From Government Executive:
The Social Security Administration has demanded money back from more than 2 million people a year — more than twice as many people as the head of the agency disclosed at an October congressional hearing.
That’s according to a document KFF Health News and Cox Media Group obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Acting Commissioner of the Social Security Administration Kilolo Kijakazi read aloud from the document during the hearing but repeatedly left out an entire category of beneficiaries displayed on the paper as well. ...
The document obtained via FOIA shows that the numbers Kijakazi gave at the hearing covered only two of the three Social Security benefit programs. They did not cover Supplemental Security Income, or SSI ...
Kijakazi should have included the SSI numbers or made it clear that she wasn't including them but to defend her more than she deserves, the Social Security Subcommittee has no jurisdiction over SSI. Perhaps more important, while SSI is part of the Social Security Act (Title XVI of it), most of the titles of the Social Security Act cover things like Medicare that aren't generally considered part of "Social Security." To the extent that we consider SSI as part of "Social Security" it's because the Social Security Administration, uh, administers it. Generally, Title II of the Social Security Act (providing old age, survivor and disability benefits based upon work credits) is always what people are thinking about when they refer to "Social Security" but sometimes they're also thinking about SSI.
SSI overpayment processing also, at least at the Field Office level, burns far more man-hours for far less return. Many SSI recipients have balances that will never be fully paid off. I'd love to see the data on how many SSI recipients have overpayment sequences on their record; I'd have to imagine it's over half.
ReplyDeleteIt's a complicated program, with parts of it designed in bad faith by legislators who don't feel like recipients are their constituents, administered by under-staffed and under-trained offices, to people whose average educational level makes them most vulnerable.
I'm not joking when I say that our CSRs have close to a dozen individual workloads related in some way to SSI overpayments.
We (half-heartedly) joke in our office that every SSI recipient will be overpaid at some point. It’s true. The vast vast majority of SSI recipients are overpaid or have been overpaid in the past for some reason or another. The amount of work hours SSA spends trying to recover blood from a stone is insane.
DeleteIt likely wasn't intentional. Kijakazi is in way over her head and knows little more than what her underlings write for her on her briefings. She's never worked in the field, PC, or TSC, never done any claims work, nor worked at the hearings level. She's a joke that needs to go.
ReplyDeleteGiven how many people are concurrently eligible for SSI and Title II benefits (in the 65+ population there are more concurrents than SSI-only folks) and how complicate the overlap between benefits can be, some of the people overpaid SSI are probably also overpaid in Title II. There aren't really a million more than the ACOSS said. But it's still a lot of overpaid people!
ReplyDeleteKilo is incompetent.
ReplyDeleteIn other breaking news:
Dog bites man
Mosquito bites hiker
Water is wet
SSI has swallowed FO workloads
So this was a Congressional hearing about overpayments and the head of the agency showed up and gave Congress half of the number to make the agency look half as bad. Where is the over site of this agency? Oh yeah, Gail Ennis is in charge of that. This is an agency that clearly wants no sunlight on its operations.
ReplyDeleteThe jurisdiction of the Subcommittee on Social Security shall include bills and matters referred to the Committee on Ways and Means that relate to the Federal Old Age, Survivors’ and Disability Insurance System, the Railroad Retirement System, and employment taxes and trust fund operations relating to those systems. More specifically, the jurisdiction of the Subcommittee on Social Security shall include bills and matters involving title II of the Social Security Act and Chapter 22 of the Internal Revenue Code (the Railroad Retirement Tax Act), as well as provisions in title VII and title XI of the Act relating to procedure and administration
ReplyDeleteYup, SSI not within the jurisdiction of the Committee. So, do you address the OPs that are within the jurisdiction of the Committee or do you include OPs that are not. Migt seem you don't know what Committee you are addressing if you did.
Who is responsible for SSI oversite? The Subcommittee on Work and Welfare.
The jurisdiction of the Subcommittee on Work and Welfare shall include bills and matters referred to the Committee on Ways and Means that relate to the public assistance provisions of the Social Security Act, including temporary assistance for needy families, child care, child and family services, child support, foster care, adoption, supplemental security income, social services, eligibility of welfare recipients for food stamps, and low-income energy assistance. More specifically, the jurisdiction of the Subcommittee on Work and Welfare shall include bills and matters relating to titles I, IV, VI, X, XIV, XVI, XVII, XX and related provisions of titles VII and XI of the Social Security Act.
The jurisdiction of the Subcommittee on Work and Welfare shall also include bills and matters referred to the Committee on Ways and Means that relate to the Federal-State system of unemployment compensation, and the financing thereof, including the programs for extended and emergency benefits. More specifically, the jurisdiction of the Subcommittee on Work and Welfare shall also include all bills and matters pertaining to the programs of unemployment compensation under titles III, IX and XII of the Social Security Act, Chapters 23 and 23A of the Internal Revenue Code, and the Federal-State Extended Unemployment Compensation Act of 1970, and provisions relating thereto.
Maybe they can have a hearing about OPs?