PRW Change Delayed Two Weeks

     The definition of past relevant work for Social Security disability determination was supposed to change from 15 years to 5 years on June 8 but that’s now to come into effect two weeks later, June 22. At least that’s the word on the street. They’ll have to publish something in the Federal Register eventually.  I don’t know what the point is. This shouldn’t require much training. Did they only belatedly notice some policy issues that were quickly apparent to those of us who represent claimants?

Social Security Subcommittee Schedules Hearing

    The House Social Security Subcommittee has scheduled a hearing for June 4 on The Social Security Trust Funds In 2024 And Beyond.

New Postings On Frustrated Claimants Blog

    My firm has started a new blog directed at Social Security disability claimants, rather than Social Security professionals. It's called For The Frustrated Social Security Disability Claimant. Here are links to some recent posts:

• Disability And Homelessness

• If You're Able To Read This, Count Your Blessings; If You're Not, Expect That Others Won't Understand Your Problem

• How Do You Give Good Public Service When Your Employees Are Really Unhappy? You Don't!

• From Social Security: Top Baby Names

• 47% Of Disabled Americans Aren't Getting The Help They Need

• On Being Disabled And Homeless In Rural America

 

 

 

Customer Wait Times

    From Customer Wait Times in the Social Security Administration’s Field Offices and Card Centers, a report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General:

 

Memorial Day 2024

 

Let's Celebrate! Social Security Lost Fewer Employees In 2023 Than In 2022

    From Customer Wait Times in the Social Security Administration’s Field Offices and Card Centers, a report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General:

 

Employment Discrimination Class Action Settled

      From WBAL-TV:

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has given final approval to a $22.7 million settlement involving a class-action lawsuit against the Social Security Administration filed by some of the agency's minority workers.

The issues include employee rights, promotions and worker compensation. …

African American men who worked at the SSA headquarters in Woodlawn, Baltimore County, at any time between 2003 and 2023 are eligible to submit a claim for a settlement award. …

"SSA has agreed to be transparent about what is going on in their awards bonus system. For the next two years, every decision in every office will report what awards were given, what people receive and at what rate, and that will allow everybody to take a look and make a decision about whether the system is working in a fair manner," [Jeremy] Wright [an attorney representing the plaintiffs] told 11 News Investigates. …

It's Been Over 57 Years

LBJ at SSA Headquarters

     The recent visit to Social Security headquarters by former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi reminds me that the last time that a President visited Social Security was October 12, 1966. Lyndon Johnson was the President. Given Social Security's importance to the American people, it seems extraordinary to me that no President has visited Social Security headquarters in such a long time.

Belated OIG Report On Field Office Waiting Times

Photo taken on May 7 outside Raleigh FO

    From Customer Wait Times in the Social Security Administration’s Field Offices and Card Centers, a report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General:

... In February and March 2023, we visited 76 FOs [Field Offices] and SSCCs [Social Security Card Centers]. During these visits, we observed customer wait times and interviewed office management regarding best practices for reducing customer wait times. We also interviewed SSA staff to determine Agency initiatives to enhance the customer experience and reduce wait times.

During our office visits, we observed the wait times of customers throughout their visit for services. For the 76 FOs and SSCCs we visited, we observed the average wait time for customers before check-in ranged from 5 to 12 minutes, depending on the method of check-in. The check-in method(s) used varied, based on management’s discretion. Once checked in, customers waited an average of 32 to 45 minutes to receive services. We do not assert, and the reader should not infer, that our observations during our visits represent all SSA offices. ...

    Why did it take more than a year after the data was collected for OIG to issue a report?

SSA Stops CDRs For The Remainder Of The Fiscal Year

     From Emergency Message EM-24021:

With the enactment of our full-year appropriation for this fiscal year, we are lowering our Full Medical CDR t[Continuing Disability Review] arget from 575,000 to 375,000.

This reduction will allow DDSs [Disability Determination Services] to focus on processing Initial Disability Claims and Reconsideration cases. The field offices will not send additional Full Medical CDRs to the DDS for the remainder of FY 2024. ...

Do not assign unassigned CDRs pending in your receipt or staging queue. DDS should take no action on the unassigned Full Medical CDRs. ...

Age 18 Redeterminations:

If you have sufficient evidence in file at the publication date of this emergency message, make the Age 18 Redetermination.
If the evidence in file at the publication date of this emergency message is insufficient to make the Age 18 Redetermination:
a. Do not initiate additional development, such as requesting medical evidence of record (MER) or school records;
b. Do not schedule for consultative examinations (CE); and,
c. Do not assign to medical or psychological consultant(s) for review. ...

Senators Express Concern Over Office Closures

     Senators Susan Collins and Shelley Moore Capito have written the Commissioner of Social Security to express their concern that the Commissioner has announced the closure of Social Security offices on the afternoons of May 10 and May 24 to give stressed out employees a break.

    I understand what the Commissioner has done. Social Security's staff morale could certainly use a shot in the arm and giving extra time off is one way to do that. However, the biggest factor in producing poor staff morale is relentless workload pressures. By closing the offices the workload pressures got a little worse. This seems counter productive to me.

A Recent Visitor To Social Security Headquarters

 

Social Security Finally Acknowledges That Phony Mailing Dates Are A Problem

    The dates that Social Security places on its outgoing mail are mostly fictitious. Most outgoing mail is printed and mailed from a central printing operation that serves the entire agency.  This correspondence bears the date upon which some agency employee sent it to be printed but the date printed and mailed is actually several days later. 

    There are time limits to file appeals. If these time limits are based upon a date that is several days prior to the date that the correspondence was actually mailed, the claimant is being cheated out of those days to file an appeal. Appeals can be dismissed -- and have been dismissed -- based upon these phony dates.

    Social Security has finally acknowledged the problem. The agency's HALLEX manual for hearings and appeals has been amended. Now, notices sent out centrally will be presumed to have been sent out three days later than the date they bear.  This is in addition to the five days given for the mail itself.

    I have not seen this changed in the POMS manual that serves the whole agency but maybe I've missed it. It's needed there since appeals also get dismissed at field offices and payment centers. 

    Wouldn't it be simpler to put accurate dates on these notices to begin with? This doesn't seem to be a problem beyond the limits of human ingenuity. 

Interview With The Commissioner

    From things said by Social Security Commissioner Martin O'Malley during an interview conducted by reporter Lisa Rein of the Washington Post:

... I wasn’t asked to come here because everything was going great, right? We’re in a customer service crisis; that cannot be denied. ...

There is a theme running through this stuff [I've done]: It’s small.

[W]e executed on a bunch of little short-term, quick wins. Our new general counsel has probably said yes in 60 days more than any [Office of General Counsel] leader has said in 10 years. ...

I have been unpleasantly surprised by how dire the staffing situation is. ...

[W]e’ll be rolling out an action plan for the remainder of the year that will better organize over 150 actions under 21 initiatives, all of which are intended to take a bite out of these processing times [at Disability Determination Services]. ...

Clearly we need a more modern assessment of the widely available occupations out there [used in disability determination]. And we are taking a fresh look at this project [to create a new occupational data system], and at what we forecasted we might have to spend. ... Many members of Congress expressed their concern about the amount of money that we have put into this and the amount of time that it has taken. There’s still a systems component, and that also has a price tag. I would say it’s a big policy issue. There will be some winners, some losers. ...

Unhappy Employees

     From the Partnership For Public Service report on Best Places to Work ranking for the Social Security Administration. (The rankings are of agencies with large workforces):

Click on image to view full size

    Parts of the agency are also ranked against all federal agencies. The personnel under the Deputy Commissioner for Hearings Operations ranked 429 of 459 agencies. The personnel of Social Security's Office of Inspector General ranked 430 of 459 agencies. The personnel under the Deputy Commissioner for Operations ranked 456 of 459 agencies.

Top Baby Names In Each State

 

Click on image to view full size

A New Funding Mechanism For Agency Operations?

     The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has an unusual funding mechanism. The law says it can draw funds “reasonably necessary to carry out” its operations without an annual appropriation. This has been challenged on the grounds that it violates the Appropriations Clause of the Constitution which provides that “[n]o Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.” To the great surprise of many the Supreme Court has just upheld the CFPB funding mechanism. 

    This decision suggests that it would be constitutional if there were a similar funding mechanism in the Social Security Act for agency operations, such as a certain small percentage of benefits paid. If I remember correctly, the National Council of Social Security Management Associations (NCSSMA), an organization of agency management personnel, has called for this in the past.

    Would such a thing ever come to Social Security? Only if Democrats control the White House, House of Representatives and Senate and want to do it and can get past the filibuster in the Senate. This could not be done at the moment. Maybe it will never be possible. However, my guess is that this will be proposed. What we've got at the moment is seriously dysfunctional. 

    By the way, if CFPB had lost this case, doubt would have been thrown on the funding mechanism for Social Security benefits themselves. Annual appropriations might have been required for benefit payments, so this CFPB case was a big win for Social Security.

Surprise!

     From Yahoo Finance:

He lived a complete life in the U.S. He went to school, worked in law enforcement, got married, raised a family, paid his taxes and voted in elections.

But in 2020 — when Klass [oddly the article never mentions Klass' first name] was gearing down to live out his retirement in Clearwater, Florida — one of the benefits of a post-working life he thought that he earned was suddenly ripped away from him.

 Klass received a shocking letter from the Social Security Administration (SSA) stating he would not be sent the $1,649.90 monthly retirement benefits he’d previously been approved for because he’s not actually a U.S. citizen. ...

Klass was born in Canada. His mom was Canadian and his father was American, born and raised in New York. The family moved to the U.S. in 1959, and Klass has lived in the country ever since — believing he was a dual citizen.

He told the news station his roots were never questioned when he secured critical pieces of ID, including his Social Security card, driver’s license and voter registration card. He was approved to serve as a marine in the U.S. military and later worked for the New Jersey state police. He says his citizenship status was never questioned.

“I’ve been voting for over 40 years,” he chuckled, adding: “I guess I’m in a lot of trouble.”  ...

    I've had a client who was in a similar situation -- born in France to a woman who then married a U.S. citizen. The family moved to the U.S. when the child was stil quite young. The parents were supposed to file some paperwork so the child would officially be a U.S. citizen but they never got around to it. The child was unaware of the problem until Social Security discovered it and denied benefits.

    By the way, should this foreigner be locked up for voting all those times in the U.S.?

The Only Real Fix For Social Security Is More Babies?

What about more people like these taking the citizenship oath?

     Megan McArdle writes for the Washington Post that "The only real fix to Social Security’s [long term funding] problems? More babies."

    More babies would certainly help but only in the long run. It may be literally impossible for the government to get women to have more babies, anyway. Fertility is a deep cultural thing which may be beyond any incentives the government can provide. Even if you can figure out a way to increase fertility it would be at least a couple of decades before it would help.

    In any case, more babies isn't the only solution. The other solution is increased immigration. That gives an immediate increase in the working age population. Also, for literally centuries, the U.S. economy has been invigorated by the contributions of immigrants. They're good for the U.S. The problem with increased immigration is that those who most want to immigrate to the U.S. tend to be black or brown which enrages a significant portion of the existing population.

Op Ed On The SSI Marriage Penalty But It's More Complicated Than Presented

    There's an op ed in the New York Times on the marriage penalty in the SSI program which is preventing a couple who each have Down Syndrome from marrying. 

    The author completely misses or at least doesn't write about the strong possibility that the couple will soon be eligible for Disabled Adult Child (DAC) benefits, if they're not already. Marriage won't be a problem for DAC as long as both are eligible for DAC, which is itself crazy! DAC pays benefits on the Social Security account of a parent but the parent must be deceased or on benefits on their own account. Since the man with Down Syndrome is 44 and the woman is 40, their parents are at or near retirement age. Usually marriage ends DAC but not if you marry someone who is also eligible for DAC.

    I hate, hate, hate counseling someone newly entitled to DAC that they probably don't want to get married because it will probably end their DAC but it's my job. This may be the worst provision in the Social Security Act.

Overpayment Administrative Tolerance Changing From $1,000 To $2,000 Today

     From Emergency Message EM-24019:

... Effective May 13, 2024, we are updating the administrative waiver tolerance policy to improve customer service, reduce the burden to overpaid individuals, and increase front-line staff efficiency. We are implementing the following changes: ...

· Increased the administrative waiver tolerance amount from $1,000 to $2,000 for Title II and Title XVI. ...

    What does this mean? It means that if you have an overpayment below $2,000 it will now be waived pretty much automatically -- as long as you ask for waiver.

Another Social Security Blog Aimed At Claimants

     My firm has started a new blog directed at Social Security disability claimants, rather than Social Security professionals. It's called For The Frustrated Social Security Disability Claimant. Here are links to some recent posts:

• Some Grim Numbers

• Creamy Or Crunchy?

• Higher Taxes On Billionaires To Support Social Security?
  

• Why Does Social Security Turn Down So Many 100% Disabled Vets?

• Getting Your Papers In Order

• Twelve Secrets For Doing Your Best At Your Social Security Disability Hearing

• What's A BNC?

• There's Help For Frustrated Social Security Disability Claimants

• Don't Be Your Own Worst Enemy!

• Top Three Tips for Winning a Social Security Disability Case

• Social Security Disability: Working Despite the Pain

• Why Did The Rate At Which Social Security Disability Claims Were Filed Plummet After 2000?

 

Deep Red In More Than One Way

 

From a Social Security fact sheet

Does This Make You Feel Better?

     I don't know whether this will make the U.S. Social Security Administration feel any better about its own telephone service but it sounds like they're having similar problems in the United Kingdom, although I may have to explain that the entity that I'm linking to, Rightsnet, is a U.K. organization of people involved in helping those with social security problems in that nation. The image to the left mentions the two main types of social security disability benefits in the U.K.

Top Ten Baby Names For 2023

     As announced by Social Security:

Boys	Girls
1. Liam	1. Olivia
2. Noah	2. Emma
3. Oliver	3. Charlotte
4. James	4. Amelia
5. Elijah	5. Sophia
6. Mateo	6. Mia
7. Theodore	7. Isabella
8. Henry	8. Ava
9. Lucas	9. Evelyn
10. William	10. Luna

SSA Commissioner Touts Accomplishments

I can't tell. Is that logo in the center a physical object or generated electronically?

     From a Social Security website touting Commissioner Martin O'Malley's accomplishments during his first 100 days in office:

... Between November and April, SSA has reduced the average waiting time from 42 minutes to 24 minutes. Further, no one calling SSA receives busy signals and over 35 percent of our callers now receive a call back instead of holding. ...

SSA is updating its Program Operations Manual System (POMS) so agency employees are no longer forced to require wet signatures from customers where eSignature options are available. ...

[Since the agency's appropriations bill passed] Commissioner O’Malley has lifted the agency-wide hiring freeze and approved 1,600 critical hires for the teleservice centers. We also authorized 1,290 field office hires, 600 hires for the State disability determination services, and 300 hires for our hearing offices. ...

New Union Management Cooperation Councils (UMCCs) - which the Special Advisor to the Federal Labor Relations Authority described as being at the forefront of Union-Management collaboration - are engaged in productive and specific pre-decisional discussions between AFGE and SSA management on a variety of topics including improvements to new-hire training, which has been a key area for improvement towards retention of staff. 

Monthly Labor Roundtables and the UMCC provide regular opportunities to maintain an open dialogue between Labor and Management at all levels of SSA, which improves employee morale and efficient. ...

It's Official

     It's official. The fee cap on the amount that attorneys can charge Social Security claimants is going up to $9,200 on November 30.

Why The Overtime?

     Below is the recently released stat sheet concerning operations at Social Security's Office of Hearings Operations (OHO).

Click on image to view full size

    Why is OHO getting any overtime? These funds are urgently needed for other parts of the agency. 59,000 hours in April?

The Right Will Spin The Trustees Report As Showing That The Doomsday That They Have Always Predicted For Social Security Is Right Around The Corner But Actually The Report Is Good News This Year

     From a press release:

The Social Security Board of Trustees today released its annual report on the financial status of the health of the Social Security Trust Funds. The combined asset reserves of the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance (OASI and DI) Trust Funds are projected to have enough dedicated revenue to pay all scheduled benefits and associated administrative costs until 2035, one year later than projected last year, with 83 percent of benefits payable at that time.

In the 2024 Annual Report to Congress, the Trustees announced:

• The asset reserves of the combined OASI and DI Trust Funds declined by $41 billion in 2023 to a total of $2.788 trillion.
• The total annual cost of the program is projected to exceed total annual income in 2024 and remain higher throughout the 75-year projection period. Total cost began to be higher than total income in 2021. Social Security’s cost has exceeded its non-interest income since 2010.
• The year when the combined trust fund reserves are projected to become depleted, if Congress does not act before then, is 2035. At that time, there would be sufficient income coming in to pay 83 percent of scheduled benefits. ...

National Disability Forum On AI Scheduled For May 15

     From Social Security:

Save The Date – National Disability Forum

We will host the next virtual National Disability Forum (NDF) on Wednesday, May 15, 2024. The title is “How Artificial Intelligence May Affect the Landscape of Social Security - Part 2.” The event will take place through Microsoft Teams from 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. ET.

For more information about the NDF, we encourage you and your clients to visit our What’s New page at www.ssa.gov/news/advocates.html. You and your clients can email questions to OEA.Net.Post@ssa.gov.

94% Satisfaction Rate At Canada's OHO

     The Social Security Tribunal of Canada is something like the Office of Hearings Operations at the U.S. Social Security Administration except that it has a wider jurisdiction, taking in unemployment insurance as well. The folks at the Social Security Tribunal of Canada publish the results of quarterly client satisfaction  surveys. The surveys are taken after a hearing and before a decision. The most recent survey showed a 94% satisfaction rate.

    I wonder what that number would be in the U.S.

Critter Control Did Their Job

     On May 8 Social Security plans to reopen that Cleveland field office which had recently closed due to raccoons in the attic. I guess they're gone or nearly gone.

Social Security Fraud Leads To Lengthy Jail Terms

     From a press release:

Two Raleigh, North Carolina men, Joseph Kingsley Irona and Mamady Fadima Conde, were sentenced for conspiracy to commit money laundering. Both men previously pled guilty to the charge. Irona was sentenced to 84 months’ imprisonment and three years of supervised release. Conde was sentenced to 60 months’ imprisonment and five years of supervised release. ...

According to court documents and other information presented in court, Irona and Conde were involved in a highly complex network of bank accounts at multiple financial institutions. This network was used for laundering over $1 million criminal proceeds derived from various fraud schemes, particularly identity theft. One particularly intricate scheme involved the misuse of stolen victim identifiers to submit online applications for Social Security retirement benefits in victims’ names. After the applications were approved, the resulting payments were unlawfully deposited into accounts within the money laundering network, including accounts held by Irona and Conde. After receiving criminal proceeds, Irona and Conde took elaborate steps to dissipate the funds and obscure their source and destination. ...

Tiny Feet Scurrying Around Over Your Head

     From a Cleveland television station:

The Social Security office in Middleburg Heights, on Pearl Rd., is temporarily closed due to a raccoon infestation.

People trying to take care of business Wednesday at the office found locked doors and signs stating the closure. ...

Michael Murphy, President of Local 3448 of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), said problems with raccoons inside the office have been building.

“These employees were reporting concerns of noises above the ceiling as far back as January,” Murphy said. “The staff said five raccoons were removed from the building as of yesterday.” ...

    I've had racoons in my attic. Getting rid of them is expensive. Keeping them from coming back may be even more expensive.

How Much Do VEs and MEs Make?

     This is from a Freedom of Information Act response that Social Security posted recently.