing he could do," Hill said. ...

"My bills have gotten behind," Hills said. "They're not going to help me with that. I didn't know who to talk to." ...

     I had one of these cases. My client was approved for Social Security disability benefits but she wasn't paid. The explanation we got was that the client was in prison in New Mexico. My client, who was a free woman in North Carolina, gave a response which I understand New Mexico residents are all too familiar with, "I've never been in Mexico in my life!"  I called the New Mexico prison authorities. They told me that they not only had no prisoner by the same name as my client but that their database didn't show that they had ever had a prisoner by that name. They also didn't have the Social Security number in their database. I gave Social Security the name and telephone number of the New Mexico prison employee I had talked with but they insisted that they couldn't call him. In any case, my client's benefits were soon paid.

Median Lag Time Between Becoming Disabled And Filing Disabilty Claim Was 7.6 Months In 2013-14

     The Social Security Bulletin has an interesting article titled The Time Between Disability Onset and Application for Benefits: How Variation Among Disabled Workers May Inform Early Intervention Policies. Obviously, the article is concerned with how this gap time affects rehabilitation. I don't think the length of the gap time will matter much as far as rehabilitation is concerned are since I think that there are few applicants for Social Security disability benefits who can realistically be rehabilitated. Rehabilitation is a mirage based upon the misconceptions that Social Security disability claimants aren't all that sick or that they many suffer from problems that one can find a way around. 

     The article does give some historic numbers on a topic of interest to me, at least, which is how long people wait after becoming disabled before they file disability claims with Social Security. I've wondered whether factors such as difficulty in contacting Social Security to file a claim and public perceptions about how easy or difficult it is to be approved for Social Security disability benefits affect how long people wait to file claims. Changes in the lag time between onset of disability and claim filing could affect the rate at which claims are filed. Unfortunately, the article doesn't give information to show how the lag time has changed over time but it does give some historic numbers. During the time period 2013-2014 the median gap time was 7.6 months. Don't ask me why they didn't use a more recent time period. Below is a chart from the article:

Click on image to view full size

     I would have been very interested to see whether this gap time was stable over time. What was it in 2010 compared to 2019? Unfortunately, the authors do not present such data.

     However, the authors do present data showing that the younger that disabled people are, the longer they wait to file disability claims:

Click on image to view full size

Endless WEP Problems

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

The Social Security Amendments of 1983 include a provision that eliminates “windfall” Social Security benefits for retired and disabled workers who are receiving pensions from employment not covered by Social Security.  

WEP [Windfall Elimination Provision] applies when the wage earner becomes entitled to both a pension based on non-covered employment and Social Security benefits. Under WEP, SSA uses a modified benefit formula to determine a wage earner’s monthly Social Security benefit. WEP applies to both retirement and disability benefits. However, under certain circumstances, a beneficiary’s payments are exempt from this provision. ...

Of 150 sampled beneficiaries, SSA improperly exempted 26 from WEP. Because of this processing error, the 26 beneficiaries were improperly paid approximately $774,000. Although the Agency was aware these 26 beneficiaries had received pensions, it did not reduce their benefits for WEP. Of these 26 beneficiaries, SSA may not correct the payments for 24 because of SSA’s administrative finality rules. Based on our sample results, we estimate SSA improperly paid approximately 3,600 beneficiaries $118 million. 

Additionally, SSA exempted 28 beneficiaries from WEP where we found the exemptions questionable. If SSA did not apply WEP, but should have, we estimate the Agency paid these 28 beneficiaries approximately $971,000 more than they were entitled to receive. 

Because of its administrative finality rules, SSA may not correct all the payment errors we identified. If it does not take corrective action, we estimate the Agency will improperly pay an additional $140 million in future payments to these beneficiaries.

     I'm not saying we should eliminate WEP but it's a mess to administer and claimants really, really dislike it.

Has The "Gig Economy" Had An Effect Upon The Number Of Disability Claims?

     From the abstract of How Does Contingent Work Affect SSDI Benefits?, a study by Matthew S. Rutledge, Alice Zulkarnain, and Sara Ellen King for the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College: 

Some studies have found that contingent workers – including independent contractors, consultants, and those in temporary, on-call, and “gig economy” jobs – make up an increasing share of the labor force. How does this group of workers interact with Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI)? ...

The study finds that SSDI application rates are about one-quarter smaller for older eligible contingent workers than for traditional workers of the same ages. Contingent workers are also about one-third less likely to be awarded disability benefits. The lower application and award rates are likely due in part to contingent workers’ lower eligibility rates and lower potential benefits. The application and award rates are also lower for contingent workers who have a chronic condition, work limitation, or limitation in their Activities of Daily Living. These results suggest that contingent workers would benefit from a greater availability of information and assistance in navigating the SSDI application process.

     The study talks about the "gig economy" allowing people to work only they feel like it. That can allow individuals with health problems to continue at least some employment. I've seen an increase in the number of claimants who work in short term, on call and part time jobs enough to cause problems with their Social Security disability claims but not enough to support themselves.

What's Age Got To Do With It? A Lot

From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Man Arrested For Threatening To Shoot Up Field Office

     George Elden Robinson was arrested in Phoenix after allegedly threatening to shoot up a Social Security field office on July 11.

Report On Decline In Disability Claims

     Social Security's Office of Retirement and Disability Policy has published a briefing paper dealing with the question of why the number of disability claims approved has gone down so much. It doesn't come to any definite conclusions.

    The main problem I have with this otherwise thorough report is that it mostly limits the data presented to 2017 and earlier. Since then the number of disability claims filed has continued to go down dramatically while the unemployment rate has held pretty much steady. That's hard to explain if your theory is that number of disability claims has declined due to reduced unemployment. I think this is the main issue that needs to be examined and this report seems to skirt around it.
     I believe that more research is needed on the connection between the quality or lack of quality of service at Social Security and the number of disability claims filed. As this report indicates, many who might file claims are ambivalent about doing so. This ambivalence makes them easily deterred by difficulty in filing a claim. We have some research on this subject but not much.
     By the way, if you think that the Office of Retirement and Disability Policy must issue many briefing papers like this, you're wrong. It's August and this one is labeled "Briefing Paper No. 2019-01." What exactly do they do in that Office?

About 500 Of Eric Conn's Former Clients Get Their Disability Benefits Restarted

     About 500 of Eric Conn's former clients will get their benefits reinstated, at least for now, as a result of the decision of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Hicks v. Commissioner of Social Security. This only applies to those whose cases are pending on appeal. There are others who did not appeal their terminations who are not currently affected. There is a class action lawsuit pending which may get their benefits reinstated. It's not at all clear what process Social Security will use in any future benefit redeterminations for Conn's former clients.

Happy 84th Birthday, Social Security!

By the way, notice the cigar in the left hand of the man on the right. That was Senator Pat Harrison of Misissippi. Different times.

Social Security Ruling 19-3p

     Social Security Ruling 19-3p will be in the Federal Register tomorrow. It's on requesting reconsideration or a hearing. The regulations require that these appeals be in writing. The Ruling, as best I can tell on a first reading, is designed to make it clear that the agency considers an appeal filed through its online systems to be in "writing."

Social Security 2100 Act To Get A Vote In House This Year?

     Rachel Greszler, research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, believes that the House of Representatives will take up the Social Security 2100 Act this fall. That bill would assure Social Security financing through the year 2100 and would increase benefits. It would also     increase the FICA tax, particularly on high income individuals. She predicts it will pass the House easily. Here’s another right wing source predicting it will come up in the House very soon. Of course, with Mitch McConnell as the Majority Leader there’s no way the Senate will take it up.
     By the way, I haven’t seen even one source with even a marginal alignment with Democrats warning that there’s some political danger for Democrats in voting for this. As scared of their own shadow as Democrats often are, I think that tells you something about the politics of this bill.

Does Move To Decertify Immigration Judges’ Union Have Implications For Social Security ALJs?

     From the New York Times:

The Justice Department has moved to decertify the union of immigration judges, a maneuver that could muffle an organization whose members have sometimes been openly critical of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement agenda. 

The department filed a petition on Friday asking the Federal Labor Relations Authority to determine whether the union, the National Association of Immigration Judges, should have its certification revoked because its members are considered “management officials” ineligible to collectively organize, according to a Justice Department spokesman. ...

     Could you make the same argument regarding Social Security Administrative Law Judges? In the past, Social Security has tried hard to take away anything that looks like ALJ management responsibilities, at least in traditional hearing offices, but what management responsibilities do Immigration Judges have?

Errors On Social Security Statements

     From the Detroit Free Press:

... In an odd quirk, Social Security finally acknowledged in early August that a glitch caused the agency to send out some incorrect "On Request" paper statements. The troubled reports were triggered if you asked for information on your Social Security account via a paper form, known as an SSA-7004. 

"Of the tens of thousands of paper requests the agency receives annually, less than 1% of those statements issued contained errors," according to an email from Mark Hinkle, acting press officer in the national Social Security office. ...

Social Security said a coding issue caused errors on a very small number of the "On Request" statements that were issued since 2017. Hinkle said the statements displayed the correct estimated benefit amounts but the mistakes were made when the projected benefits were applied to incorrect ages at which the person would receive them.  ...

Jumpy In Lubbock

      From KCBD:

Officials with the Lubbock Police Department say a huge misunderstanding caused the evacuation of the Social Security office in Lubbock today.

According to police, a person parked a vehicle in the employee parking lot of the building and ran off quickly. The call came in just after 11:30 a.m.

Homeland Security officers told KCBD the vehicle had out-of-state plates and it concerned an employee when the person ran off.

Officers responded and brought in a K-9 dog used to detect explosives.

During the investigation, they learned a person was late for a job interview. The person parked quickly and ran to their interview.

The building was evacuated for about an hour.

Social Security Hiring Freeze: Lazy And Stupid And Insulting

     From Federal News Network:

The Social Security Administration has implemented a hiring freeze across much of the agency’s headquarters. 

SSA Commissioner Andrew Saul announced the hiring freeze, effective July 31, in a memo to senior staff, which Federal News Network obtained. 

An SSA spokesman confirmed the hiring freeze and said it was implemented to ensure agency resources are directly focused on customer service priorities. 

“This freeze applies to all headquarters components and their respective regional offices,” the spokesman said. “Direct public service and workload positions and workload positions in the teleservice centers, processing centers, area and local field offices and state disability determination services are exempt from the hiring freeze.” ... 

SSA headquarters and component offices impacted by the hiring freeze can’t establish new positions or post new external or internal vacancy announcements, according to the agency guidance. 

New appointments for administrative law judges, senior administrative law judges and administrative appeals judges are also prohibited. ... 

In addition, the hiring freeze blocks permanent and temporary promotions for SSA employees, with the exception of career ladder promotions, according to Saul’s memo. ...

     I regard hiring freezes as lazy and stupid and inherently demeaning to civil servants. Even with as many exceptions as this one, hiring freezes inevitably cause dislocations because the vast majority of federal employees do important work for the American people. As these hiring freezes go on exceptions keep getting more and more extensive as it becomes more and more obvious that the work can’t get done without replacing  departing employees. The problems get worse and worse until the hiring freeze is quietly lifted. No significantly money is ever saved. If you really think there are vacancies that shouldn’t be filled, go to the trouble of specifying them. Don’t casually insult federal employees by implying that there is some advantage to the American people in failing to fill vacancies that occur randomly across a large agency.

Not Just Retirement

From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Former Social Security Employee Sentenced To 12 Months Behind Bars

     From WSOC-TV in Charlotte:

Oliver Montgomery has already served more than four months behind bars, but on Tuesday a federal judge ruled that he’ll spend eight more months in prison.

Montgomery is a former Social Security representative in Charlotte who abused his power. He was sentenced Tuesday for a crime that victimized at least two people, including an inmate.

From January 2017 to July 2017, Montgomery meddled with their accounts.

Last year, Channel 9 reported that Montgomery changed information on an inmate's paperwork in order to divert $27,000 to himself instead of to a beneficiary.

In another case, Montgomery used a beneficiary's personal identity information. That time he took more than $12,000, officials said. ...

Can We Just Quit Wasting Money On Such UnPROMISING Research?

     The Social Security Administration, along with the Departments of Education, Labor and Health and Human Services have worked together to create a plan to help young people receiving Supplemental Security Income improve their lives and, more to the point, move off government benefits. This plan, called PROMISE for Promoting Readiness of Minors in SSI, was tested in six states. PROMISE has the following components:

• Formal partnerships between state agencies that provide the following services: vocational rehabilitation (VR) services, special education and related services, workforce development services, Medicaid services, income assistance from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and services provided by federally funded state developmental disability and mental health services programs
• Case management to ensure that PROMISE services would be appropriately planned and coordinated, help participants navigate the broader service delivery system, and help with transition planning for post-school goals and services
• Benefits counseling and financial education for youth and their families on SSA work incentives, eligibility requirements of various programs, rules governing earnings and assets, and topics promoting families’ financial stability
• Career and work-based learning experiences, including paid and unpaid work experiences in an integrated setting while they were in high school
• Parent training and information in two areas: (1) the parents’ or guardians’ role in supporting and advocating for their youth to help them achieve their education and employment goals, and (2) resources for improving the education and employment outcomes of the parents or guardians and the economic self-sufficiency. ...

     Our old friend, the beltway bandit, Mathematica Policy Research, has done an evaluation of PROMISE. The bottom line is that PROMISE is quite unpromising. As the report says, "By 18 months after enrollment, none of the programs had a desirable impact on youth’s self-determination and expectations or youth’s reliance on Medicaid, nor on parents’ total income." 

     This sort of research is not harmless. This study cost $230 million. That money could have been better spent preventing further degradation of service at Social Security. 

     Can we just give up on the illusion that there's some crafty scheme that will put disabled people to work? We've tried these schemes for more than 50 years, often at great expense, and they never work. Never.

Representation At Hearing Level Continues To Decline

     Below are reports on representation at the initial, reconsideration and hearing levels over the time period 2008-18. These were obtained by the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) and published in its newsletter, which is not available online to non-members. 

     Note that Social Security is careful to say that their systems were not set up to capture this information at the initial and reconsideration levels, requiring them to rely upon "proxies." The numbers at the hearing level were captured from a system that was set up to capture this information. I regard the initial and reconsideration numbers as suspect. I doubt that there were increases in initial and reconsideration representation over this ten year period to this extent, particularly the increase indicated at the initial level.
     The more reliable numbers at the hearing level show what I expected, a decrease, largely related to the failure to increase the cap on fees that may be charged Social Security claimants. Social Security claimants are being so well protected against greedy attorneys that many of them cannot find an attorney to represent them, especially if they have an SSI claim.

     Click on the images to view full size.

Why Education Matters

https://www.cbpp.org/research/social-security/chart-book-social-security-disability-insurance

Pushback Against Social Security 2100 Act

     Predictably, Republicans are pushing back against the Social Security 2100 Act which would secure Social Security financing for at least the rest of the century as well as increase benefits. The bill, of course, would also raise taxes.

     As I've said before, let's see the Republican bill.

OHO Dispositions Continue To Far Outstrip Receipts Even Though Number Of ALJs On Duty Continues To Decline

     This is a report obtained from the Social Security Administration by the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) and published in its newsletter, which is not available online to non-members.

Click on image to view full size

Will ALJs Be Restored To The Competitive Service?

     From Government Executive:

A bipartisan group of senators on Wednesday reintroduced a bill that would place administrative law judges back in the competitive service, effectively overriding a 2018 executive order.

In July 2018, President Trump signed an executive order moving administrative law judges from the competitive service to the excepted service. At the time, the White House claimed it was necessary to comply with the Lucia v. SEC Supreme Court decision, which found that administrative law judges are “inferior officers” under the Constitution, limiting their authority.

The order shifted the method for hiring new administrative law judges. Previously, candidates' qualifications were vetted by the Office of Personnel Management before they were forwarded to agencies for final selection, but the order changed their selection to a more traditional presidential appointment process. ...

On Wednesday, Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, reintroduced the ALJ Competitive Service Restoration Act (S. 2348) to reverse the Trump administration’s executive order and restore administrative law judges to the competitive service. The lawmakers first introduced the bill in August 2018, but Congress did not act on the measure. ...

In The Olden Days

     I was looking through some old things the other day and came across some yellowed issues of the National Senior Citizens Law Center (NSCLC) Informational Mailings. In the olden days, before so much information became available over the internet, those of us interested in Social Security issues had much less access to information. We relied upon the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) and, if we really wanted to get into the weeds, on the NSCLC Informational Mailings. Below is an issue of an Informational Mailing from 2001. Click on each page to view full size if you'd like to take a look.