From a notice from the Social Security Administration that will appear in tomorrow's Federal Register:
The Strengthening Protections for Social Security Beneficiaries Act of 2018(Strengthening Protections Act)requires us to promulgate regulations specifying the information Social Security beneficiaries and applicants must provide to designate a representative payee in advance of our determination that the beneficiary needs a representative payee.We propose to revise our rules to satisfy this requirement,and to specify that we will allow individuals to designate in advance one or more potential representative payees. We also explain how we propose to consider an individual’s advance designation when we select a representative payee.
Interesting that on page 25 they intend to not allow organizations to be designated in advance. I do find it amusing that on page 47 they indicate their cost savings assumes 100 percent of beneficiaries will chose to appoint a representative payee in advance. It certainly depends on the individual, but I imagine a large portion of recipients would rather not rely on a third-party to manage their benefits. In any event, I don't see the harm in anything being proposed.
ReplyDeleteSeems like a waste of time, except for those relatively few cases where the rep payee is going to be needed within a few months. And the recordkeeping! SSA has trouble keeping up with really important paperwork, as it is.
ReplyDeleteanon@5:13pm,
ReplyDeleteExactly. And, in those few cases, a special message added to a payment record is an easy solution - no muss, no fuss. Instead, the morons write a 26 page notice of proposed rulemaking over a 5 second topic.
They are obviously just setting up an excuse to justify giving some favored management dweeb a big bonus or promotion (or both) for solving this "pressing topic of great concern".
Seems no one here has ever had to write regulations and adjust rules to comply with legislation. Else the comment regarding morons writing 26 pages wouldn't be so flippant.
ReplyDeleteWe probably have a problem with people dying and no one noticing! Did you see that veteran who had automatic deposit and paid his rent automatically? He went 3 years unnoticed!
ReplyDeletehow many Social Security recipients are in similar situations? SSA tried checking on very old folks [> 90 I believe] who stopped using their medical - but stopped as the welfare checks did more harm than good!
@10:54
ReplyDelete12:02 here. As I said, I don't see anything harmful in anything being proposed. I also do not take issue with SSA spending time on writing these regulations, particularly since I suspect the actual effort is negligible in comparison to the whole system. That is not to say, as you point out, that a great deal of effort is required, just that I don't see any administrative delay being a result of spending time preparing new regulations. I imagine the department in charge of preparing regulations is wholly separate and apart of anything that recipients or claimants even deal with.
I am curious though, what makes you think these regulations and adjustments of rules are in order to comply with legislation? I thought this was just a matter of enhancing current procedures, sua sponte on SSA's part?
anon@10:25am,
ReplyDeleteThese regulations were required to be developed and published by legislation (specifically the 2018 Strengthening Protections for Social Security Beneficiaries Act).
@11:50
ReplyDeleteAh! Had no idea. Thanks!
10:54 - It wasn't rocket science - it's literally right there on the web page here and on the Federal Register Notice. Anyone who actually read either of these would see it spelled out quite plainly.
ReplyDelete"The Strengthening Protections for Social Security Beneficiaries Act of 2018(Strengthening Protections Act) requires us to promulgate regulations specifying the information Social Security beneficiaries"