By Far The Most Read Post Ever On This Blog

     From this blog on May 22, 2022:

“Serious Concerns” About IG

      From the Washington Post:

… The acting commissioner [of Social Security] “has very serious concerns about the issues raised by The Washington Post about the inspector general’s oversight of this program,” Scott Frey, chief of staff to Kilolo Kijakazi, said in an interview. Kijakazi has scheduled a meeting with her senior staff on Monday “to discuss how to proceed,” Frey said. …

A spokesman for the Senate Finance Committee, which also has jurisdiction over Social Security, said the committee is “evaluating a number of steps” in response to the article. …

     An extreme reduction in productivity has been signaling for months that something is wrong at OIG.

 

 

    And, of course, that Inspector General is still on the job.

He Didn't See It Coming

     From this blog on July 9, 2021:

President Fires Saul And Black

      With no fanfare, the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice issued an opinion yesterday that the President may remove the Commissioner of Social Security from office notwithstanding the statutory provisions limiting removal from office. An opinion had been requested by the Deputy Counsel for the President.

     Update: Senator Grassley has tweeted that he's hearing that the President may oust Andrew Saul from his position as Commissioner. Senator McConnell has retweeted this saying "httI agree with @ChuckGrassley. This removal would be an unprecedented and dangerous politicization of the Social Security Administration."

     Further update: I've received several reports that there was a blast e-mail to Social Security employees at 4:30 today from an Acting Commissioner of Social Security indicating that Saul and Black are gone.

     And another update: The Washington Post reports that Saul still believes he’s Commissioner and plans to report for work on Monday — remotely from his home in New York City. Who’s going to break it to him?

How Field Offices Waste Their Time

     From a "Dear Colleague" letter from Dawn Bystry, Deputy Associate Commissioner, Office of Strategic and Digital Communications, Social Security Administration:

Recently, we notified you that we are no longer accepting faxed applications. We appreciate the feedback we received on the notification and want to provide clarifying information. ...

As you know, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted our services and the public’s ability to apply for benefits in person. In response, we implemented various temporary flexibilities – temporary changes to our policies and business processes. These flexibilities included accepting faxed applications as validly signed applications if they contained a legible, handwritten signature.  ...

With the end of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency as of May 11, 2023, we evaluated our temporary flexibilities and decided to discontinue accepting faxed applications. Since we have reopened our offices to walk-in traffic and expanded in-person services, we determined that continuing to accept signatures on faxed applications was no longer justified given the risk that bad actors could use faxed applications to commit fraud. However, you can still use a fax to help your clients. Although we will no longer accept faxed, signed applications as valid applications, a claimant can still submit a faxed application to establish a protective filing date. Upon receiving the faxed application, we will contact the claimant or a proper applicant, go over the information provided, and obtain a signature to validate the application. ...

    I've got a few questions:

• What degree of problem has there ever been with faxed claims?
• Why is a faxed claim more subject to fraud than a mailed claim or any other type of claim?
• How does a fraudulent filed disability claim actually get approved? They don't just look at the form and put someone on benefits. (I know there's presumptive disability but that really wouldn't get you very far with a fraudulent scheme.) Disability claims have to proceed through disability determination. That usually involves phone calls with the claimant. Medical evidence is gathered. There is at least one internal level of review after a determination that someone is disabled. Don't you think there would be problems getting a phony claim through all this without anyone noticing that something looks fishy? I'm no expert on fraud but I'm pretty sure that there are easier ways to commit fraud than submitting a fraudulent disability claim by fax.
  
• Does Ms. Bystry have any clue about the degree of stress that the field offices are under? Maybe she should work in one for a month or two.
  
• Why does Ms. Bystry think it important to waste field office time with such obsessive concerns?
• If she's so concerned about security, maybe she should just force claimants to show up in the office with three types of identification? (I hope I'm not giving her ideas.)
• Is there anyone over Ms. Bystry who can ask whether this emphasis on security is a bit too much?

Sanctioned Representatives

     The Social Security Administration has posted an updated list of "Registered and Unregistered Sanctioned Representatives."

    The list has never seemed that interesting to me but it always draws a good deal of attention whenever I post about an update which isn't often, even though they release an update almost every month.

Government Shutdown Looms

    The federal fiscal year (FY) ends on September 30. Social Security, as well as other agencies, will lack operating funds after that date unless Congress acts. At the moment, appropriations bills are being held up because of disagreements within the Republican Party over what to do. Republicans have a paper thin majority in the House of Representatives. A small group of ultra right wing Republicans is refusing to join the bulk of their colleagues to pass bills that would serve as vehicles for negotiations with Democrats in the Senate, even though anything they pass would be so slanted that Democrats in the House would never vote for those bills. Lacking a functioning majority, the Republicans who have the majority in the House, if not actual control, cannot move forward.

    When Congress is delayed in passing appropriations bills, in the end, they always vote for continuing resolutions (CRs) that allow agencies to continue spending money at basically the same rate as in the just concluded FY.

    House Republicans are working on a one month CR. The Washington Post reports that the CR they're working on would cut expenditures for FY 2024 by 1%. However, this pain would not be spread evenly. The Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs would be excluded from the 1% cut. After these exclusions, the cut for other agencies, including the Social Security Administration, would be 8%. That would result in massive layoffs at Social Security. The agency would be largely incapable of functioning.

    It's not completely clear that the votes are there for this draft CR in the House. It would certainly not pass the Senate or be signed by the President. It's not even a starting point for negotiations.

    We're likely to see a government shutdown at the end of the month. This is actually the result desired by the small group of ultra right wing Republicans holding up things in the House. If your mindset is basically anarchist -- that government is so evil that we would be better off with no government -- then government shutdowns are a good thing.

    If there is a government shutdown at the beginning of next month, most of the Social Security Administration will continue to function. The field offices, teleservice centers, payment centers, OHO offices, and the Appeals Council will not be affected.

Another Golden Oldie — Many Vets With 100% VA Ratings Get Turned Down When They Apply For Social Security Disability

     A post on this blog on August 7, 2014:

Below is a chart labeled "Allowance rates for first DI applications filed by veterans after receiving VA disability ratings of 100% or IU during fiscal years 2000–2006, by VA rating and SSA primary diagnosis body system and selected diagnostic categories." This appears in Veterans Who Apply for Social Security Disabled-Worker Benefits After Receiving a Department of Veterans Affairs Rating of “Total Disability” for Service-Connected Impairments: Characteristics and Outcomes by L. Scott Muller, Nancy Early, and Justin Ronca published in the Social Security Bulletin, the agency's research journal. DI refers to Social Security Disability Insurance Benefits. IU refers to Individual Unemployability. Veterans may be approved for 100% VA disability benefits either with or without consideration of IU.

          Overall, Social Security is denying about 31% of disability claims filed by veterans with a 100% VA rating. Social Security approves only 43.5% of these 100% disabled veterans claims at the initial level and 13.8% at reconsideration but 70.8% at the Administrative Law Judge level. Social Security is turning down 25.3% of the claims filed by veterans determined 100% disabled by VA due to traumatic brain injury and 34.8% of those found 100% disabled by VA due to dementia associated with brain trauma.

Click on image to view full size

 

Variance By Race In Applying For Social Security Disability Benefits

     From How Does the Social Security Claiming Process Vary by Race?, a report by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College:

Stats From The Only Part Of SSA Working Down Its Backlog

      Recently released report on Social Security's Office of Hearings Operations:

Click on image to view full size

 

Should State Agencies Serving As Rep Payees For Children Be Allowed To Seize The Children's Social Security Benefits To Pay For Their Care?

     From WUNC, an NPR station

To Teresa Casados, who runs the department in charge of child welfare in New Mexico, it seemed like an odd question. At a legislative hearing in July, a lawmaker asked her if the state was taking the Social Security checks of kids in foster care — the checks intended for orphans and disabled children.

"My reaction really was: That can't be right," said Casados, who in the spring took over as acting secretary of New Mexico's Children, Youth & Families Department. "That can't be a practice that we're doing." ...

Casados and her chief legal counsel drove back to the office. "When we got back, we looked into it and found out it was a practice that the agency had for using those benefits — and had been going on for quite some time." ...

[L]ast month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Social Security Administration sent a letter to state and local child welfare agencies to encourage these changes.

The NPR/Marshall Project investigation found that in at least 49 states and the District of Columbia, when young people go into foster care child, welfare agencies routinely look for which ones come with Social Security checks. Or, if the children are eligible, agencies sign them up for benefits. Then state agencies cash those checks — usually without telling the child or their family, the investigation found. ...

Just days after that legislative hearing in New Mexico, Casados says her department "sent out a directive to cease using those funds for care and support." It pledged to start putting aside the Social Security benefits checks for foster children to have when they go back to their families or age out of foster care. ...

Bipartisan SSI Bill

     From a press release:

Today U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) announced the first bipartisan, bicameral push in decades to reform the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, which has not been updated in nearly 40 years and currently punishes older and disabled Americans for saving for emergencies and their futures. The senators’ bipartisan SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act would update SSI’s asset limits for the first time since the 1980s to ensure disabled and elderly Americans are able to prepare themselves for a financial emergency without putting the benefits they rely on to live at risk.  

In addition to Brown and Cassidy, U.S. Representatives Brian Higgins (D-NY-26) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA-1) will introduce companion legislation in the House. U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR), Susan Collins (R-ME), Bob Casey (D-PA), and James Lankford (R-OK) are original Senate cosponsors. ...

    Of course, the bill stands no chance in this Congress. The GOP controls the House and the GOP would filibuster in the Senate. Sorry, but there's nowhere near enough Republican support in Congress for this to advance. Maybe, maybe, I can squint at it and imagine the bill progressing after the 2024 election, but only if the Democrats have an overwhelming victory.

Confusion Over Law Enforcement Officers On Personal Business At SSA Offices And Their Firearms

     From Queen City News:

A Cleveland County [NC] deputy was told to disarm himself in order to enter the Shelby Social Security Office, according to Sheriff Alan Norman. ...

“Following that directive would place a uniformed law enforcement officer in jeopardy,” Norman wrote in a Facebook post. “[It] would compromise their safety, especially in the treacherous times we are living in.” ...

After speaking with other sheriff’s offices around North Carolina, [the county sheriff] says he discovered that is not the official policy at other Social Security Administrations. ...

SSA’s Regional Communications Director released the following statement to QCN regarding the incident:

“The Social Security Administration followed government-wide security policies established by the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Federal Protective Service (FPS). Generally, FPS policy allows Federal, State, and local law enforcement authorities who are armed to enter Federal offices while performing law enforcement functions. FPS prohibits State and local law enforcement from carrying firearms into Federal facilities while on personal business.  ...

Headcount Inches Up

    The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has posted updated numbers showing the headcount of employees at each agency. Note that these numbers do not tell the whole story. They don't account for part time employees nor for overtime. Overtime is a huge part of the story at Social Security. A Full Time Equivalent (FTE) report would cover that but we seldom see FTE reports.  Here are Social Security's numbers as of March with earlier headcount numbers for comparison:

• March, 2023  59,400
  
• December, 2022 58,916
  
• September, 2022 57,754
  
• June, 2022 58,332
  
• March, 2022 59,257
  
• December, 2021 60,422
  
• September, 2021 59,808
  
• June 2021 59,707
  
• March 2021 60,675
• December 2020 61,816
  
• September 2020 61,447
  
• June 2020 60,515
  
• March 2020 60,659
  
• December 2019 61,969
  
• December 2018 62,946
  
• December 2017 62,777
• December 2016 63,364
• December 2015 65,518
• December 2014 65,430
• December 2013 61,957
• December 2012 64,538
• December 2010 70,270
• December 2009 67,486
• December 2008 63,733

A Golden Oldie

      It’s a slow time in Social Security world so let me reprise a post from almost ten years ago. The themes coming from shills have changed but the problem hasn’t gone away. I’ve become quicker to delete comments that look phony to me. I do note comments now that appear to me to come from employee unions but it’s hard to tell since there are obvious reasons why many Social Security employees agree with union talking points.

Bombarding This Blog — From November 8, 2013

If you read the comments posted on this blog you might come to the impression that everyone knows that:

• Social Security employees do most of their "work" from at home but they don't really work because they're all lazy. The agency has way too many employees.
• Social Security's Administrative Law Judges are particularly lazy. They approve Social Security disability claims because they're lazy. A lot of the judges are crooks in cahoots with crooked disability claimants and their crooked attorneys.
• Most Social Security disability claimants are just crooks trying to scam the program.
• It's way too easy to get on Social Security disability benefits, especially for "mental illness." Anyone can get on Social Security disability benefits for "mental illness" just by pretending to be crazy.
• SSI child's benefits are the biggest scam. It's nothing but lazy, drug addicted mothers coaching their kids to act crazy. They get child after child on SSI child's benefits and then steal the money to support their drug habits.
• Attorneys who represent Social Security claimants are lazy. They're paid huge sums of money by Social Security but they do nothing for their clients. If anything, they're just crooks who assist their crooked clients in perpetrating fraud.
• There is no money in the Social Security trust funds. The money was all stolen by Democrats. The U.S. government bonds that are supposed to be in the trust funds are meaningless pieces of paper.
• Social Security is going bankrupt.You'll never get back the money you paid in. It's all a scam.

     Some of this comes from individuals legitimately expressing their opinions. However, it's long been apparent to me that most of this is coming from people who have been paid to post online comments about Social Security. Often, these people pretend to be Social Security employees, Social Security claimants or Social Security attorneys. Often, their comments just don't ring true because they're pretending to be someone they're not.

     Does it seem outlandish, even paranoid to think that someone would be paid to post slanted comments online? Take a look at this article from the Baltimore Sun. Officials at the University of Maryland had a problem. They wanted to shift the University's athletic programs from the Atlantic Coast Conference to the Big Ten. They knew that many of the University's alumni would be furious with this move. Here's what they did:

Brian Ullmann, the university's assistant vice president for marketing and communications ... wrote that the school planned to "engage professional assistance in helping to drop positive messages into the blogs, comments and message board sites. I will arrange for this service today." ...

Lee Zeidman, the corporate communications consultant who helped Maryland draft letters and talking points, said Wednesday that it is "standard operating procedure" in the business world to weigh in directly on message boards. "There are special PR agencies who work in the digital space who bombard blogs and newspaper sites where no one puts their name," Zeidman said.

     Who would pay online shills to post on Social Security issues? Pete Peterson and the Koch brothers are the prime candidates. They're tossing around tens of millions of dollars in their fight against Social Security. They certainly wouldn't be going after just this blog. It's quite unlikely they know anything about it. They would mostly be going after message boards at news media sites. However, I don't know that there's any other web site quite like this one where there's an ongoing discussion on Social Security issues. If you're doing an online campaign to malign Social Security both as a social program and as an agency, you're going to come here.
    I wonder how someone who works as an online shill would feel about their job. Would it make them proud? Would they tell their children about what they do for a living?

New Regs In The Works

    After a long break, the Social Security Administration is advancing proposed regulations. The agency has now asked the Office of Management and Budget to approve regulations to "implement the Commissioner’s access to and use of wage and employment information held by payroll data providers ...  to help  administer the title II Disability Insurance (DI) and title XVI Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs and prevent improper payments."

SSAB Supports O'Malley Nomination

     The four members of the Social Security Advisory Board, two of them Democratic appointees and two of them Republican appointees, have written to the Chairman and Ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee recommending swift approval of Martin O'Malley's nomination to become Commissioner of Social Security. 

    They also recommended that the six year terms for Social Security Commissioners end and that they serve at the pleasure of the President. I think it is beyond dispute that six year terms for Social Security Commissioners has been a bad idea which has led to the near impossibility of confirming Commissioners. In any case, due to recent Supreme Court rulings, Commissioners, in effect, serve at the pleasure of the President anyway.

    Let's get on with it. Endless Acting Commissioners aren't good for the agency.

Administering SSI Is Difficult

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

... Homes that SSI applicants and recipients own and reside in do not count toward SSI resource limits. The current market values of any properties other than their owned primary residences, referred to as non-home real properties (NHRP), are generally considered countable resources for SSI eligibility purposes.

In 2017, SSA introduced an electronic search application that employees are required to use in most cases to identify applicants’ and recipients’ real-property information. We reviewed 400 applicants/recipients who had real properties identified through the search application. Of these, properties were a determining factor for SSI eligibility and payments in 122 cases.

SSA employees did not accurately determine property ownership and/or values for 17 (14 percent) of 122 SSI applicants/recipients. As a result, applicants were possibly denied SSI when they should not have been, and recipients received SSI payments for which they were not eligible. Of the 17 applicants/recipients:

• 4 applicants may have been incorrectly denied SSI. SSA needs to further develop these cases to verify the applicants’ SSI eligibility, and
• 13 recipients received over $180,000 in SSI payments for which they were not eligible.We determined employees did not correctly determine the applicants’/recipients’ countable resources, including reviewing for prior ownership. In addition, SSA employees did not add required documentation in SSA’s records to support their real-property determinations for these 17, and 43 other, cases.

We project 1,204 applicants may have been improperly denied SSI eligibility, and 35,885 recipients were improperly paid because SSA employees made inaccurate real-property determinations. ...

Labor Day 1956

 

The expansion of Social Security was the creation of Disability Insurance benefits.

More Union Support For O'Malley Nomination

     From Government Executive:

A coalition of 35 labor unions that represent federal workers last week joined the chorus of stakeholders endorsing former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley to serve as commissioner of the Social Security Administration and urged senators to move quickly to confirm him to his post.

The Federal Workers Alliance, which consists of a variety of labor groups collectively representing more than 550,000 federal workers and postal employees, including the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, the National Federation of Federal Employees and the National Treasury Employees Union, announced their support in an Aug. 25 letter to senators. ...

AI And White Collar Social Security Jobs: Part III

     Here's the third and final installment in my series on what Chat GPT can do in a Social Security context.

Request: Write a 10 line poem in blank verse on the subject of Social Security

Chat GPT Response:

Amidst life's journey, a safety net unfurls,

Social Security, a promise held firm.

A shelter for the elders, time's weathered crew,

Their toil remembered, their dignity due.

A woven tapestry of care and grace,

Support in twilight years, a steadfast embrace.

Contributions sown as seeds for the age,

Harvested in retirement, a just wage.

Through cycles and years, its shield endures,

Social Security, a nation's pledge secures

    I'd call this impressive. Of course, if you read anything about Chat GPT you’ll quickly learn about the app’s ability to write poetry. For me, I couldn't write even one couplet in blank verse. One of the questions I ask my clients is "Do you have any hobbies?" It never ceases to amaze me that a not insignificant number of people answer "Writing poetry" and some of those people lack even a high school education. I think there's a poetry gene that I didn't inherit.

 

Speech Analytics Technology In Use At SSA

     Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) has issued a report on Controls over the Social Security Administration’s National 800-number Service During the COVID-19 Pandemic. It should surprise no one that the controls started off rough and got better with time. What I found interesting is information about a method the agency is using to evaluate telephone service:

... Speech analytics is a method, separate from service observation, designed to improve the efficiency and quality of service 800-number employees provide to the public. SSA’s speech analytics technology, which it began using in April 2017, converts recorded 800-number calls to a text format. SSA uses it to pinpoint patterns for further research and analysis via manual process. Employees in the Office of Customer Service and/or teleservice centers apply such criteria as words, phrases, or duration of calls to search the converted text to identify calls that should be referred to regional management for further evaluation. Calls can be identified through speech analytics based on the use of derogatory terms, a disconnected call that did not assist callers, and employees not responding to callers during the call. ...

AI And White Collar Social Security Jobs: Part II

     Continuing on with my series on what Chat GPT can do in the Social Security context, here's another question and answer:

Question: I am an attorney representing a Social Security disability claimant. She is 56 years old, has a 10th grade education and has worked for the last 20 years as a CNA. She has two bad knees and is a diabetic with peripheral neuropathy. What arguments can I use to prove disability?

Chat GPT Answer: Given your client's circumstances, you could use the following arguments to prove disability:

1. **Medical Evidence**: Gather detailed medical records, test results, and doctor's assessments that clearly document her knee problems, diabetes, and peripheral neuropathy. Highlight any treatments, medications, surgeries, or therapies she has undergone to manage these conditions.

2. **Functional Limitations**: Describe how her medical conditions impact her daily life and ability to work. Highlight how her knee pain and neuropathy limit her mobility, standing, and ability to perform physical tasks required in her previous job as a CNA.

3. **Vocational History**: Emphasize her 20 years of work as a CNA, and how her conditions now prevent her from performing the physical demands of that job. Discuss any attempts she may have made to continue working despite her disabilities.

4. **Transferable Skills**: Evaluate whether her skills from being a CNA can be transferred to a less physically demanding job, given her current limitations. If not, this strengthens the argument that she is unable to work.

5. **Age and Education**: Her age and education level can be factors in proving disability. Explain how her limited education might restrict her ability to transition to a new job that requires less physical activity.

6. **Residual Functional Capacity (RFC)**: Obtain a detailed RFC assessment from a medical professional, outlining her ability to perform work-related activities. This can provide clear evidence of her limitations.

7. **Consistency of Treatment**: Highlight any inconsistencies in her medical records or treatment history that might suggest her conditions have not been managed consistently.

8. **Expert Opinions**: If necessary, seek expert opinions from medical professionals, vocational experts, or disability specialists who can testify to her inability to work based on her medical conditions and limitations.

9. **Impact on Daily Living**: Describe how her disabilities affect her ability to perform everyday tasks like cooking, cleaning, shopping, and personal care. This can provide additional evidence of her limitations.

10. **Social Security Blue Book**: Refer to the Social Security Administration's "Blue Book" that outlines the specific medical criteria for qualifying as disabled. Match her medical conditions to the relevant listings.

Remember, the key is to build a comprehensive case that demonstrates how her medical conditions substantially prevent her from engaging in substantial gainful activity. Consulting with legal experts experienced in Social Security disability claims can further enhance your client's chances of success.

    Duh, I'm looking to prove this lady is limited to sedentary work and I may have a good shot at it given the facts I've mentioned. So, why couldn't Chat GPT give more than an extremely generic answer which doesn't speak to the facts I've given? I'd have to give this answer a failing grade -- my job seems secure -- but stay tuned. Part III shows Chat GPT doing something that's impressive in its own way.

More In-Office Work For Some Managers

    From Federal Times:

The Social Security Administration announced Monday that the agencies’ managerial corps will be required to work in-person four times per two-week pay period, starting in the coming months.

A spokesperson confirmed the announcement applies only to senior executives effective Oct. 2 and managers and supervisors with a headquarters duty station on Nov. 6. The agency did not elaborate on why that decision was made. ...

New Proposed Regs In Pipeline

     The Social Security Administration has sent a set of proposed regulations to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for approval. Here's the description, limited as it may be:

We propose to develop intermediate improvements to reduce the burden in our current disability adjudication process as a step towards longer-term reforms to ensure our disability program remains current and supports equitable outcomes. Actions could include decreasing the years of past work we consider when making a disability determination, as well as other potential regulatory changes.

AI And White Collar Social Security Jobs: Part I

     There's been talk lately of Artificial Intelligence (AI) taking over white collar jobs. I thought I would take a look at what Chat GPT, the widely available free AI app could do in the Social Security context. In Part I of a three part series this is a question I asked and the Chat GPT response:

Question:  What kinds of disability benefits does the Social Security Administration offer?

Answer: The Social Security Administration offers several disability benefits programs, including Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). SSDI provides benefits to disabled individuals who have worked and paid Social Security taxes, while SSI offers assistance to disabled individuals with limited income and resources. Additionally, there are programs like Disabled Adult Child (DAC) benefits for adults with disabilities who were dependent on a parent's Social Security earnings, and Compassionate Allowances for faster processing of severe medical conditions. Keep in mind that eligibility criteria and benefits can vary, so it's best to check the SSA's official website for the most up-to-date information.

    It missed Disabled Widow and Widower benefits which is not good. On a more obscure note, it missed that disability benefits for blindness are a separate category in both Titles II and XVI of the Social Security Act.