From an editorial by Mark Miller on Reuters:
Our worries about Social Security often focus on the program’s solvency issues, which threaten benefits if left unresolved. But right now, we face a more immediate challenge: how to fund the Social Security Administration (SSA) as it climbs out of the COVID-19 crisis so that it can serve the public efficiently and equitably.
Social Security’s customer service has suffered from more than a decade of budget cuts imposed by Congress, and its operating budget dropped 13% from 2010 to 2021, adjusted for inflation. Over that same period, the number of Social Security beneficiaries grew by 22%, SSA data shows. ...
Routine business, such as applications for retirement benefits and Medicare, have proceeded smoothly during the shutdown. But applications for disability benefits plunged over the past year at a time when in all likelihood the number of people eligible for benefits - and needing them - jumped. There also has been a sharp drop in applications for Supplemental Security Income (SSI), a benefit program for low-income, disabled or older people.
The field office closures are the likely culprit. ...
Social Security also has a problem in an area known as “program integrity.” In Congress, lawmakers typically use the phrase to refer to fraudulent benefit claims - and they have pushed the SSA over the past decade to crack down by earmarking a significant portion of the agency’s budget to program integrity activities.
Much of this activity has focused on removing people from the disability benefit rolls based on an assessment of medical improvement. Last year, Congress earmarked $1.6 billion for disability and other reviews - a whopping 12% of its overall administrative budget.
Next year, the SSA plans to increase medical disability reviews by 36%, and the number of SSI redeterminations by 23%, notes David Weaver, a former associate commissioner in Social Security’s Office of Research, Demonstration and Employment Support.
But we need a broader definition of “integrity” that includes benefits that should be paid - and are not....
12 comments:
Funny how they always find an extra 8 figures laying around for CDRs and RZs, but when we ask when we're getting replacements to all the attrition of the last 3 years it's crickets.
Retire, Saul. We never wanted you, and an empty chair would literally be doing a better job.
I wonder what the author has in support of the premise that "disability benefits plunged over the past year at a time when in all likelihood the number of people eligible for benefits - and needing them- jumped."
Had an empty chair for years before. Same problems. Oh and commissioner before that, same problems, and the one before that. It isnt the commissioner, it is Congress.
CDRs and RZs are legitimate workloads. Health and living/income/resource arrangements do change. They are important program integrity issues. The RZ enforcement process to identify those working and not reporting (as well as excess resource identification) are needed. If the lay people/attorneys saw the number of those cases and amounts involved they may be surprised.
"the number of SSI redeterminations by 23%"
I have seen a huge increase in this based on income. The Covid unemployment has been dangled out there and many SSI claimants have taken a bite. But this hurts their eligibility for full SSI.
Have not seen a huge increase in people getting kicked off due to CDRs. Usually, claimants over 50 rarely get better to go back to work.
We will see where this goes.
the article makes a jump...applications are down and "field office closures are the likely culprit." That seems like a stretch and is unsupported. How about the economy where anyone can get a job and get paid?
You’re confusing “program integrity” with “personal integrity” — they’re only addressing one in the article. The other has to be handlers by management at the ground level. News flash…it isn’t and never has been since I e been employed by the agency.
"Program integrity" is defined as being whatever the politicians in charge want it to mean so as to support their political views. Nothing more, nothing less.
@11:35
Yep, the booming job market in 2020 where businesses were shutting down by state mandate, and what jobs were available would expose workers to potentially fatal infections. Seems like a huge opportunity for the disabled to apply for work they can't do.
The truth is that SSI claims are primarily down due to the extension of unemployment benefits. Those benefits keep folks from financially qualifying for SSI.
Dunno why this is so hard for some of you to understand.
LOL ... Can anyone say " Steigerwald v. Saul "
Actually the truth is SSI and DIB applications are down because the federal reserve shifted it's priority from inflation control to full employment in 2020. Apps won't come back much when office reopen. We are entering a new age of greater inflation and true full employment with higher wages.
Firms are desperate for low skill workers and they are taking people with medical problems. Earning $13-15 minimum wage is a lot better than a disability check.
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