Don't Mess With Social Security

 

    The French government may soon fall because it has tried to ram through changes in social security benefits in that country. This will be the first time a French government has fallen due to a no confidence vote since 1962.

China Raising Retirement Age

     From NPR:

... Starting next year, China will raise its retirement age for workers, which is now among the youngest in the world's major economies, in an effort to address its shrinking population and aging work force. ...

The policy change will be carried out over 15 years, with the retirement age for men raised to 63 years, and for women to 55 or 58 years depending on their jobs. The current retirement age is 60 for men and 50 for women in blue-collar jobs and 55 for women doing white-collar work. ...

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.

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.

U.S. Retirement Systems Score Poorly

     From Michael Hiltzik writing for the Los Angeles Times:

Back in my school days, a “C” grade was a certification of rank mediocrity. That’s the right way to think about a recent scorecard on which the U.S. retirement system scored an inexcusably deficient C+.

That grade placed the U.S. behind Netherlands, Iceland and Israel (all A’s); and Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Finland, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland (all solid B’s or B+). If you’re looking for bragging rights, the U.S. came in about even with France.

The scores come to us from the business consulting firm Mercer, which ranked 47 national pension systems for its Global Pension Index on standards such as adequacy, sustainability (including the reliability of funding) and integrity (such as the regulation of private pension providers). ...

Among the particular shortcomings of the American system identified by the Mercer team is that it leaves too many workers out in the cold, including gig workers and lower-income blue-collar employees. ...

But if you’re hoping that things will improve for American retirees in the near future, the accession of Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) to the post of House speaker should give you pause. Johnson is a long-term advocate of cutting Social Security and Medicare benefits through changes such as raising the retirement and eligibility ages for the programs.

He also has advocated scrutinizing the cost of those programs through a “bipartisan debt commission” that inevitably would place them in the deficit-reduction cauldron along with other spending. After his rise to the speaker’s chair Wednesday, Johnson immediately promised to create this panel. ...

Could This Sort Of Thing Happen Here? It Already Is!

     From Government Executive:

...  In Australia, the government set off on a radical plan to reduce overpayment of government benefits in 2016. ...

The Australian government had been manually searching for overpayments in programs for retirees, people with disabilities and students, among others. The 2016 program used algorithms to search out overpayments and send the bills. Christened “Robodebt,” the algorithm checked each individual’s payment against the average income of people in similar circumstances. If the algorithm determined that the person was likely overpaid by the government, it generated a bill.

Robodebt allowed the government to review 20,000 cases per week, instead of the 20,000 cases per year in the manual system it replaced. Government officials no longer had to contact employers to obtain data on employment history and payroll amounts, and the government no longer had to prove an individual had been overpaid. Instead, individuals had to prove that they had received the correct amount. If individuals didn’t pay quickly, debt collectors went to work.

The government launched Robodebt fast and claimed credit for catching recipients who had benefited from mistakes in the system. But many people receiving the notices were distraught. They often had to come up with big payments in just a few weeks. Some people had to sell their cars or take out loans, which was a huge burden on some of the country’s neediest residents. Others drained their meager savings. At least three people committed suicide, a Royal Commission found in a devastating 1,000-page report.

An investigation revealed that some repayment notices were incorrect. Some simply were false. Moreover, a 2019 court challenge found that Robodebt had violated important provisions of Australian law.

In July 2023, the Royal Commission pointed to “Robodebt’s unfairness, probable illegality, and cruelty.” When problems surfaced along the way, the commission concluded, “the path taken was to double down, to go on the attack in the media against those who complained and to maintain the falsehood that in fact the system had not changed at all” from the previous system. ...

    Could this happen here? To a great extent, it already is happening. Republicans, abetted by Social Security's Office of Inspector General, have long implied that all overpayments are the result of fraud and that the agency must be merciless in collecting these debts. Recently they have been blaming the agency for not creating overpayments automatically based upon data from payroll companies. Already, there is no statute of limitations, those informed of alleged overpayments are given no information about how the alleged overpayments occurred, and all benefit payments are seized until the desperate claimant asks for a repayment schedule. It's harsh by design despite the fact that the agency often has no basis in fact for asserting an overpayment and many overpayments are due to mistakes made by Social Security. The current attitude is that if the computer says there's an overpayment, there must be an overpayment. It could all get worse with artificial intelligence.

Social Security Protests Continue In France

     From CNN:

Clashes erupted in Paris on Monday marking May 1, a traditional day of union-led marches, in the wake of hugely unpopular changes to France’s pension system that were signed into law last month.

A building caught fire at Place de la Nation as the French capital turned into a pitched battle between protesters and riot police.

Around 112,000 people took part in Monday’s protest in the French capital, said Paris Police. It is the second-highest turnout since demonstrations against pension reform began this year, according to CNN affiliate BFMTV.

A CNN team on the ground reported chaotic scenes from the protests, having witnessed fireworks and other projectiles thrown at the police who answered with tear gas as they retreated and regrouped. ...

Police charged at protesters under the cover of a water cannon and were confronted with a barrage of fireworks and stones torn from the square. ...

More than 100 policemen were injured in May Day protests, he added, including 19 in Paris with one policeman suffering serious burns from a molotov cocktail. ...

Continued Turmoil In France Over Plan To Increase Retirement Age

     From the New York Times:

President Emmanuel Macron vowed to stay the course on Tuesday after his government barely survived a no-confidence vote in Parliament that ensured the passage of his unpopular pension overhaul but did little to quell the swirling political uncertainty about the future of his second term. ...

Despite months of massive street protests and strikes, Mr. Macron has not said much publicly about his pension overhaul, which increases the legal retirement age to 64, from 62, and he had mostly left members of his cabinet to defend it. ...

With 278 votes in favor, the main no-confidence motion on Monday fell only nine votes short of succeeding — a much smaller margin than initially expected, and a sign that Mr. Macron’s political troubles are far from over.

Even some lawmakers within Mr. Macron’s own party, Renaissance, have expressed reservations the pension changes, and a few have gone so far as to suggest he should try to calm the country by setting aside the pension overhaul instead of forging ahead with it. ...

Turmoil In France Over Attempt To Raise Retirement Age

     From CBC:

French unions stepped up their fight against President Emmanuel Macron's pension reform plans on Tuesday as most trains came to a halt, fuel deliveries were disrupted and schools shut in a sixth day of nationwide strikes.

To increase pressure on lawmakers not to raise the pension age by two years to 64, unions said there would be rolling strikes this time, which could go on for days, including at oil refineries and railways.

Street protests are expected to take place in more than 300 towns and cities. ...

Garbage collectors and truck drivers joined the strike, in a sign the protests were spreading to more sectors. ...

Rallies are planned across France after more than 1.27 million people took part in previous protests on Jan. 31. ...

There were reports of students blocking schools while BFM-TV showed footage of workers abandoning cars on the side of the road near Amiens in northern France as others blocked access to an industrial zone. ...

Raising Retirement Age Unpopular In France

     From the Associated Press:

An estimated 1.27 million people took to the streets of French cities, towns and villages Tuesday, according to the Interior Ministry, in new massive protests against the government’s key pension reform plans. ...

The nationwide strikes and protests were a crucial test both for President Emmanuel Macron and his opponents. The government says it is determined to push through Macron’s election pledge to reform France’s pension system. And strong popular resentment will strengthen efforts by labor unions and left-wing legislators to block the bill, which would raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. ...

Rail operator SNCF said most train services were knocked out in the Paris region, in all other regions and on France’s flagship high-speed network linking cities and major towns. The Paris Metro was also hard hit by station closures and cancellations.

Power workers also demonstrated their support for the strikes by temporarily reducing electricity supplies, without causing blackouts, power producer EDF said. ...

Now, How About Doing The Same In The U.S.?

     From Reuters:

Tech giant Uber (UBER.N) and delivery apps DiDi and Rappi have proposed offering [Mexican] social security benefits to workers in Mexico for the first time ahead of a new government bill set to regulate the gig economy.

The companies said in a statement on Wednesday, co-signed by worker-rights activist groups, they were open to covering drivers and couriers who work an average of more than 40 hours a week on one or more platforms.

They stopped short of agreeing to classify drivers as employees, however, and few details were given on how payments towards social security costs would be divided.

Mexican Labor Minister Luisa Alcalde has said officials are working on a bill that would bring gig workers into the "formal economy," although the timeline is still unclear. ...

Russia-Ukraine War And Social Security

     You might think that the war between Russia and Ukraine would have no effect upon the Social Security Administration but you'd be wrong. The agency has put out an Emergency Message to staff because the war has prevented some immigrants to this country from accessing pensions and resources in Russia. This affects Supplemental Security Income benefits.

Social Security Benefits Suspended Because Of The Pandemic

U.S.-Mexico Border Crossing In Normal Times

      I received a message recently from a woman whose Social Security benefits have been suspended because of the pandemic. (Note the contact form on the right side of this page which allows you to send me a message, anonymously if you wish.) You may wonder how Covid-19 could lead to suspension of benefits but you'll see how this is happening.

     This woman was receiving widows benefits on the account of her late husband who was a U.S. citizen but she's not a U.S. citizen. She's a Mexican national living in Mexico. A somewhat odd provision of the Social Security Act says that she can only receive dependent benefits while living outside the U.S. if she comes to the U.S. on a regular basis, either at least once every 30 days or at least once every six months if she stays in the U.S. at least 30 days. 42 U.S.C. §402(t). Before the pandemic, this wasn't a problem for her. I don't know her circumstances but she probably lives near the border. In normal times, she might have crossed the border frequently to visit family or friends or do some shopping but border crossings are now limited to "essential travel" so she can't visit the U.S. which means her widows benefits are suspended.

     The provision cutting off this woman's benefits doesn't apply if the U.S. has a Social Security treaty with the other country providing an exception. 42 U.S.C. §402(t)(3). The U.S. has a Social Security treaty with seven countries providing an exception but not with Mexico. We might have a Social Security treaty with Mexico covering this issue except that some years ago Republicans got word that the U.S. had negotiated a Social Security treaty with Mexico and went ballistic, spewing ridiculous lies about what a Social Security treaty with Mexico would mean. A Social Security treaty with Mexico would only address boring, uncontroversial issues such as this lady's situation, avoiding double taxation of wages, mutual assistance between social security agencies, totalizing wages for a handful of people who have legally worked on both sides of the border but who couldn't otherwise qualify for benefits in either country, etc. The result of the Republican lies is that the treaty that was negotiated in 2004 has never been officially approved and that for years Social Security's appropriations have included a provision that no money can be used to implement a Social Security agreement with Mexico. 

     I think it is long past time to approve the U.S.-Mexico Social Security agreement and remove the restrictive provision in Social Security's appropriations. Quit appeasing the racists.

     I also wonder about the provision in 42 U.S.C.§402(t)(2) that says that the limitation on paying benefits to non-resident non-U.S. nationals doesn't apply if the "Commissioner of Social Security finds [that the other country] has in effect a social insurance or pension system which is of general application" and meets certain requirements. I know that Mexico has a social security system but I don't know enough about it to say whether it technically meets the requirements of this provision. I can't even find a list of countries who do qualify under this provision. I'd be grateful if somebody could point me to a list.

     By the way, don't waste your time trying to post racist MAGA crap in response to this. I'll never allow it to show up.

If You Want Social Security Service, Fly Off To The Caribbean!

      From a press release:

... A representative from the Federal Benefits Unit at the US Embassy in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic will be available at the Embassy in L’Anse Aux Epines, St George [Grenada] to discuss all social security matters, including non receipt of payments, direct deposits, social security applications, retirement applications and general inquiries, by appointment only from 29 June to 2 July. ...

     I think the Federal Benefits Units people are employed by State Department. In any case, it seems odd that a U.S. citizen can get an appointment to discuss Social Security matters with a federal employee at a U.S. Embassy overseas but the same U.S. citizen can't get a similar appointment with Social Security in the U.S.

Appellate Decision On Application Of Windfall Offset To Canadian Social Security Benefits

      From the Indiana Lawyer:

A split 7th Circuit Court of Appeals panel affirmed a grant of summary judgment to the Social Security Administration on Monday in a class-action suit brought by a Canadian woman with dual citizenship who alleged her U.S. Social Security benefits were wrongly reduced based on similar benefits she receives from Canada.

Lorraine Beeler, a dual citizen of Canada and the United States, has established nearly 20-year careers in both countries and receives monthly retirement benefits from the Canada Pension Plan, that country’s equivalent to U.S. Social Security. She also worked at jobs on which she paid Social Security taxes in the United States.

Beeler’s earnings in Canada were not subject to Social Security taxes, and her earnings in the United States were not subject to Canada Pension Plan taxes. But Beeler ran into a problem after she alleges her Social Security benefits were wrongly withheld. She then sued the Social Security Administration in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana in the class action case of Lorraine Beeler v. Andrew M. Saul, 19-2099. 

There, Beeler asserted that the reduction of her U.S. benefits is a violation of two Social Security provisions: The Windfall Elimination Provision and the U.S.-Canada totalization agreement. The class claims that both the statutory language of the WEP and the terms of the agreement prohibit the reduction of Beeler’s benefits. ...

The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals split in affirming the district court’s decision, with the majority concluding the agency correctly ruled that plaintiffs’ Canadian employment was noncovered under the Social Security Act, and thus the provision applied to reduce their Social Security benefits. ...

But Circuit Judge Amy St. Eve dissented from the majority’s opinion, finding that its analysis “rests on an unsupported premise to exclude Beeler’s work from the definition of employment. ...

     I'm a little surprised that we're just now getting litigation on this issue. I suppose the reason there hasn't been litigation is that most of the time the U.S. Social Security Administration cannot apply the offset because it has no knowledge that a claimant is receiving foreign social security benefits.

     By the way, I think it would have been better if this case had not been brought as a class action. When there were more class actions against Social Security than there are now, the practice was to win an individual case and THEN bring the class action in another case with a different named plaintiff so that Social Security could raise nothing other than procedural defenses. Don't put all your eggs in one basket until you have to.

Sounds Trumpy

      From a POMS Transmittal Sheet:

... The Social Security Administration (SSA) disbanded the Office of International Programs, which was responsible for negotiating and implementing bilateral Social Security agreements, and merged the office into various components throughout SSA Headquarters. SSA transferred the certificate of coverage workload to the Office of Central Operations, Office of Earnings and International Operations. The Office of Data Exchange and Policy Publication absorbed the totalization negotiation and implementation workloads and was renamed the Office of Data Exchange, Policy Publications, and International Negotiations (ODEPPIN). ...

     Many people have work careers that span more than one country. Preventing situations where such people end up without social security benefits in any country is important to all nations. Many American companies have employees overseas. Many overseas companies have employees in the United States.  Avoiding double taxation of wages for social security is important to all nations. All of this will become more and more important as time goes along. "America First" only gets you so far. We need more bilateral social security agreements. We're lacking agreements with Mexico, India, Argentina, the Philippines and Israel, to name just a few countries. This isn't about giving anyone, especially foreign nationals, special benefits. It's basic equity for Americans who spend part of their employment careers working outside the U.S. and for American companies who do business overseas.

A Minimum 2.5% COLA Every Year: If The UK Can Do It, Why Can’t We?

     From Forbes:

In the United States, Social Security benefits increase in line with inflation, that is the CPI-W. Presumed Democratic nominee Joe Biden, as well as others advocating for boosts for recipients, support a shift to a special (but currently experimental) windex for elderly-specific inflation. Others support a shift to the “chained-CPI” in which weightings are adjusted whenever people shift their buying patterns due to disproportionate price hikes (e.g., buying more chicken, less beef, means that the lower CPI for chicken would be more relevant than the higher CPI for beef, in a “chained” calculation). But ...  the U.S. is actually in the minority, in terms of developed countries, in adjusting its Social Security benefits solely based on inflation; other countries are likely to use wage increases or a combination of both inflation and wage increases. (Should the United States make such a change? In a perfect world, maybe — but it’s hardly practical when we’re still unable to make the necessary changes to restore the system to sustainability in the first place.) 

But the UK goes even further: its pensions increase each year by the greater of inflation, the average wage increase, or 2.5%. ...

Social Security Reform Proposal Draws Widespread Protests In Brazil

     From Xinhua:

Brazilians took to the streets on Friday for a nationwide massive protest against the social security reform proposed by the government. 

According to local media, there were protests in at least 190 towns in all Brazilian states.

As a full strike was called, buses halted in 19 state capitals, subway and urban train workers in several cities joined the strike, classes were cancelled in public schools and many private schools in at least 23 state capitals, and road blockades were seen in the country. ...

Annual Statistical Supplement Out

     The Social Security Administration has issued its annual grand compendium of statistical information, the Annual Statistical Supplement For 2018. 

     By the way, did you know that 60,293 people are receiving benefits under the U.S.-Japan Social Security totalization agreement? That's more than even the U.S.-Canada agreement, the most of any country.

How Do Other Countries Handle Vocational Factors In Disability Determination?

     The most recent edition of the Social Security Bulletin, the Social Security Administration's scholarly journal, contains an article titled Vocational Factors in Disability Claim Assessment: A Comparative Survey of 11 Countries by David Raines and Tony Notaro. Basically, they find what you might expect -- significant differences among the countries. Here's a table from the piece.

Click on image to view full size. OECD is the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

     Here's the authors' summary of how the U.S. compares to other countries:

...[W]e note the following significant differences between U.S. disability programs and those of most of the other sampled countries:

• U.S. programs do not extend eligibility to claimants with partial and/or temporary disabilities;
• Workers in many other countries receive sickness benefits for 1 year or longer before becoming eligible to claim long-term disability benefits;
• Although SSA assesses residual work capacity in the later stages of the five-step U.S. process, many of the other countries conduct their assessment in the initial determination phase; and
• Several other countries involve the claimant's employer in the assessment process.

We also note the following significant attributes that the U.S. disability programs share with those of other countries:

• The assessment is carried out in sequential steps (although agencies in other countries do not always spell out those steps quite as definitively as does SSA); and
• Medical experts are consulted to confirm diagnoses and evaluate disablement....

 To briefly summarize our findings on each VF [Vocational Factor], we observe that:

Age is not used in the disability determination processes of most of the countries we survey. The use of age as an explicit factor in determining whether certain claimants are disabled (as in step 5 of the U.S. sequential evaluation process) is rare. However, age is considered in determining eligibility for certain sickness and partial- or long-term disability programs. In general, advancing age is thought to increase the likelihood of disablement, and therefore increase the claimant's chance to receive a benefit. Sweden uses age in determining program eligibility and Australia uses age in deciding the frequency of reassessment for disability benefit eligibility.

Education is generally not directly considered during disability determination. The United States is the most notable exception, directly considering education in step 5 of its sequential evaluation process. Likewise, Denmark and the Netherlands consider education in determining the claimant's ability to perform other work in the general economy. In the same way, formal schooling or training may suggest a claimant's ability to undertake available vocational or rehabilitative options or employment opportunities.

Work experience is considered in the disability determination processes in each of the surveyed countries. Work experience is a central factor in assessing a claimant's transferable skills, which in turn constitute a central component of the RFC assessment that drives many disability assessment procedures.