Extension Of eSignature

     From what must be a press release:

... SSA recently released the eSignature/Upload Documents initiative nationwide. This end-to-end secure service allows customers to electronically submit some frequently used forms, such as appeal requests (SSA-501 and SSA-561) and waiver of overpayment recovery (SSA-632). Customers can also submit evidence, including the VA Disability Rating Verification, medical and school records, bank statements, tax forms and many more.

Social Security employees initiate the request by sending an email to customers with the required form. In turn, customers review the request, electronically complete, then sign the form (if a signature is required) and submit directly to SSA. ...

    I guess they must be going nationwide for what had earlier just been an experiment in the Boston region. Why does this have to be initiated by a Social Security employee?

This Has Only Limited Relevance To Social Security But It's Wild

 

    From a press release:

Richard Louis Crosby III, 37, of Mason, Ohio, pleaded guilty to three counts of Social Security number fraud. His plea agreement includes a sentence recommendation of 37 months in prison.

At various times throughout his scheme, Crosby used identifying information belonging to his elderly father, his girlfriend, a deceased man and others. He falsely told at least one law firm that he was a University of Michigan football player and an ex-Marine. ...

In both June and November 2021, Crosby was indicted and charged in Hamilton County with crimes related to stealing client funds. After his indictments, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio entered an order disbarring Crosby.

In May 2022, Crosby was arrested in both of his Hamilton County cases. He was sentenced to probation in both cases in June 2023.

According to his federal plea agreement, while Crosby’s local cases were pending, he created an email account using “richardcwilliamsesq.” Crosby used the email address and the alias Richard Williams to communicate with a law firm in Washington D.C. in June 2021. The firm briefly employed “Williams.”

In June 2022 – at which point Crosby had been disbarred in Ohio and arrested on the Hamilton County charges – Crosby used his alias to apply online for an attorney position with a law firm in California. The firm offered Crosby a position as an associate attorney with a salary of $150,000. The defendant was employed under his alias for approximately three months and used a firm email address with his alias name.

In September 2022, Crosby used his alias to apply for an attorney position with a law firm based in Miami, Florida. Crosby met with a recruiter via Zoom, and represented himself as Richard Williams, a licensed attorney admitted to the bar in New York and D.C.

Crosby then met with one of the firm’s hiring managers in Florida and was ultimately offered employment in October 2022. His starting salary was $185,000 per year with a $5,000 signing bonus. Crosby used his girlfriend’s Social Security number, passport number and banking information to complete his onboarding paperwork at the law firm. ...

In July 2023, Crosby interviewed with the founding partner of a different California law firm. He also falsely claimed to work at the law firm of Kirkland and Ellis. After the founding partner asked Crosby to verify with whom he worked with at Kirkland and Ellis, Crosby withdrew his interest in the job.

A few days later, Crosby again used the alias to attempt to obtain employment. He interviewed over Zoom with senior management of a law firm located in Coral Gables, Florida. Crosby doctored a “screen shot” of the name Richard Coleman Williams Jr. in the online D.C. bar membership directory to attach with his resume.

The firm offered Crosby a starting salary of $195,000 per year with a $10,000 signing bonus, but eventually determined Crosby was using a false identity and did not hire him.

In August 2023, the defendant applied for a job at another law firm. The firm, located in Michigan, sent Crosby a letter offering a salary of $145,000 per year and a $10,000 signing bonus. When his credential information had discrepancies, the firm terminated their working relationship before issuing Crosby’s first paycheck.

In September 2023, one month prior to his arrest on federal charges, Crosby used a different alias to apply for a job at another law firm in California. He claimed that he was a University of Michigan football player and an ex-Marine.  Crosby was hired as an attorney at a salary of $250,000 per year. He used the Social Security number of a deceased man from North Carolina in his tax paperwork to the firm. ...

    This has the feel of a guy suffering from bouts of mania associated with bipolar disorder.

Attorney Fee Cap To Go To $9,200 This Fall And Be Indexed

     From a press release:

The Social Security Administration (SSA) plans to raise the fee cap for claimants’ representatives, from $7,200 to $9,200, when they and their client agree to use what is known as a “fee agreement process.” This will be the first increase to the fee agreement cap since November 2022, when the cap went up from $6,000 to $7,200, after remaining the same for thirteen years.

The fee cap increase is scheduled to take effect this Fall. The agency also plans to tie future increases to the annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). SSA will publish notice of this change in the Federal Register in April in advance of the effective date. ...

SSA Employee Charged With Embezzling $1.8 Million

     From a press release:

On March 6, 2024, a federal grand jury in the District of Puerto Rico returned a 17-count indictment charging Myrna Faria, a.k.a. Myrna Oliveras-Santiago, with theft of government funds ...

According to court documents, Faria was employed by the Social Security Administration (SSA) from approximately 1991 through 2019 as a “Social Insurance Specialist” and “Claims Specialist” working in the Workload Support Unit in San Juan, Puerto Rico. From March 2012 through March 2024, Faria embezzled and stole SSA funds, namely Retirement Insurance Benefits, Survivors Insurance Benefits and Auxiliary Benefit payments, to which she knew she was not entitled. In total, Faria stole approximately $1,812,455.10. ...

Faria utilized her position within SSA to submit false claims on behalf of others, using the identity of individuals she believed to be deceased. She then approved those false claims and submitted her own bank and address information to fraudulently receive the corresponding SSA beneficiary proceeds. Faria proceeded to withdraw, transfer, and spend the money from the accounts that fraudulently obtained the SSA funds. Over the span of twelve years, Faria submitted and approved 13 fraudulent claims. A total of 10 fraudulent claims were still active and receiving funds as of the date of the Indictment. ...

Press Release On Overpayments

     A press release from the Acting Commissioner of Social Security:

The Social Security Administration has provided people with income security for over 80 years.  The agency takes seriously its responsibilities to ensure eligible individuals receive the benefits to which they are entitled and to safeguard the integrity of benefit programs to better serve its customers.  Agency employees work hard to pay the right person the right amount at the right time, and payment accuracy rates remain high.

Social Security pays $1.4 trillion in benefits to more than 71 million people each year.  While payment accuracy rates are high, overpayments do happen given the number of people the agency serves, the number of changes in their circumstances, and the complexity of the programs.

Only around 0.5 percent of Social Security payments are overpayments. For the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, overpayments also represent a small percentage of payments—about 8 percent—but are higher due to the complexity in administering statutory income and resource limits and asset evaluations.

“Despite our high accuracy rates, I am putting together a team to review our overpayment policies and procedures to further improve how we serve our customers,” said Kilolo Kijakazi, Acting Commissioner of Social Security. “I have designated a senior official to work out of the Office of the Commissioner to lead the team and report directly to me.”

There is misinformation in the media claiming that the Social Security Administration is attempting to collect $21 billion.  This figure was derived from the total amount of overpayments that have occurred over the history of the programs.  Each person’s situation is unique, and the agency handles overpayments on a case-by-case basis. In particular, if a person doesn’t agree that they’ve been overpaid, or believes the amount is incorrect, they can appeal.  If they believe they shouldn’t have to pay the money back, they can request that the agency waive collection of the overpayment.  There’s no time limit for filing a waiver.

The agency is continually improving how it serves the millions of people who depend on its programs, including by preventing overpayments and making it easier to navigate the recovery and waiver processes.

For instance, the agency just released its streamlined waiver request form that is easier to understand and less burdensome for people to request a debt recovery waiver.  It is also developing a new electronic payroll data exchange program that will automatically use wage information to adjust payment amounts when appropriate to prevent overpayments.  Additionally, the agency intends to publish a proposed rule to streamline processes and reduce burden so eligible individuals can more easily seek debt relief.

When overpayments do happen, the agency is required by law to adjust benefits or recover debts.  The law allows Social Security to waive recovery in some cases, which must be balanced with the agency’s stewardship responsibility to safeguard the integrity of benefit programs and the trust funds.

Social Security is committed to working with people if they seek to appeal or to explore potential repayment options and waivers when allowed by law.

For more information about the overpayment process, please see Overpayments Fact Sheet

.

Six Months In Slammer For Former SSA Employee

     From a press release:

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado announced Justin Skiff, age 36, of Castle Pines, was sentenced to six months in prison for wire fraud, social security fraud, and money laundering.

According to the plea agreement, beginning around August 2019 and continuing through September 2021, Skiff used his position as a claims specialist with the Social Security Administration (SSA) to fraudulently obtain money from the SSA.  Skiff used his knowledge and access to establish Social Security Numbers for ten fictitious children. He then established fictitious records of entitlements for surviving child benefits which he connected to the record of a real deceased individual.  These benefits were deposited into a bank account accessible to Skiff through debit cards he directed to be mailed to a P.O. Box to which he had access.  Skiff withdrew money and made purchases from this account from October 2019 through September 2021 for a total amount of $324,201.44. ...

Equity Action Plan Talks About Attorney Fees

      A press release:

Today, the Social Security Administration released its first Equity Action Plan, supporting President Biden’s whole-of-government equity agenda to advance equity, civil rights, racial justice, and equal opportunity for all.

On January 20, 2021, The President signed an Executive Order, Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government. The Executive Order requires all Federal agencies “to pursue a comprehensive approach to advancing equity for all, including people of color and other people who have been historically underserved, marginalized, and adversely affected by persistent poverty and inequality.”

“Social Security’s programs touch the lives of nearly every American, providing income security for the diverse populations we serve, including people facing barriers, people with disabilities, people who are widowed, retirees, and their families,” said Kilolo Kijakazi, Acting Commissioner of Social Security. “Systemic barriers may prevent people who need our programs the most from accessing them. Our Equity Action Plan will help to reduce these barriers and ensure people have access to our services.”

Social Security’s Equity Action Plan includes:

• Increasing collection of race and ethnicity data to help understand whether programs are equitably serving applicants and beneficiaries,
• Revising policies and practices to expand options for service delivery,
• Ensuring equitable access for unrepresented claimants in the disability application process,
• Decreasing burdens for people who identify as gender diverse or transgender in the Social Security number card application process, and
• Increasing access to research grant programs for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Serving Institutions and procurement opportunities for small and disadvantaged businesses.

To learn more about the actions outlined in the Equity Action Plan, please visit www.socialsecurity.gov/open/materials/SSA-EO-13985-Equity-Action-Plan.pdf. For more information about efforts to redress systemic barriers in policies and programs to advance equity for all, visit www.whitehouse.gov/equity.

    Here's a little from the Equity Action Plan that will be of immediate interest to some readers: 

... Some claimants get attorney or non-attorney representatives to assist with this process. However, representatives’ fees are based on awarded back benefits. This is a disincentive for representing SSI Disability applicants in favor of DI applicants, whose benefits are typically higher. There is evidence that although African American people are more likely to have a disability, they are less likely to be approved for disability benefits than White people. Considering this, we will assess whether African American claimants are less likely to have a representative than White claimants, research whether claimants who have representatives are more likely to receive disability benefits, reach out to claimants who do not have representatives to prepare them for their disability hearings and inform them of their right to representation, and work with professional associations of representatives to create incentives to increase their representation of disability program applicants. ...

[W]e are evaluating whether the current maximum fee of $6,000 that attorney and non-attorney representatives receive under the fee agreement process is enough. ...

    And on another topic:

... [W]e will: 

Explore establishing a Customer Experience (CX) office that reports directly to the Office of the Commissioner. ...

    That doesn't sound like an ombudsman or even a customer service office but it could be a step forward. Social Security has expended much effort telling the public how it must do business with the agency and more or less blaming the public for lousy service at the agency, as in telling the public that if they'd only just use online services, their service would be so much better, without noticing that the agency's online services are, on the whole, lousy and that many members of the public wouldn't be able to use them even if they were terrific. Quit blaming the customer.

SSA Reaches Reopening Agreements With All Three Labor Unions

     A press release:

Statement from Kilolo Kijakazi, Acting Commissioner of Social Security, about Agency Reentry

“I am very pleased to share that we have successfully reached agreement with our three labor unions on our reentry plan.

This will be a significant step toward improving access to our services as we implement this plan.

I want to thank our labor representatives for working with management to achieve this outcome, which will help us better serve the public.

I also want to thank the public and our employees for their patience during this unprecedented time.

I know the public will have questions about what this means to them.

For now, you should continue to reach us online at www.socialsecurity.gov or by calling our National 800 Number or your local office. We will let you know when we are able to restore additional services.”

Senate Republicans Urge Reopening Of Social Security Field Offices

      From a press release:

U.S. Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, and Senator Tim Scott (R-South Carolina), Ranking Member of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, sent a letter urging Acting Social Security Administration (SSA) Commissioner Kilolo Kijakazi to immediately reopen SSA’s field offices to the public. …

Joining Ranking Members Crapo and Scott were 13 members of the Finance and Aging committees: Senators Todd Young (R-Indiana), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Richard Burr (R-North Carolina), Marco Rubio (R-Florida), Mike Braun (R-Indiana), Rick Scott (R-Florida), John Barrasso (R-Wyoming), Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), James Lankford (R-Oklahoma), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), John Thune (R-South Dakota) and Pat Toomey (R-Pennsylvania).

Fraud Scheme Included Hundreds Of Phony Applications For Social Security Retirement Benefits

      From a press release:

Ivie Shevon Sajere pled guilty to a money laundering conspiracy that defrauded the Social Security Administration (“SSA”) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (“FEMA”) out of nearly $1,000,000.  The conspiracy involved the false filing of thousands of online applications for SSA retirement benefits and FEMA disaster benefits using stolen personal information.  ...

Beginning in approximately June 2017 until September 2018, the defendant and her husband, Neville Sajere, both Nigerian nationals who engaged in marriage fraud in an unsuccessful attempt to become US citizens, participated in a money laundering scheme that defrauded nearly a million dollars from SSA and FEMA.

The scheme involved unknown individuals filing applications for Social Security retirement benefits and/or FEMA disaster relief benefits using stolen personal information.  The individual victims whose personal information was stolen were often individuals highly acclaimed in their fields.  It appears that these individuals were targeted because, even though they were of retirement age, they had not filed for SSA retirement benefits and did not need disaster benefit relief.  Thus, the criminals had a better chance of getting the applications approved.  Specifically, the victims included a movie directo r, an award-winning journalist, the daughter of a legendary movie director, and a highly esteemed academic. 

Once an application was approved, the fraudsters directed that the funds be deposited onto a Green Dot debit card opened using other stolen personal information.  As soon as the money was credited to the Green Dot debit card, the defendant generated payments through Square, Stripe and Paypal to Nevada Bridge TV, a Nigerian streaming service/television production company owned by the defendant’s husband; BAGMA, an African gospel award show business owned by the defendant’s husband; and Shevonz, a clothing store owned by the defendant. ...

Trustees Report Finally Released

      From a press release:

The Social Security Board of Trustees today released its annual report on the long-term financial status of the Social Security Trust Funds. The combined asset reserves of the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance (OASI and DI) Trust Funds are projected to become depleted in 2034, one year earlier than projected last year, with 78 percent of benefits payable at that time. 

The OASI Trust Fund is projected to become depleted in 2033, one year sooner than last year’s estimate, with 76 percent of benefits payable at that time. The DI Trust Fund is estimated to become depleted in 2057, eight years earlier than last year’s estimate, with 91 percent of benefits still payable. ...

Joondeph Named SSAB Chair

     From a press release:

President Joe Biden has named Bob Joondeph Chair of the Social Security Advisory Board. Joondeph replaces Kim Hildred, who was designated Chair by President Donald Trump in July 2017.  ...

Joondeph has a 25-year plus tenure as Executive Director of Disability Rights Oregon, a state protection and advocacy organization. Joondeph graduated from Brown University and Case Western Reserve Law School.

A Press Release From NOSSCR

Click on images to view full size

I'd Like To Hear The Other Side Of This Story

      From a press release issued by Andrew Saul:

"I want to provide an important update about the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) processing of Economic Impact Payments (EIPs) under the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act.

At each turn over the last 12 months, immediate delivery of EIPs has been, and remains, a top priority for this agency. ...

Since the time that discussions began regarding issuance of EIPs in the ARP Act, weeks before passage, we have worked tirelessly with our counterparts at IRS to provide to them the information they need to issue payments to our beneficiaries. Despite the fact that Congress did not directly provide SSA funding to support our work on EIPs, we have provided countless hours of assistance to IRS consistent with the laws that establish how we may use the Trust Funds that every American counts on us to protect. ...

SSA discussed with Treasury and IRS, both before passage and after enactment of the ARP Act, that the Social Security Act does not allow the agency to use our administrative appropriation to conduct work on any non-mission provision or program. Accordingly, we were not authorized to substantively engage Treasury or IRS prior to the ARP’s passage. Instead, upon passage, we were required to pursue a reimbursable agreement with IRS because we received no direct appropriation through the ARP Act. From the outset of discussions, we kept congressional staff apprised of the hurdles this approach would create for SSA, and we have continued to update them on our progress with IRS as we completed the required interagency agreements.

Once we were free to move forward, we aggressively worked with Treasury and IRS to issue payments. As a result of our efforts, we successfully signed the reimbursable agreement and a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) less than one week after passage, on March 17. That process often takes weeks or months to complete, but we got the job done in a matter of days. A few days later, on Monday, March 22, SSA sent initial test files to IRS. IRS confirmed testing success on Wednesday, March 24. Production files were delivered to IRS before 9 AM on Thursday, March 25 – more than a week sooner than we were able to provide a similar file to IRS during the first round of EIPs. ...

     Doing it a little faster than last time doesn't sound like an achievement to me. Of course, it's faster this time because you have the experience of having done it before. I don't understand the statement that "we were not authorized to substantively engage Treasury or IRS prior to the ARP’s passage." Really, why not? Social Security cooperates with many other agencies all the time. What is this obsession with not using appropriations for non-mission programs? That doesn't seem to have prevented a ton of other data matches. Also, why was the agency having active discussions with Treasury and the IRS at a time when it supposedly wasn't allowed to "substantively engage" with them? That doesn't make sense. Why couldn't the MOU have been negotiated prior to passage of the bill and signed immediately after passage? Passage of the bill wasn't a cliffhanger. Why would it take even a week to negotiate a new MOU anyway? This had been done before. Just dust off the MOU you used previously and use essentially the same language. You don't have to re-invent the wheel.

     I'd like to hear the IRS and Treasury side of what happened.

Why Are There Delays In Stimulus Checks To Social Security Recipients?

      From a press release: 

Today, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard E. Neal (D-MA), Social Security Subcommittee Chairman John B. Larson (D-CT), Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ), and Worker and Family Support Subcommittee Chairman Danny K. Davis (D-IL) wrote to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Social Security Administration (SSA) to express their concerns over reported delays in automatically issuing stimulus checks to some of the most vulnerable Americans. In previous rounds of direct payments, IRS and SSA worked together to deliver assistance to Social Security, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Railroad Retirement Board (RRB), and Veterans Affairs (VA) beneficiaries automatically and promptly. There is no excuse for the delay this round, which puts critical assistance on hold for millions of Americans in need. ...

Unions Unanimous In Wanting Saul Gone

      From a press release:  

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) joined together today calling for the ouster of Social Security Administration Commissioner Andrew Saul and Deputy Commissioner David Black. The joint effort comes on the heels of last month’s overwhelming votes of no confidence in the SSA leaders by the members of AFGE Council 220, National Council of SSA Field Operations Locals,and IFPTE Judicial Council 1, the Association of Administrative Law Judges (JC1/AALJ). ...

Deaths And Bankruptcies While Awaiting Action On Disability Claims

      From a press release:

... Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee Chairman John B Larson (D-CT) responded to new findings from a Government Accountability Office (GAO) study they commissioned which found that thousands of American die or go bankrupt waiting to receive their disability benefits each year. ...

The study, “Social Security Disability: Information on Wait Times, Bankruptcies, and Deaths among Applicants Who Appealed Benefit Denials,” looked at people who appealed an initial denial of their application for Social Security or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits. It found:

• More than 100,000 people died without receiving a final decision on their appeal for Social Security or SSI disability benefits, out of approximately 9 million who filed an appeal from Fiscal Year (FY) 2008 to FY 2019.
• Approximately 50,000 people filed for bankruptcy while appealing for Social Security or SSI disability benefits, out of approximately 3.6 million who filed an appeal from FY 2014 to FY 2019.
• From FY 2008 to FY 2019, most disability applicants who appealed an initial denial waited more than a year for a final decision. Median wait times reached a peak of 839 days – more than 2 years – for claims filed in FY 2015.  ...

 

New Retirement Claim Portal

     Social Security has issued a press release saying that it has redesigned its online portal for filing retirement claims.

26 Months Of Pre-Trial Detention?

    From a press release:

After having served approximately 26 months in pretrial detention, Slaven Nedic, 28, of St. Louis, was sentenced to three years of probation.  Nedic appeared today before U.S. District Judge John A. Ross. 

According to court documents, on March 9, 2018, Nedic entered the lobby of the Crestwood office of the Social Security Administration and punched an armed guard in the face.  He also attempted to obtain control of the guard’s firearm during the ensuing physical confrontation.  An unarmed employee of the administrative agency heard the altercation, and came to the guard’s aid.  The two were able to restrain Nedic until local law enforcement officials arrived.  Nedic has been in custody since his arrest on March 9, 2018. ...

Lawsuit Over Wet Signature Requirement

     From a press release:

Timothy Cole is being treated for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. His treatment leaves him immunocompromised and unable to work, and places him at additional risk during the COVID-19 pandemic. He needs to apply for disability benefits from the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the safest way to do so would be to fill out the application online at his home in Jacksonville, Florida. Because he is immunocompromised, leaving his home or interacting with paper mail is dangerous for Mr. Cole. But since he plans to hire an attorney to help with the complex application process, he cannot submit his application online because applicants using authorized representatives, like attorneys, must sign a paper copy of their application. This is true even though SSA has an online application and electronic signatures are accessible, secure, and federally approved.

Mr. Cole and three other plaintiffs, along with the National Federation of the Blind, are suing the Social Security Administration in federal court. They seek a court order requiring SSA to allow e-signatures on applications rather than requiring a "wet-ink" signature when the applicant is using an attorney or other authorized representative. SSA does not require wet-ink signatures for applications for some benefits when an authorized representative is not being used by the applicant. The suit contends that the requirement has always been discriminatory, but during the COVID-19 pandemic it also endangers the health and even the lives of applicants, as even SSA has recognized in quarantining its own mail for two days and shutting down its field offices. ...