Labor Day Weekend Poll

 

online polls

Social Security Administration Viewed More Favorably Than VA

From Pew Research Center. Click on image to view full size.

Limited Ability To File SSI Claims Online To Begin In December

    From a press release:

Today, the Social Security Administration announced a large step in a multi-year effort to simplify processes for people who are applying for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) by starting to offer an online, streamlined application for some applicants starting in December. SSI provides monthly payments to people with disabilities and older adults who have little or no income and resources.

The initial step – known as iClaim expansion – aims to establish a fully online, simplified iClaim application that leverages user-tested, plain-language questions, prepopulated answers where possible, seamless step-by-step transitions, and more. The online application aims to reduce the time spent applying as well as the processing time for initial claim decisions. ...

The rollout of the iClaim expansion will generally be available to first-time applicants between 18 and almost 65 who never married and are concurrently applying for Social Security benefits and SSI. A goal of the second phase – currently targeted for late 2025 – is to expand this to all applicants. ...

    This rollout is quite limited -- concurrent claims for people who have never married. Why is it limited in those ways other than to hold down the number of claims filed in this manner?  It's like they want to say they're doing it even though they're only barely doing it.

Interview With The Commissioner

     Commissioner Martin O'Malley gave an interview to the Dallas Morning News. Nothing earth shattering but it's still interesting that he's talking about Social Security's long term funding problem and the President's budget in a much more open way than prior Commissioners. You can tell that he's working for the President rather than trying to be scrupulously above even the hint of politics. The whole "Independent Agency" claptrap is fading away. It never worked. A government agency that pays money to one American in five is inherently part of the political system.

    Next step, make Social Security a cabinet level department.

New Regs On Setting the Manner of Appearance of Parties and Witnesses at Hearings

     The Social Security Administration has posted final rules on Setting the Manner of Appearance of Parties and Witnesses at Hearings. These formalize the procedures already in place allowing claimants the option of either an in person, video or telephone hearing. 

    The pandemic changed the Social Security Administration in many ways. This may be the most enduring change.

SSI Underpayments

A Tweet From The Commissioner

Had a blast visiting our @SocialSecurity offices in Arlington, TX, Albuquerque, NM, and Phoenix, AZ, this week! Getting great feedback from employees + customers 

 

Thank God For Survivor Benefits

     From CNBC:

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz accepted the Democratic vice presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night.

In his speech, Walz credited a particular source of support for helping to get his family to where they are today — Social Security survivor benefits.

His father died of lung cancer when Walz was 19, leaving a “mountain of medical debt,” Walz said. Social Security benefits allowed his family, including his mother and younger brother, to “live with dignity,” he recently posted on social media.

“Thank God for Social Security survivor benefits,” Walz said during his Wednesday night speech. ...

Hearing Office Wait Time

    From the Commissioner:

Click to view full size

    By the way, what happened to Alaska?

Singapore?

The Singapore Skyline

     I recently looked at the analytics on this board which give me a lot of information about visitors to this board, such as their operating system and which search engine they used if they used a search engine. Don't worry. Even if I were interested, I couldn't identify individual visitors. It's far from that detailed. 

    The analytics included a list of the hits on this blog from various countries. Here's what it shows as the top countries for a one week time period:

• United States 11.2K
• Singapore 6.56K
• Hong Kong 103
• Germany 56
• Australia 28
• Canada 19
• United Kingdom 19
• Russia 15
• Spain 7

    Apart from the U.S., you'd expect random hits from most of these countries. Hong Kong seems a bit high but who knows? However, Singapore really stands out. It only has a population of about six million. How many of the residents of that small, but wealthy, city state at the tip of the Malay Peninsula could possibly be interested in U.S. Social Security matters?

    My guess is that traffic from other countries -- probably the U.S. -- is being routed through Singapore for some arcane reason, perhaps through Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) located in Singapore. I didn't know there were that many VPN users inside the U.S. There are other uses but VPNs are what you use when you're in China or Russia and you're trying to avoid government censorship. 

    Who knows? Maybe Google Analytics is hallucinating and those aren't real hits. Anybody have a guess?

New Regs On Representation Of Claimants

     The new regulations on representation of claimants and payments to the entities that represent claimants will appear in the Federal Register tomorrow. They will be effective in 30 days. You can read them today. 

    Here's a key comment and response from the explanation of the new regulations:

Comment: Commenters asked how we will ensure that entities are paid for work performed by their salaried employees when that work was performed as a part of the representative’s employment. Commenters had concerns that the proposed rule allows a representative to rescind an assignment prior to the award of a claim, thus creating the possibility that the representative could “take with them the fees to which the firm was clearly entitled.”

Response: While we recognize entities’ concerns about receiving compensation for work done by their employees, representative and entity relationships can take many forms, and we are not in a position to know how those relationships are arranged. We respect the choices entities and representatives make with regard to their employment agreements and contractual terms, and we established a process that is flexible enough to accommodate a variety of relationships. Permitting an individual representative to rescind an assignment is important to that flexibility, as rescission might be appropriate in certain relationships. For example, an employment contract might permit a representative to leave a firm’s employ but continue their representation and collect associated fees. ...

A Little Help Please

     I received this from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. I can't quite interpret it but it certainly seems to be relevant to Social Security. The downloads don't seem to have any data but that data must be somewhere. I'll confess that spreadsheets often mystify me. Maybe that's the problem.

Bureau of Labor Statistics

 

The ORS program released 2023 estimates on August 15, 2024, that complement those published February 8, 2024. These estimates include: Additional strength and specific vocational preparation (SVP) estimates in the ORS complete dataset and database tools. Special release dataset combining SVP 1&2 with minimum education and work hours published in XLSX format. Special release dataset aggregating previously published job requirements in XLSX format.

COLA Prediction

     One expert is predicting a 2.6% Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) in Social Security benefits this year. We'll know in a couple of months.

Video From The White House Social Security Anniversary Event

There Was A Celebration Of Social Security's 89th Birthday At The White House

 Click on each image to view full size.

Action Plan 2024

     Social Security has recently released its Action Plan 2024. It's a good summary of what has been done during the time that the current Commissioner has been on the job.

    Social Security can be proud of what has been accomplished this year but there's going to be no fundamental change for agency employees or those who deal with the agency until the agency gets a significantly higher appropriation. The low hanging fruit has been picked. There's no way to manage the agency out of the hole it's in. As former Commissioner Michael Astrue said, it's going to take "brute force," as in a lot more employees.

On This Day In 1935 FDR Signed The Legislation Creating Social Security In The United States

 

    Notice the only woman in the picture. That's Frances Perkins, who may deserve more credit for the bill's passage than anyone.

Report On Priority Cases

    From The Social Security Administration’s Processing of Priority Cases, a report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG):

... Each year, SSA identifies at least 200,000 (10 percent) of the initial disability applications as priority cases. SSA identifies priority cases for expedited processing through a combination of automated and manual means. Policy requires that SSA develop and process cases identified as priority expeditiously.

We reviewed 668,352 claimants whose initial disability applications SSA selected for priority processing. We also reviewed 153,964 claimants who had initial disability applications that may have been eligible for priority processing.

Generally, SSA properly identified, expedited, and processed initial disability applications that qualified as a priority case. SSA’s selection of cases for priority processing was proper for over 96.1 percent of claimants we reviewed.

However, SSA did not expeditiously develop and process initial disability applications for 11 (6.1 percent) of 180 sampled claimants. Delays occurred because SSA did not always monitor the processing of the 11 cases that were selected for priority processing to ensure they were processed expeditiously. Further, SSA’s policy does not specify overall processing timeframes and/or goals for priority cases. As a result, we estimate SSA delayed case development and processing for 40,844 claimants with priority cases.

OHO Caseload Analysis Report

     A statistical report from Social Security on performance at its Office of Hearings Operations:

Click on image to view full size

 

Senators Seek Action On Long Covid Disability Claims

     Seven Democratic Senators have written the Commissioner of Social Security asking that something be done about disability claims filed by those suffering from long Covid.

    As I've said before, I'm out there representing Social Security disability claimants. My firm is taking on new cases regularly. I'm only seeing a very few claimants with long Covid. I don't see any more problem with those few cases than with other Social Security disability claims which means there are severe problems.

    The letter  also said that a couple of more general changes should be made:

... SSA should allow appointed representatives to see all exhibits at the initial and reconsideration disability claim stages. ...

SSA should restore the “treating physician rule” so a claimant’s primary care physician or Long COVID specialist can have their medical opinion given the weight it deserves. ...

Senators Seek Answers On AI Usage

     From Government Executive:

... Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and ranking member Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, sent a letter to Social Security Administration Commissioner Martin O’Malley asking for information about how the agency is complying with the Biden administration’s March policy mandating safeguards for AI use. ...

Wyden and Crapo also warned O’Malley against overly relying on artificial intelligence as he seeks to chart a path out of Social Security’s customer service crisis, spurred primarily by a slow disinvestment in the agency by Congress, leading to the agency having its smallest workforce in 30 years amid the greatest number of beneficiaries in history. ...

New Conditions Added To Compassionate Allowance List

    Social Security is adding some new conditions to its compassionate allowance list of conditions that are supposed to result in having disability claims approved quickly. I think the least uncommon one on the adult list would be "Adult Heart Transplant Wait List – Status Levels 1-4."  Here's a description of what those status levels mean:

• 1 - 3: Most often hospitalized in ICU to support their heart.
• 4: This group is often at home but may need IV medications or VAD [Ventricular Assistive Device] to support their heart.
• 6: This group includes all others who are stable enough to remain home while they wait for a heart.
  

    I think anyone in status level 1-4 would easily meet a Listing anyway so I can't say this means much.

    Also, I've had clients who were on a heart transplant list and I don't recall any mention of a Status Level in their medical records.

Adverse Public Relations Potential No Longer A Hardship -- They Say

    From a recent update to Social Security's POMS (Program Operations Manual Series) manual:

To promote homogeneity between the Dire Need POMS and the Dire Need HALLEX instructions, we have revised the language in the Dire Need POMS. ...

We revised and clarified the definition of dire need. We also deleted language which suggested claimants with adverse public relations potential as hardship situations qualifying as dire need condition.

    I'd be amazed if they don't still scurry to resolve cases which get press attention.

For The Frustrated Social Security Disabilty Claimant

     I continue posting on my firm's separate blog directed at a different audience -- For The Frustrated Social Security Disability Claimant. Take a look at some of the recent posts on that blog.

• Top Five Myths About Social Security

• You Don't Have To Pay Upfront To Hire A Social Security Attorney

• A Poll

• You're Not The Only One Waiting And Waiting

• "What Do They Want Me To Do?"

• N.C. Medicaid Now Covers Weight Loss Drugs

• Who Runs The Show At Social Security?

• What Happens If I Die Before Social Security Finds Me Disabled?

• Field Offices Closed Today

• Is It The End If The Judge Turns Me Down?

In The Field

     Social Security's front line employees often complain that high level agency managers don't understand problems in the field, that no one listens to them. Whatever else you think of him, Martin O'Malley is getting out into the field. I'm attaching some photos posted on Twitter from his recent visit to the Jacksonville, FL field office. 

    By the way, O'Malley seems no more proficient at taking selfies than I am! Also, by the way, note that image of a motorcycle up on the screen in that last photo. I wonder if the employee was asked to get something up on the screen that had no PII. Could it even be an artificial image added later by Photoshop to avoid the PII problem?

 

     

Social Security Lump Sums Create Medicaid Problems

 

    Newsweek reports on a problem associated with Social Security that Social Security policymakers probably aren't aware of. The woman in the story had to fight for years for Social Security disability benefits. Finally, she was approved and paid but immediately lost her Medicaid. For SSI purposes, when she received that lump sum of back benefits, she had six months to spend it but there's no six month grace period for purposes of Medicaid. She became ineligible immediately. 

    There are things you can do to spend this sort of lump sum rapidly that give you lasting improvement in your life while retaining Medicaid or at least minimizing your period of ineligibility. You can pay off debts, repair your home which is probably in disrepair since you've been so poor, you can pay down your mortgage, replace worn out appliances and furniture, purchase new clothes, visit family members you haven't seen in years, etc. Just don't give any of it away! The problem is that most people who receive a large sum of money from Social Security or from some other source, such as an inheritance or personal injury settlement, don't see the problem coming and have no idea how to cope with it when it arrives. Often, they give the money to a relative or friend to hold for them which is much worse that useless.

They Could Do A Much Better Job If They Weren't So Understaffed

     From Challenges in Recovering Supplemental Security Income Overpayments, a report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG):

... SSA made errors on overpayments for 189 (47 percent) of the 400 sampled SSI recipients because it did not follow policies or use all available tools, to prevent, detect, or recover SSI overpayments. For example, overpayments could have been prevented or detected earlier, but employees made errors when they redetermined SSI eligibility. A redetermination is a review of a recipient or couple’s non-medical eligibility factors (that is, income, resources, and living arrangements) to determine whether the recipient or couple is still eligible for, and receiving, the correct SSI payment amount.

Errors also occurred because employees did not always (1) send recipients complete and accurate due-process notices before they initiated recovery of overpayments; (2) follow policy when they processed waivers of overpayments; or (3) follow policy and use available tools to recover overpayments. When SSA identifies an overpayment, it sends the overpaid person written notification of the overpayment’s cause and amount. Overpayment recovery can begin 60 days after SSA notifies the recipient of the overpayment if they have not requested a waiver of the overpayment collection or a reconsideration of the overpayment facts. If the individual is receiving SSI payments, SSA should begin recovery by withholding from ongoing payments. If the individual is no longer receiving SSI payments, SSA should attempt collection through various means including withholding from ongoing payments to a liable representative payee or spouse, cross-program recovery, referral for external collection through the Department of the Treasury or pursuing recovery from estates.

We estimate SSA did not follow its policies or use all available tools to prevent, detect, or recover SSI overpayments for 1.9 million recipients. For 1.7 million of these recipients, we estimated error amounts totaling over $7 billion. ...

    Not only does Social Security lack the manpower to do what OIG recommends, OIG fails to recognize that most of these SSI overpayments are small so going after all of them using every possible mechanism would not be cost-effective.

$81 Million AI Contract

     From a press release:

Accenture Federal Services has won an $81 million artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI / ML) contract from the Social Security Administration (SSA). The company will deliver end-to-end back office intelligent automation services to transform the way 250 million retiree and survivors’ benefits documents are processed every year. The forms are currently being received and managed via email, mail, and fax.

The Social Security Administration has already successfully deployed an enterprise hyperautomation platform that uses advanced deep learning and computer vision techniques to identify data from the agency’s electronic folder, extract text, transcribe data with the highest level of accuracy, and speed processing through downstream business processes. The platform uses internal enterprise data to intelligently and rapidly keep pace with high demand, expedite decision making, and control costs.

Accenture Federal Services will now take this project to the next level providing the licenses necessary to deliver an end-to-end, Infrastructure as a Software (IaaS) roadmap for intelligent automation installation, testing, and training. ...

Not Now, Not Later, Not Ever

     A Richmond, VA television station reports on a local case. SSI disability benefits were approved almost immediately for a child with a rare genetic disorder but the case has been sitting at the local Social Security field office for five months awaiting payment. 

    Undoubtedly, there's some complication. Anything complicated goes into the "Not now, not later, not ever" pile. They'll get to it when they have time but they never do. Why spend the time to complete action on one difficult case when you can easily process five uncomplicated cases in the same amount of time? Except that in this case they will because the case has been publicized.

    Is this happening because the Social Security employees are lazy? No, they're just overwhelmed with work and they're judged based upon the raw number of cases they complete. There's constant pressure to produce numbers. The easiest way to produce numbers is to work on the easiest cases first and let the difficult cases pile up. It makes sense from the point of view of an individual employee or manager but it's a horribly unfair situation as I expect those employees and managers know.

    By the way, when I say we're at the "Not now, not later, not ever" stage, I'm not exaggerating. I've got a fee petition pending at a payment center for more than three years. It's gathering dust because they're busy with other things, like answering Social Security's 800 number and the agency isn't tracking fee petitions. When are they ever going to be not so busy? It would take a major political change.

Appropriations Bill Advances In Senate

 

    From Government Executive:

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday advanced spending legislation that would increase the Social Security Administration’s administrative budget by $500 million, setting up a standoff with the House. ...

That figure would fall short of the $15.4 billion requested by the Biden administration in the president’s fiscal 2025 budget proposal, but it is around $1 billion more than the $13.7 billion slated for the agency under the GOP-controlled House’s version of the legislation. ...

Headcount Inches Down

    The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has finally posted updated numbers showing the headcount of employees at each agency as of the fourth quarter of 2023. 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 December with earlier headcount numbers for comparison:

• December, 2023 60,343
  
• September, 2023 61,410
  
• June, 2023 60,726
  
• March, 2023  59,400
• December, 2022 58,916
  
• September, 2022 57,754
  
• June, 2022 58,332
  
• March, 2022 59,257
  
• December, 2021 60,422
  
• December 2020 61,816
  
• 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