Disability Examiners Getting Authority To Issue Allowances Without Medical Consultant Input

      From Emergency Message EM-25009 issued last Friday:

This emergency message (EM) provides the Disability Determination Services (DDS) and federal disability adjudicating components with disability case processing guidance for Disability Examiner Decisional Authority (DEDA). DEDA will temporarily allow qualifying disability examiners to make fully favorable disability determinations in adult cases based on physical impairments alone without medical review by medical consultants (MC), but with the flexibility to consult with an MC at the disability examiner’s discretion. 

These temporary instructions apply to initial level claims, including initial-level claims pending at the DDS and federal disability case processing sites (DPB, DPU, etc.).

The Social Security Administration (SSA) faces unprecedented initial disability claims backlogs surpassing the 1.12 million case mark, resulting in high average processing times and claimant wait times. A contributing factor to the increase in average processing time is the general requirement that qualified physicians, psychiatrists, and psychologists (referred to in our policy as medical consultants (MC) and psychological consultants (PC)) complete the medical review of all initial level disability determinations combined with an insufficient number of MCs and PCs. See Section 221(h).…. 

     If this issue comes up in your confirmation hearing, Frank Bisignano, what say you?

New Acting Commissioner

     Social Security’s organization chart now shows Michelle King as Acting Commissioner.

Inauguration Day

 

Good Luck Implementing This

      From the New York Times:

The U.S. government will no longer recognize the citizenship of children born in the United States to immigrants who lack legal status, one of 10 immigration-related executive orders President-elect Donald Trump plans to sign Monday, an incoming administration official told reporters. 

     I can think of no immediate way to implement this other than by refusing to issue Social Security numbers to the children of those who lack legal status. Of course, Trump and his aides may not have thought that far ahead.

     This is blatantly unconstitutional. 

Republicans Have Big Plans To Cut SSI

    Punchbowl News has obtained a list of options prepared by Republicans for a major budget reconciliation bill this year. There's nothing in it for Title II of the Social Security Act but plenty for Title XVI -- SSI. Here they are:

• ... Under current law, SSA is not required to verify financial accounts of SSI applicants and recipients who allege ownership of resources valued at less than $400. A recent SSA-OIG report concluded that this practice led to incorrect resource determinations, resulting in 198,960 recipients receiving $718 million in SSI payments for which they were not eligible. This policy option would lower the $400 resource-level tolerance to $0 and require SSA to validate the financial accounts of all SSI applicants and recipients, strengthening program integrity and reducing improper payments. ...
• Children under 18 may qualify for SSI if they are disabled and their household has limited income and resources. This policy option would condition SSI benefits for qualified children under the age of 18 on school attendance. ...
• SSI, unlike other welfare programs, does not pay benefits on a sliding scale. Recognizing household economies of scale, this reform (based on a CBO budget option) converts SSI payments to a sliding scale. The sliding scale formula would be (as per the CBO budget option and proposed by the 1995 National Commission on Childhood Disability): SSI federal payment rate multiplied by the number of child recipients in the family and raised to the power of 0. ...
• Deny SSI to Those with Felony Arrest Warrants -- In addition to being an important program integrity measure, this policy option would help restore the original intent of PRWORA to discontinue SSI benefits for individuals who are ‘‘the subject of an arrest warrant’’ compared to the previous language of ‘‘fleeing to avoid’’ arrest. It would also have the added benefit of helping law enforcement find criminals who have been evading the law. ...
  

Waiting In Virginia

      From WTVR in Richmond, VA:

For the past year, Lowrine Ford's pain has only gotten worse.

"It's hard. I'm in pain all the time," she said. "I sleep about three hours a night because I'm hurting all the time. My feet, my legs stay swollen. I can't hardly walk at times. I'm in so much pain."

Rheumatoid arthritis causes her joints to swell, burn, and ache, making her job as a home health aide — where she is constantly on her feet — nearly impossible.

And for the better part of a year, she has been waiting to hear from the Social Security Administration (SSA) whether she qualifies for disability benefits.

She is near despair. ..

“It's very hectic. I had been calling them for months and months. But every time I call, they tell me — this computer comes on and says, 'We're not accepting calls today. Call back another day,'" she said.

On top of the difficulty in finding someone to help her, the SSA has sent her conflicting signals.

"Then finally, when I do call back, and actually get somebody, they tell me that, on August the 23rd of last year, I was denied," Ford said. "And so they say I was denied, but I didn't get any kind of paperwork or anything saying that I was denied."

But while Ford never got documentation from the SSA about her denial, her online account continued to show a different story.

"They had I was in 'Phase Three,'" Ford said. "They were reviewing my medical history. And then after all of this, it goes to 'Phase Four.' Now it's back on 'Phase Three' again. So I really don't know what to do. I'm very confused, to be honest with you.” …

Estes Named Chairman Of House Social Security Subcommittee

     Ron Estes (R-KS) has been named Chairman of the House Social Security Subcommittee. Here's his statement on his new position:

Too many Americans have had difficulties with the Social Security Administration, including improper payments, missed payments, filing issues and other customer service failings,” said Social Security Subcommittee Chairman Estes (KS-04). “As our subcommittee convenes, I look forward to providing greater oversight of the SSA and addressing process improvements while working to ensure frontline employees are back in the office. I’m honored to lead the Social Security Subcommittee for the 119th Congress and to foster meaningful, robust discussion to preserve and protect the benefits of current, near and future retirees.

Maybe The Original Change In The Listing Was A Bad Idea

     From a notice published in the Federal Register today:

We are extending the flexibility in the “close proximity of time” standard, as defined in two prior temporary final rules (TFR), through May 11, 2029. We issued a TFR providing the “close proximity of time” flexibility on July 23, 2021, because the COVID-19 national public health emergency (PHE) caused many individuals to experience barriers that prevented them from timely accessing in-person healthcare. On September 29, 2023, we extended the flexibility to evaluate evolving healthcare practices and consumption in a post-PHE environment. We determined that we need additional time to fully evaluate still-evolving healthcare practices after the PHE. We are therefore issuing this TFR to extend the “close proximity of time” flexibility until May 11, 2029, so we can continue to evaluate changes in healthcare practices and determine the proper “close proximity of time” standard for the musculoskeletal disorders listings.

    Let me check. I don't think Trump will still be President on May 11, 2029, assuming we follow the Constitution, which may be an uncertain thing.

Nasty Congressional Hearing With O’Malley

      From The Hill:

Martin O’Malley, the former Social Security commissioner who is now seeking to chair the Democratic National Committee, took the brunt of House GOP anger over federal telework policies – and a number of other topics – in a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing on Thursday [actually Wednesday].

Republicans primarily took aim at O’Malley’s role in overseeing a late 2024 deal between the Social Security Administration (SSA) and its workers’ union, the American Federation of Government Employees, that will lock in the current levels of telework for union employees until October 2029 – beyond the end of the Trump administration.  …

O’Malley’s bid to be chair of the Democratic National Committee was also brought up multiple times by Republicans, with some bringing up topics far removed from the issue of federal telework. 

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), who has become a leading anti-transgender voice in Congress,  asked O’Malley to define what a woman is.

“You’re going to ask me to define what a woman is?” O’Malley asked. “I’m talking to a woman right now, a distinguished woman … I think you’re kind of denigrating the purpose of this hearing.”

I'm Glad There's A Serious Discussion Of This Issue

     From Twitter or officially "X."

Good Tax Planning

    From Urban Milwaukee:

2020 was a profitable year for Fiserv, the financial services company located in Brookfield. The company earned $1.1 billion in pre-tax earnings on revenue of $14.85 billion.

Even better, it paid not a dollar in federal taxes on those earnings.

Still better, it actually got a tax rebate from the IRS, of $25 million, increasing its net income for the year.

    As you will recall, Frank Bisignano, who has been nominated to become Commissioner of Social Security, is CEO of Fiserv.

Explain To Me How There Could Possibly Be Money In This

     From a press release:

... United States Magistrate Judge Embry J. Kidd has found Joshua Joseph Gray (45, New Smyrna Beach) and George Douglas Metz (51, Belleview) guilty of unlawfully video recording and failing to comply with official signs and directives inside multiple Social Security field offices. ...

According to evidence presented at trial, on various dates between November 2022 and January 2023, Gray and Metz each entered three different Social Security field offices in Central Florida while video recording. Gray and Metz continued to video record despite being informed by official signage and Social Security representatives that video recording is prohibited in Social Security offices without prior permission. ... Gray and Metz subsequently posted their video recordings, which depicted members of the public and Social Security representatives conducting business, on their public YouTube channels, where Gray and Metz were paid for their videos and solicited donations. ...

GOP Asking Questions

      Ways and Means Republicans are asking questions about implementation of the WEP/GPO bill, including whether the agency needs more money to implement it. About time they start asking questions.

     By the way, I don’t see why this letter is only signed by Republicans other than the fact that almost all civility has broken down in the House of Representatives. 

Implementation Of WEP/GPO Elimination

     I've sorta asked the question before but never received what I thought was a definitive answer. To what extent will the elimination of WEP/GPO require manual recomputations? How much of this can be done through IT? These are important questions.

    If there will be manual recomputations, I'm going to be upset if they take priority over Social Security straightening out my clients' windfall offsets and workers compensation offsets and other such routine issues. The WEP/GPO people can take their turn in line like everybody else. If it takes six months or longer, and it will if these folks aren't granted priority, welcome to the reality of what the Social Security Administration is today.

Dwindling Number Of ALJs

     Notice that unless more Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) are hired we will be below 1,000 ALJs in a few months. At one point, there were almost 2,000 ALJs at Social Security.

From Social Security. Click on image to view full size.

And Finally The Discussions Of Practicalities Begin

      From The Hill:

 On Jan. 5, President Biden signed into law the Social Security Fairness Act, which will provide new or additional Social Security benefits for about 3 million individuals who receive government pensions from jobs not covered by Social Security. …

The Social Security Administration (SSA) will now need to quickly scramble and begin issuing large back payments to millions of individuals. 

Complicating the issue, SSA received its administrative budget via a continuing resolution with no provision for the potentially large start-up costs to implement the legislation. SSA’s administrative budget has been in sharp decline over several years, and the agency recently testified before Congress that it now has “one of the lowest staffing levels in 50 years.” 

It is unlikely SSA has the bandwidth to implement the new benefit structure seamlessly, quickly and correctly.

Watch Out

 

   Despite specific language in the 14th Amendment making anyone born in the United States a U.S. citizen, the incoming Trump Administration seems determined to try to deny citizenship to those born in the U.S. to parents who were not in the U.S. legally. One crucial way of doing this would be to refuse to issue Social Security numbers to children whose parents aren't in the U.S. legally.

    I think it would be a big job to investigate the immigration/citizenship status of the parents of every baby born in the U.S. The Social Security Administration isn't ready for such a task. The public isn't ready for the delays that would be associated with this. Still, watch out. This could be coming as early as January 21, 2025.

Why Have Republicans Not Liked Stephen Goss?

     Until George W. Bush was President, I don't think any Republicans had noticed Social Security's Chief Actuary, Stephen Goss, who has just retired. He was holding a technical, non-political job. He started work for Social Security in 1973 and had been the Chief Actuary since 2001. Actuaries can argue among themselves about issues around the edge of their profession but the numbers are the numbers. It should matter little which competent person holds the position.

    You may remember that W. wanted to privatize Social Security. W. would have preferred it if Goss had supported that effort. The problem was that W. never really had a plan to privatize Social Security. He inherited a lot including an ancestral Republican hatred of Social Security but hating it doesn't mean you have a plan to replace it with something better. Instead of a plan, all W. had was a certainty that Social Security was terrible and that there had to be some way to privatize it that would be much better and that they'd figure out a plan later. It was impossible for Goss to do what W. wanted -- score W.'s plan to privatize Social Security in a way that helped advance the plan. In fact, it was impossible for him to score it at all since there never was a plan. In any case, Goss never regarded making recommendations on significant policy proposals to be part of his job duties, much less shading the numbers to help or hurt a President's preferred policy proposals.

    Do we really want to replace a widely respected non-partisan actuary with someone who fudges the numbers to help the current Administration?

Biden To Sign WEP/GPO Bill Today

     The Associated Press is reporting that President Biden will sign into law today the bill to end the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset.

WEP/GPO Bill To Be Signed On Monday?

     The rumor is that the President will sign the bill ending the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset on Monday.