From the New York Times:
When the pandemic struck last year, the Social Security Administration shut down its national network of more than 1,200 offices as it scrambled to protect the public and its employees from the coronavirus. ...
The agency is slowly bringing back workers in accordance with safety guidelines established by the federal government.
But operations are not likely to look the same as they did prepandemic, and a segment of S.S.A. workers may continue working remotely, a significant shift for the agency, which paid benefits to 69 million Americans in 2019. ...
Social Security’s consideration of a larger role for telework is a sharp departure from its stance in November 2019, when it ended a work-from-home pilot program. ...
There has been a sharp drop in applications for S.S.I., and for disability insurance. ...
While a great deal of routine Social Security business is now transacted via its website, field office staff provide in-person assistance on complex matters, in particular on applications for disability insurance and S.S.I., says Manasi Deshpande, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Chicago.
“Especially for people with lower socioeconomic status, being able to get in-person information and assistance with the application is critical to their decision to apply,” Dr. Deshpande said. “Without it, they just don’t apply.” ...
In the 10-year period Dr. Deshpande studied, Social Security closed 118 field offices, a cost-cutting move. She estimated that during that period, a total of 786,000 applicants for disability insurance and S.S.I. were discouraged from applying.
The impact of closing all field offices during the pandemic has been far greater, Dr. Deshpande said. “You’d probably need to multiply the estimates from the paper by a few times to see the effect of closing all the offices,” she said. “The 10 percent decline we measured took place with neighboring offices absorbing some of the applicants. It’s likely a much larger effect with all the field offices closed.” ...
Agency data shows a 29 percent decline in S.S.I. awards from July 2020 to April 2021 compared with the same period a year earlier, and disability awards are down 17 percent over that period. Taken together, up to 330,000 people will miss out on these benefits over a one-year period, according to an analysis of agency data by David Weaver, a former associate commissioner in Social Security’s Office of Research, Demonstration and Employment Support. ...
Social Security has a $1.5 billion budget for “program integrity,” but Congress limits that spending to reviews of disability awards that are aimed at removing people from the benefit rolls.
“A more common sense definition of program integrity would include the idea of making sure that people who are eligible for benefits are receiving them,” Mr. Weaver said. ...
6 comments:
I do not agree that the decline of DIB applications is solely due to FO lobby closures. Some of the more profound applicants with mental health issues may need a face to face contact to complete an application, the internet and phone option remains routinely available for anyone who is seeking to apply.
I have worked in an FO for over 20 years, and my experience is that the largest group of applicants for disability are the ones who apply when they have tapped out all other options. They cant find a job, they have played out unemployment and they have a condition. In 2020 and 2021, these people are not filing for disability because of the availability of enhanced UIB and EIP payments from the IRS. There is no need for people to file for disability when they have other sources of income.
This concept is no better illustrated than in the yearly statistics of disability filings. The number of applicants swing up and down, depending on the economy. In the recession after 2008, lots of people were filing for disability. The current applicants for disability are the ones who have more severe conditions. There may be more filings as many states are returning UIB to pre-pandemic standards.
I’m in an FO as well and the first post is absolutely spot on. Most of the people applying for disability in my service area are waiting for their unemployment to run out before applying. It’s purely anecdotal evidence, but seems to hold true in about 90% of my appointments.
Additionally, I work in a SSI dense population and even when the FO was open to the public, most of the appointments were by phone. Usually the ones requesting in office appointments were the people filing for retirement. The generation that still prefers face-to-face interviews.
@9:40
SSA is doing what they can in the circumstances. SSI disability applicants are required to tap out other resources before they can be eligible, assuming those other resources would put them over SSI income limits. You will also find the most impoverished amongst the SSI disability applicant cohort, raising the likelihood that they don't have online access or a reliable phone. Also, incidence of mental illness is unfortunately higher amongst the homeless and other very low income groups.
A person does not have to be profoundly mentally disabled to need help on SSA disability applications. Those with difficulty following complex instructions or persisting on task would have trouble since the applications and their required supporting documents are long and contain complex instructions. If it is too difficult for such an applicant to get help, then the process will not be very accessible to them.
The special UIB benefits that allow gig workers and such to apply have likely had somewhat of an effect. There is going to be a much larger overlap of people who likely meet the SSA disability definition ("substantial" gainful activity) while also meeting the relaxed special UIB requirements... Title II disability applicants who can only work on a very part-time basis or who can only work on a very limited self-employed basis for instance.
Disabilty awards are likely down due to the inability to get school and other medical records during the pandemic. The medical records offices might have been partly open but people have not been to doctors do no records. Telling your doctor on the phone that you have pain does not quite cut it even if it cost you forty bucks
I'll also agree with the first poster above. The desperation to file for disability is not there where there is another steady stream of income. I anticipate filings to go back up once the extended unemployment ends. As an attorney rep, I have had to turn away otherwise valid SSI claims because of the receipt of unemployment. That will be changing relatively soon.
I have not seen this previously mentioned, but I think another factor in lower SSI applications is a result of the policy to limit immigration to the U.S. As anyone who works in the FOs can attest - especially in the metro areas - a significant portion of SSI applicants are refugees and their children.
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