From Plansponsor:
The Retirement and Disability Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is set to close this week following the Social Security Administration’s cuts to research funding that were announced in February.J. Michael Collins, who led the university’s research center, says the center “is making final close-out paperwork this week” and is “no longer operational.” Wisconsin’s research center was the second center in the retirement and disability research consortium to close in as many weeks, after the National Bureau of Economic Research Retirement and Disability Research Center shut down last week.The SSA cuts terminated 19 projects at the University of Wisconsin’s center, affecting 100 scholars. The cuts also led to cuts of 100 planned projects through 2029, mainly research that concerned people who rely on Social Security, such as children and people living with a disability, according to the university’s website. …
The RDRC at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, which collaborates with Brandeis University and the University of Baltimore, lost funding for at least 13 projects as a result of the SSA’s funding cuts, according to Nancy Miller, the center’s co-director …
At Boston College’s RDRC, the center also had to cut projects that were about halfway completed, but it was able to secure independent funding for additional projects, according to Andrew Eschtruth, the director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. The university continues to seek more funders to fill the gap created by the cuts …
15 comments:
Sounds like a big waste of money.
A lot of the research mentioned on this blog was funded by these research centers, including work to understand who the claimants are, what their income and health was, why they claimed or not, etc. It gave lawyers, advocates, Congress, SSA info to make the programs better rather than worse. Now everyone is flying blinder and dumber. And the agency can't spend this money on anything other than research, so there's no savings by defunding the research.
Research center? I wonder why they never researched why so much of what we see in disability decisions is not supported by any empirical evidence. I have never seen a DDS doctor or ALJ refer to any study, articles, "research," etc. that supports how long a person with certain conditions can sit, stand, walk, etc. I would really like to see some empirical evidence that support the oft seen conclusion that everyone with carpal tunnel can finger and handle for 2/3 of a workday on a regular and consistent basis. I suspect this "research center" was just another government boondoggle.
Sounds like you’re an ignorant tool! These research groups exist because SSA and other federal agencies fail at doing it themselves. Sunlight is the best disinfectant and this administration is all about hiding the truth.
Well, considering the trajectory of SSA is a progressing decay by neglect, the research is a huge waste. It would be another thing if somebody, somewhere in Congress cared enough to properly staff the agency and maintain the trust fund. There's nobody. And there's been nobody on either side of the aisle with a serious plan for decades. It's like this research is studying the best arrangement of deckchairs on the titanic.
Is ORDES and ORES cut as well?
Abolished. Both. Staff decimated due to “vol” retirement and reassignment remaining folks folded into operations research
You're not going to see that in an ALJ decision, per HALLEX 01280.025: "When writing or reviewing a draft decision, an ALJ will not use . . . Medical texts or publications as the authority for resolving an issue."
So instead of empirical evidence, we get simply guesses, speculation, or whatever DDS or the ALJ needs to get the decision they want. That is really how this works, isn't it? I doubt there is any other legitimate legal proceeding that would permit such. I suspect the agency has never considered basing these decisions on empirical evidence because they know they would be approving more claims. The agency wants a system where DDS and the ALJ are free to deny claims without actually having to rely on real proof as to what a claimant can or cannot do. It's really all just smoke and mirrors. Farce is another word that comes to mind. Arbitrary and capricious would be the appropriate legal terms.
There are tens of thousands of disease processes with endless variation in severity and effects. So anyone claiming it’s possible to “prove” empirically what a given person with a given combination of conditions can lift, carry, etc. is lying, delusional or just plain dumb.
"I am eligible, had the research not been cut, you'd see that!" Will be a go-to line in an appeal. One cannot deny the facts (or lack there of). Research stops? An excellent excuse to use. Then the burden falls on the claimant, but due to funding cuts and when research is stopped, it potentially shifts the weight in an appeal toward the claimant, their doctors and the law experts..... and leaves SSA with egg on their face.
Policy should be guided by good research. As SSA abandons good research by eliminating the internal jobs and outside grants that produce it, SSA’s new policies will rightly be subjected to challenges in courts which will much more likely be successful. Why should any court give deference to SSA agency expertise, when the agency is systematically abandoning the research that gives it expertise?
You have described an excellent albeit very expensive research programme. What is the connection between health status and function/earning capacity? that requires a lot oif medical/epidemiological expertise. The research centers in questions are mostly about economic/social science issues. The RDRCs are something like a $15m/yr investment. This is a $100's m/yr question.
I think they are now organized under the CIO as nuts as that sounds.
This research almost nothing to do with disability determination
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