It's the week before the 4th of July and nothing much is happening in Social Security world so let me throw out a question. What does the Social Security Administration need? My feeling is that if the agency stays on its current trajectory, Social Security disability benefits and SSI will rapidly become unimplementable. They'll mostly disappear because it will have been made too difficult to apply for benefits or get claims adjudicated once filed. Even if you don't have such a dire view of the situation, if you're reading this blog, you're probably aware that the agency has major problems implementing these programs. So, what should be done? Please be specific. Don't simply say give the agency more operating funds. Say how you would like the extra money spent both short term and long term. Don't simply say to manage the agency better. Say exactly how the agency should be managed better. Which parts of the agency need the most help and what sort of help should they get? Don't simply say simplify. What should be simplified and how should it be simplified. Don't just say to improve information technology. What should be improved and how?
To give you my opinion, there are four main components of the Social Security Administration with major problems -- field offices, teleservice centers, payment centers and disability determination services, which, of course, is most of the agency. In the short run, all of these components need a lot of money for overtime. In the medium run, they need a lot of hiring. This is necessary to handle the workloads but also to improve employee job satisfaction. Huge backlogs and incredible workload pressures have made these jobs unattractive to existing employees much less new employees. There's no way to significantly improve employee job satisfaction without addressing workload issues. Continued high employee turnover will make my dire predictions come true. That has to be the major focus in the medium and long term.
37 comments:
If you made it illegal to use the physical social security card as a form of identity it would easily eliminate 30% to 50% of the FO foot traffic to FO’s and let us focus on real work. I may be exaggerating the statistics but it is such a burden for us to deal with. We are like a defacto license bureau.
Mentioned this once before.
1. True case control in the field offices, with ability to pinpoint aging cases stuck on [virtual] desks.
2. A secure reliable method for the public to communicate with the FO, withthose communications immediately entered into the queue and directed to the right person.
3. Phone systems that also introduces the item into the work queue so items don't get lost.
If you want to speed up adjudication and have any hope of getting through the backlogs…. Remove steps 4 and 5 of sequential evaluation. Meet/Equal listings only. Fair? Not entirely… but how fair is it to spend hundreds of hours of the examiners time, the FOs time, the claimants time, etc. just to decide if this one job performed 14 years ago is SGA/relevant?! Much less piece together the ENTIRE 15 year work history in a time when there is a strong gig economy and lots of job hopping- it’s a tedious and time consuming process. If the vocational parts of disability determination could be simplified, it would help speed things up considerably.
100% agree with the problems with step 4 and 5 of the process which should be partially ( at a minimuM) remedied w/o legislation if SSA weren't lawyer bound and had a stronger policy component
There still will be serious problems with obtaining MER etc and reduced DDS Staffing and capacity and experienced Claims reps at the SSA intake level
I think you are going to have to either add agency staff or outsource. Either way you need bodies and training.
Allow Social Service (non-profit not associated with insurance companies or law offices) like Area Agencies on Aging, CILs and ARDCs to conduct and file basic interviews and claims. Pay them accordingly and directly for the services and training. Many of these services already have folks that are accustomed to navigating complex systems like Medicare and Medicaid along with Veterans benefits. They often have individuals on staff with with BA/BS and MS degrees that can be trained to handle SSA claims plus they are already familiar with working with the aged and disabled populations.
These claims could be directed to national claims clearinghouses for review by SSA staff. Difficult or unusual claims would have the basic development done and could be directed to the FO/DO for final development and adjudication/implementation and of course the final A101. SSA remains the final processing source, just has a lot of the work done for them. Not every claim is a family max WEP or system limited claim, simply isnt the facts.
SSA is already using outside businesses to handle identifying a person that can set up a MYSSA account and get a new card, change address, change direct deposit and file for benefits, so its not like this is out of reach. There is no different risk for a state agency employee being any more crooked than a SSA employee.
To 1:42
For sure, making it so 90% of cases were denied would certainly make things flow smoother. Except the law says what disability is and it includes being able to do your past work or any other work and that is not part of the Listings.
Adding staff is needed, but given the level of training required, particularly in processing disability cases, it will be years before new staff makes any difference. So, for now Overtime for existing staff is the only solution.
Communication with claimants/representatives has completely collapsed. Being unable to find out what is going on in a case is the source of most of my calls to the SSA. Being able to see what is going on in real time both at the initial and recon levels and at the payment center (do you actually have the case and where are we in the cue) would be a tremendous help. I don't know why I can only see the E and F sections of the file, that does not include the actual determinations is all that is allowed. And why exactly can I not see what the payment center is up to. The CR's complain about getting faxes inquiring as to status. Well I wouldn't do that if I could call anyone and I wouldn't have to keep faxing if I had any idea that the fax was received.
I can call the Baltimore PSC on a dedicated Rep Line that mostly works if you call at the right time. Why is there no similar line for each of the Regional PSCs.
And the phone system both with the PSCs and the District Offices has largely collapsed , not just the month it was out entirely. Does every call really need a two minute intro before you put me on hold? It is so bad that when I do get through, I get told that people in the DO also cannot reach anyone in the payment center. When every case becomes a congressional or is elevated to the Regional Commissioner, then no case is being handled.
The operations people within the Agency do not know how to manage. Hiring an ACOS that is interested in equity but has notactual management experience is bad enough but when she is backed up by management people in operations that have no experience either, then the current disaster is what happens. Why does Grace Kim still have a job.
Just a few thoughts. There are more.
The worst part bout complicated cases like combined family maximum cases is not working them but having the claims specialist even recognize them. There are computer programs to help get the correct amounts, PC employees to fix A101s, etc but if the CS doesn't even recognize it's a combined family max case, the kids aren't going to be paid correctly. Some cases like GPO that aren't even complicated, just aren't the super simple claims, are being but here's by the poorly trained claims specialists.
I can tell you from experience that it is easy to impose GPO but it takes PC forever to remove it, no matter how obvious it was imposed on error.
The National Scheduling Unit is pretty much falling to the wayside as a failure. If OHO leadership would do away with the single service hearing reporter system and return things to local hearing reporters there would be more scheduling. As it stands now, some of the contractors apparently pay so little that they cannot get anyone to work for them. There are different single service providers so if your office does not have the same provider there can be no cross-over of contractors so hearings are delayed or staff members who are trying to get cases ready for hearings have to step and act as hearing reporters... so that delays case prep as well. One mis-step after another in the upper management attempts to provide customer service... they should start talking to and LISTENING to field office and OHO managers to get some workable ideas.
Step 4 is a total waste of time. As a hearing attorney, I listen to ALJs spend 30 mins sorting through PRW for a 30-year-old when we all know that the case will resolve itself at Step 5. Plus, the hearing attorneys get rushed by ALJ's to hurry their direct/cross after the ALJ wasted so much time talking about that job from 12 years ago where the clmt earned $900.
@1:01
Completely agree. Steps 4 and 5 are useless when using such an outdated system. The DOT was first published in 1938 (hence why jobs like "lamplighter" are still present), and it has been deemed obsolete by Employment Service and Department of Labor. SSA has been trying to come up with a new transferability assessment since 2008, and we can all see how well that's going. The information being used for TSA was last updated in 1991- some of the current analysts weren't even BORN then. How can analysts be expected to use such an outdated system? Ask federal QA. How SSA hasn't been sued regarding this is a mystery to me.
@1:42
"Communication with claimants/representatives has completely collapsed. Being unable to find out what is going on in a case is the source of most of my calls to the SSA," When we switched from our legacy system to DCPS, all electronic status updates to reps stopped. So now, reps have to call DDS. I get anywhere from 3-10 calls for status from reps a day. Sometimes, multiple reps from one agency call about the same claim. Honestly, the majority of analysts in my office have stopped returning rep calls, because otherwise, we'd get nothing done. This has been brought up to management, we've suggested training support staff to help, but it's gone nowhere.
I can't speak to what needs to change overall, because the problems with my DDS may not be nationwide. What I do know is leadership needs to start listening to employees, because the backlog isn't going anywhere; it's getting bigger. There doesn't seem to be agency-wide plan to deal with it, and, at least in my state, the ways management is trying are just leading to mass resignation. The expectation to get claims done quickly and correctly, while providing excellent customer service, is unreasonable when caseloads are over 200. Expectations need to change somewhere, or turnover will continue until there's no one left.
That's all I've got. It was a hard day.
1. IT needs to be fixed. A malfunctioning panoply of aging, poorly designed programs that require years to be proficient in for no good reason. Go ask an SSI Claims Specialist how many keystrokes it takes to enter a new telephone number.
2. Remove the cruelty that's baked into the system. 5 month waiting period for disability payments? 2 years before Medicare eligibility? There's only one reason for rules like these, and it's actuarial. They know that x number of people will die before ever getting paid out.
3. 50% bump in headcount, immediately. This agency is so understaffed, and the training pipeline so long, that we need to go at it now.
4. CMS either needs to bite the bullet and fund and staff their own field offices, or they need to give over the entire Medicare delivery system to SSA, with Medicare TEs in all the level 1 offices.
5. Restore SSA to being a Cabinet-level agency. We're seeing the results of 30 years of neglect, and the results of administrators who measure success by how long they keep the agency out of the news.
6. Frontload the Payment Center workloads to Field Offices as much as practicable, with BA/CA positions in at least the level 1 offices. The current model of unreachable, unaccountable mega centers of SSA workers so far removed from the actual public they serve is a disaster.
7. The SSN wasn't supposed to be a default Citizen Identification Number, but now it is. So start charging for it and make an actual national ID. And make the Post Office do it. They already handle passports.
8. Upstaff OIG by a huge amount. There states with several million people that have fewer OIG agents than you can count on one hand. That's insane.
9. Implement the BOND program changes to SGA, changing it from a hard line where your benefits cut off to a threshold where they start tapering down.
10. Quit paying kids SSI. Put that money to Medicaid and start funding services to take care of their disabilities. "SSI mother" should not be a career choice.
11. Pay all the SSI backpay up front. This piecemeal crap is condescending and paternalistic. If you're going to blow that money, there's nothing we can do about it, nor should we.
12. Get us out of the living arrangment game. We'd come out ahead simply on administrative savings alone. Just pay every adult FBR and start deductions for unearned income and wages. The only people suffering are the honest ones, anyway.
13. Get rid of the earnings test. If you retired at age 62, you already took less money. Now we're going to cap what you can make from work, too? Unfair and punitive.
14. Put SSI's resource and income caps on the same CPI-chained annual bump as the COLA. We can't trust Congress to raise them timely, so let's automate the process.
15. Put some teeth into processing time requirements. There should be mandatory, automated escalation of eyes on cases at certain timepoints. I understand it's all a tire fire right now, but when things have been tamed, a retirement case left open for 15 months should have someone from Baltimore calling down and asking the entire management team what the hell is wrong with them.
16. Automate all the attorney interfaces, so that they are able to submit documents, check case status, and file appeals without burning up our fax lines and phone lines. We do a shit job of communicating with attorneys, but in a well-designed workflow we wouldn't need to in the first place.
17. Integrate more tightly with other social service agencies, be they federal, state or county. We weren't great at it pre-COVID, and we basically have stopped since.
1. Hire more people and TRAIN them adequately. No more video.
2. I'm going to get A LOT of hate for this, but take some of the DW who are twittering their thumbs and cross train them at the DO.
3. For people who are working at home, let them work as late as they want for credit hours or comp if required by law.
4. Put the file in proper order at DDS. Those DW would excel at that. I can feel the hate now.
5. Have a dedicated Cadre to answer phones for reps only. Answered by DW of course. Don't shoot the messenger.
6. Put the focus back on processing the claims correctly instead of fast or bean counting.
7. Have a dedicated phone Cadre for ss cards.
8. The Agency thought computers were going to be the end all, be all. While it has some very good applications, over reliance on technology will be the end of SSA.
BTW Charles, this new blog system sucks, but you rock!
Attract better workers by increasing benefits/salaries of entry level Field office positions
Also for the love of god, INVEST IN IT IMPROVEMENTS that reduce the workload of FO staff for medial tasks like mail processing and attorney assignment. Design a system that allows attorneys to do some this work themselves. It should not take 3+ months for attorney forms to be processed, only for there to be errors in 25%+ of cases where the appointed representative is not provided access to the ERE, or somehow not copied on correspondence, including denial notices. These errors could be made obsolete in a better designed system. Having bifurcated information systems is obviously causing more problems than it solves. Why the hell does the payment center require the FO to advise them on whether a claimant is receiving SSI when a title 16 claim was NEVER FILED. So much extra work is created by these errors and lack of a universal information systems for all parts of the agency. What sane person would design a system this way in 2022?
Has anyone else noticed that ERE case assembly has been a total mess lately? Why are failed record request being exhibited? Why are medical exhibits named four different ways for the same medical provider? Why is SSA still unable to identify duplicate records automatically?
@714....some good ideas.
Re 2 "Remove the cruelty that's baked into the system. 5 month waiting period for disability payments? 2 years before Medicare eligibility?" That has to be done by Congress. I can see some adjustment there but even with the current rules it isn't uncommon to have people file a claim and be back to work within a month or less because they don't understand they have to be disabled or expected to be disabled a year or longer. No waiting period seems to me as if it would greatly increase those type cases and slow things down for legitimate disability claims.
Re 7 "And make the Post Office do it. They already handle passports." Not sure that will work so well as the numbers in my office indicate about 100 visitors (of 300 and these are pre Covid numbers) are there for replacement or new SSNs. USPS does passports but not in numbers anywhere close to what SSA does with SSNs.
Re 10 kids getting paid SSI. Totally agree. No incentive to become better or report improvement when it affects the bottom line each month. Replace that money with services.
Re 13. "Get rid of the earnings test. If you retired at age 62, you already took less money." Disagree. Who benefited the most back in 2000 when the penalty for going over the yearly limit was reduced from 70 to full retirement age? Lawyers, doctors and other white collar workers. Social Security is a social insurance program designed to replace lost earnings.
We need to train better, but this will only happen with increased staff. Self-guided learning on laptops is not effective. The previous system of IVT was better that what we are currently doing, but it still comes down to $$$. Employees were far better prepared to do the SR/CR work coming out of the classroom training setting, but again, that cost $$$. Once the trainees come out of training, we lack adequate mentors. Being a mentor for one trainee is a 20 hr a week commitment (if not more) and if you have more than one trainee it becomes your full-time job. Both of these scenarios are plausible if the office is staff properly, but few are. When my TE retires in September, I will have two seasoned T2 employees to handle a workload that works best with 5 CRs. And they will still need to assist a newer employee and dedicate time to my new hire. Something has to give and sadly it will be workloads...
A lot of time is wasted in processing awarded concurrent T2 and T16 claims. I spend a lot of time just trying to get the local field office (who has processed and started paying the T16 claim) to talk to the PSC (who has processed the T2 claim) to just freaking talk to each other and coordinate the offset. Putting all of this in ONE office would greatly simplify the process, decrease headaches for claimants and their reps, and save the agency a ton of money and person-hours. Issue one, consolidated Notice of Award with back pay for both programs shown, offsets calculated, attorney's fees calculated, future benefits calculated. Would it require some training for the employees involved? Yes, but that cost would be recouped a 1000 times over in the savings.
@4:00
The problem is none of those issues address the failures in processing claims under the current system. The errors and mismanagement are not caused solely by overworked staff. There is an obvious training issue that goes up to FO managers. Though I somewhat agree that eliminating child SSI claims would help reduce complexity and time spent on those claims.
Eliminating step 4 for under age 50 claims makes sense. This step really serves no purpose and creates more work for DDS analysts and ALJs. There is no point of determining whether a claimant can do their past work, if the burden is proving they cannot do any job in the national economy.
1. Federalize DDS examiners. Or do something to make FO and DDS systems/language and procedures more unified and cohesive.
2. Make the failure to cooperate process simple and put the responsibility on the claimant/applicant to complete necessary forms and update their contact information (in one system that updates everywhere and shows where at in process).
3. Only allow CEs in very rare instances, not just because treating records lack ROM of a left thumb, for instance.
4. The claimant/applicant should have the burden of proving their disability, or at least their MDI… not for DDS to rule out I alleged conditions and prove they are Not Disabled.
5. Bring back SDM.
6. Either remove (or better define) listing terms such as “mild, moderate, marked”- as these are generally subjective and contextual.
7. SSI for children should be in the form of services, programs, treatment, or other non-cash benefits.
Just to name a few….
@1:42 Yes to so much of this!
2 is a terrible idea. What if 10 calls come in a row for the person you designate as the “right” person?
You cannot reform a large bureaucracy. The only way to fix it is to scrap it and rebuild it from the ground up. I would start by having disability determined by doctors who actually do a thorough examination of the claimant and review all relevant records. Instead of spending so much on lawyers, the agency should have claimants come in to be examined by a doctor who has thoroughly reviewed the medical history and can order whatever testing is needed and who performs a thorough functional capacity evaluation, not just a drive by physical. Then the claimant sees a second doctor who doesn't know what the first doctor decided. If the doctors agree, that is the decision. If not, their reports are reviewed by a third doctor who breaks the tie. If these were thorough exams supported by thorough medical histories and appropriate testing, performed by competent doctors, they would be almost bulletproof and there would not be as many appeals.
What we have now is a reckless, haphazard process where decisions are primarily based on speculation and conjecture.
A thorough history of medical records is exactly what the majority of people applying for disability don’t have.
That only happens for those who have sufficient income and medical insurance to to see a doctor regularly for their issues.
I work in a low income area and I can’t tell you how many people apply for disability with absolutely no medical sources and no work history at all.
Additionally, it’s not the government’s job to “prove” your disability. That is the burden of the applicant.
There are just too many variables when disability is involved. How can any system, no matter how thorough be fair to all?
Some people who are completely blind work and don’t get disability, others collect benefits and don’t work. Why?
Some people who are suffering from mental disorders work full time, others don’t and apply for benefits. Why?
Some paraplegics work full time, some say they can’t as apply for benefits. Why?
Who decides who is deserving of benefits and why. Is the blind, mentally disordered or paraplegic who works not disabled?
The agency has its issues and they are not going to improve anytime soon. As mentioned above, this is a government bureaucracy and there is no quick fix to any of the issues plaguing SSA.
Almost every suggestion above regarding disability adjudication would result in less claimants being approved. Of course, that's exactly what would happen if there were real reforms to the system generally
There is a lot more to SSA than just processing DIB claims faster for third parties to be paid, just sayin'
As a compromise, I suggest reducing the period of time for which work would be considered past relevant work to be five years, instead of fifteen. (The State agency, at least where I am, is already acting as if step four has been eliminated; they almost always expedite at step 4. Reps should be happy to see ALJs not expediting at step 4, as that can only be done in a denial.)
Get the Agency out of the business of calculating representatives' fees if the rep is a licensed attorney or qualified nonattorney rep. These people do not need to be policed. Issue a joint check and mail it to the rep, like insurance companies all over the country do.
Agree we should stop awarding children's SSI benefits; replace them with Medicaid and services. In the alternative, reform the CDR process such that benefits in cases that do not meet a Listing stop after two years, period, no ifs, ands, or buts. We spend a huge amount of time and energy dealing with low birth weight cases and speech delay cases long after the problems have resolved.
Agree we should stop piecemeal award of SSI underpayments and do away with in-kind maintenance and support and one third reduction.
There is truly no administrative finality in disability cases. Claimants are offered more opportunities to miss deadlines, submit late evidence, replead their cases, avoid res judicata, reopen old settled matters, etc. than wrongfully convicted death row inmates. The Agency should reform the rules regarding untimely filing, administrative finality and res judicata such that matters proceed apace and there is closure to a matter once decided.
Eliminating recon immediately would be the easiest and best improvement.
Basic universal income. No listings, no 5-step process, no CDRs. $1200 a month if you haven't worked for the last 24 months. At retirement you qualify for whatever you are entitled to under Title 2.
It sounds expensive but should cut SSA's budget by enough to make up the difference and then some.
You'll never see recon eliminated because it costs state DDS some budget. That's why they fought so hard to get rid of the prototype states that skipped recon and went straight to hearing.
I don't understand how some people look at the listings as some kind of "gold standard..." Meaning, as if being a peg that fits some arbitrary standard (like a piece that slides neatly into a child's "shape ball") should be what is defined as "disabled," by our rules. That is not what Congress authorized, nor what SSA has ever used as a "standard." Is this merely willful ignorance of WHY the listings were created? Don't know?
According to SSA's own website, the listings were created in 1968 "to help expedite the processing of disability claims under the Disability Insurance program. The listings have also been used for the Supplemental Security Income program since it began in 1974. The listings for each body system describe impairments that are considered severe enough to prevent an adult from doing any gainful activity or to cause marked and severe functional limitations in a child younger than 18 years old. Most of the listed impairments are permanent or expected to result in death; however, some include a specific statement of duration. For all others, the evidence must show the impairment has lasted or can be expected to last for a continuous period of at least 12 months."
"The listings help ensure disability determinations have a sound medical basis, claimants receive equal treatment based on specific criteria, and disabled individuals can be readily identified and awarded benefits if appropriate. All disability claimants who are not performing substantial gainful activity and have severe impairments are screened against the listings to quickly identify individuals who clearly meet the definition of disability. "
In other words, the listings are a TOOL, used to quickly identify the most obvious cases. I can find no study that even suggests that the listings identify or correlate with when people become disabled. Most will likely NEVER meet a listing. But , maybe, that is the point of some of you? You NEVER think someone is actually incapable of performing and SUSTAINING a job at a SGA level? You trot out Stephen Hawking or Congressman Sam Johnson as examples... Those are the exceptions. Even then, they needed skills, support systems, opportunities...
Followed until the end. Clearly an axe or two to grind on a personal level.
So I’m other words, you would prefer the universal basic income instead.
Without listings or guidelines, decisions would be decided by what?
If that’s the case, I agree with scrapping SSA and going with the universal income.
The problem with universal basic income is that it's like minimum wage increases. If you give everyone $1200 a month, before long $1200 won't buy much. The best way to help everyone is with a thriving economy. The best way to achieve that is to create an environment that is friendly to business and industry and that encourages growth and innovation. Utopian schemes never work.
Wouldn’t the universal income just adjust with a COLA? It wouldn’t prevent you from working based on my limited understanding of how it works.
12:20 PM Were you responding to someone else? I said NOTHING about universal badic income or changing/scraping listings. My complaint was to those who think ONLY those who meet them should get SSDI/SSI. The Listings are a tool...
Things that could actually be done, probably without an act of Congress or a complete overhaul:
1. Reduce definition of past relevant work to 5 years instead of fifteen.
2. Stop treating each claim as an equal widget in the metrics. It incentivizes pursuing failure to cooperate as early as possible. FO and DDS should not get more credit in the metrics for processing multiple claims for the same person in the same year by doing the bare minimum to get an FTC determination that pushes the claimant into a hearing backlogs for who knows how long or discourages them from pursuing their claim altogether than they do for making an extra effort to get a substantive decision. Either make substantive decisions have more weight or develop a standard that triggers a more detailed audit of some kind if a DDS or FOs are only processing more or faster than others in the region or of a similar sized state by doing a high volume of FTC decisions.
3. Related to two, make sure that all FTC policies for DDS's to require a phone call attempt BEFORE sending a call in letter (or at least two different modes of contact attempts if they ever allow email or electronic messaging of some sort.) It's technically possible now for a DDS to deny a claim with special handling without ever attempting a phone call to the claimant or the third party. Claimants have never had the most stable addresses and many have so much going on that keeping up with their mail is a difficult task. The current crisis with the postal service has only exacerbated this issue.
4. Expand or create better online portals to submit forms. We have very standard forms that claimant's need to complete. Instead of waiting for months for it to get to DDS and then have forms mailed out, mailed back and then scanned in and then sometimes having an extra validation step before they show up in DCPS, there should be some process so that the claimant can log on to a secure website and fill out a form and submitted it there. If I can submit my tax information online or select my student loan repayment plan online, SSA should not be able to hide behind a fear of loss of PII as the only reason to continue requiring manual processes.
5. Pull an equivalent proportion of denials and allowances for DQB reviews or make it completely random . Maybe vary it by day or month or quarter so it's not always a 50/50 split every dau. Just knowing the allowance claim is likely to result in a review and a denial or just having more feedback on allowances creates an incorrect impression to DDS employees and consultants that meeting or equaling is more 'risky' and unlikely to get through DQB and so assigning an RFC in edge cases is seen as 'safer' even if it creates the need for more tedious and time consuming vocational development.
Things that would definitely require Congressional action or major overhauls:
1. Increase asset and income limits for SSI and tie it to something that makes changes occur automatically instead of requiring a vote by Congress every time.
2. Re-define income for program purposes on a yearly basis and not month to month.
3. Have a dedicated 'drop box' system for FOs and DDS (and possibly any agency that regularly needs sensitive original documents submitted) at every post office location so people have a better option to submit original documents if they live far away from their local office or local offices need to close for pandemics, natural disasters, etc.
4. UBI for everyone and disability payments being an extra benefit. Utilize existing knowledge base of workers employed by SSA components doing disability workloads to be involved in medical determinations that establish disabling conditions are present and then either make payments be based on means and income testing (again, on a yearly and not monthly basis) or use a formula similar to current IRWE determinations to come up with an actual dollar amount that someone incurs in extra costs due to their disabilities that their check amount is based on.
Eliminate direct pay for reps, let them get it directly from the claimant. Untold thousands of hours of work now available to process the claims, what they are supposed to do and not do the payment thing. Eliminate fee petition, you get what you get or do something else, thousands and thousands of work hours returned. Want more money get it from the client.
fixed it.
@9:44. I think most reps would be happy if SSA just sent us the check like is done in personal injury cases. Its not the reps that wants SSA to handle payment. The agency likes having that power. A bureaucracy is always trying to accumulate more power and will rarely, if ever, give up power. So, the agency is going to keep this power unless someone makes them give it up.
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