Guess what, the clown CS who has worked for SSA for 20 years. Just released a underpayment without verifying any income or resources because the underpayment was less than $15k
It would be nice if we actually had time to take care of our neighbors so desperately in need. But the program integrity, money that Congress gives us basically ties our hands into doing reviews finding ways to kick people off of benefits, rather than having any time to actually get the cases done to put money in peoples hands.
Title XVI underpayments are a serious problem. I am impressed with his mentioning the need for installment payments as an issue for SSI, paternalism at its worse, but I heard nothing about changing this requirement.. But what about Title II underpayments. These are particularly bad with one class of cases involving Court Remands that get approved after a new hearing. In those case, there are underpayments that will often amount to well over $100,000 in cases where people have filed applications sometimes five or six yers in the past. And even after being approved by an ALJ waits of over a year for processing any payments at all are common. The Commissioner needs to address all Title II underpayments as well.
The SSI Restoration Act includes provisions that would end installment payments and extend the time people have to spend down retro benefits before they become countable resources. It's really important to do both of those changes together: if installment payments are eliminated but people still have 9 months to pay them down, there will be more overpayments and suspensions.
SSI Claims specialist here. I don’t recall every running across a case where a SSI claimant was still holding more than $2000 of their back pay 9 months later. I agree that time should be extended but there is little to no fallout if it’s not.
11:41, it's true that most SSI recipients don't have more than $2000 of back benefits 9 months after getting an installment...but that's because their first two installments are only about $2800 and their last installment is smaller because the first two were paid out. If more people start getting $20k, $30k, $50k lump sums (which would happen in some cases, especially with the long DDS processing times) more of them will go over resources. And as you know, SSI's resource limit is an all-or-nothing thing; it doesn't matter if they have $2001 or $20,001 because either way they're suspended and/or overpaid.
They already get those. It’s just at the third installment. If what you are saying is true we would find those overpayments at the first RZ when we do AFI and that is not happening. At least not often at all.
Retired T16 CTE here. Years ago, I pointed out to management that we had a large number of unprocessed underpayments that were supposedly being controlled by a diary date. The problem was, this particular diary never matured and every month, the date reset. So these underpayments never made it to any of management's radar since they never got old on paper and no one was working them. During one of those shutdown periods when Congress couldn't make up their mind about the budget, we as staff had to come to work as essential, but we could only work specific workloads, underpayment were included. So FINALLY management gave me time to review all those underpayments and it turned out that most of them were errors.
Guess what, the clown CS who has worked for SSA for 20 years. Just released a underpayment without verifying any income or resources because the underpayment was less than $15k
ReplyDeleteLove the soliloquy but how about addressing the staffing shortage in order to better address the publics needs. I’m still waiting for that video.
ReplyDeleteThat would be congress' job. The Commish can't address that unless he gets funding from them.
DeleteIt would be nice if we actually had time to take care of our neighbors so desperately in need. But the program integrity, money that Congress gives us basically ties our hands into doing reviews finding ways to kick people off of benefits, rather than having any time to actually get the cases done to put money in peoples hands.
ReplyDeleteTitle XVI underpayments are a serious problem. I am impressed with his mentioning the need for installment payments as an issue for SSI, paternalism at its worse, but I heard nothing about changing this requirement..
ReplyDeleteBut what about Title II underpayments. These are particularly bad with one class of cases involving Court Remands that get approved after a new hearing. In those case, there are underpayments that will often amount to well over $100,000 in cases where people have filed applications sometimes five or six yers in the past. And even after being approved by an ALJ waits of over a year for processing any payments at all are common. The Commissioner needs to address all Title II underpayments as well.
The SSI Restoration Act includes provisions that would end installment payments and extend the time people have to spend down retro benefits before they become countable resources. It's really important to do both of those changes together: if installment payments are eliminated but people still have 9 months to pay them down, there will be more overpayments and suspensions.
DeleteSSI Claims specialist here. I don’t recall every running across a case where a SSI claimant was still holding more than $2000 of their back pay 9 months later. I agree that time should be extended but there is little to no fallout if it’s not.
DeleteHow about a video on unrealistic workloads?
ReplyDelete11:41, it's true that most SSI recipients don't have more than $2000 of back benefits 9 months after getting an installment...but that's because their first two installments are only about $2800 and their last installment is smaller because the first two were paid out. If more people start getting $20k, $30k, $50k lump sums (which would happen in some cases, especially with the long DDS processing times) more of them will go over resources. And as you know, SSI's resource limit is an all-or-nothing thing; it doesn't matter if they have $2001 or $20,001 because either way they're suspended and/or overpaid.
ReplyDeleteThey already get those. It’s just at the third installment. If what you are saying is true we would find those overpayments at the first RZ when we do AFI and that is not happening. At least not often at all.
DeleteRetired T16 CTE here. Years ago, I pointed out to management that we had a large number of unprocessed underpayments that were supposedly being controlled by a diary date. The problem was, this particular diary never matured and every month, the date reset. So these underpayments never made it to any of management's radar since they never got old on paper and no one was working them. During one of those shutdown periods when Congress couldn't make up their mind about the budget, we as staff had to come to work as essential, but we could only work specific workloads, underpayment were included. So FINALLY management gave me time to review all those underpayments and it turned out that most of them were errors.
ReplyDelete