Limited Ability To File SSI Claims Online To Begin In December

    From a press release:

Today, the Social Security Administration announced a large step in a multi-year effort to simplify processes for people who are applying for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) by starting to offer an online, streamlined application for some applicants starting in December. SSI provides monthly payments to people with disabilities and older adults who have little or no income and resources.

The initial step – known as iClaim expansion – aims to establish a fully online, simplified iClaim application that leverages user-tested, plain-language questions, prepopulated answers where possible, seamless step-by-step transitions, and more. The online application aims to reduce the time spent applying as well as the processing time for initial claim decisions. ...

The rollout of the iClaim expansion will generally be available to first-time applicants between 18 and almost 65 who never married and are concurrently applying for Social Security benefits and SSI. A goal of the second phase – currently targeted for late 2025 – is to expand this to all applicants. ...

    This rollout is quite limited -- concurrent claims for people who have never married. Why is it limited in those ways other than to hold down the number of claims filed in this manner?  It's like they want to say they're doing it even though they're only barely doing it.

SSI Coming To iClaims

     From a notice published today by the Social Security Administration in the Federal Register (footnote omitted):

... SSA is embarking on a multi-year effort to simplify the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) application process. ...

As part of this effort, our goal is to develop a fully online, simplified SSI application process. As an important step toward that goal, we are currently planning to implement in late 2023 the SSI Simplification Phase I initiative, or iSSI. iSSI will be a pathway in the existing Social Security internet Claim (iClaim) System that will streamline and shorten the SSI application for Title XVI disability applicants. iClaim is an online portal the public can use to apply for multiple types of Social Security benefits. Currently, this includes Retirement, Spouse's, and Disability Insurance benefits (DIB) (Title II SSDI).  ...

Title XVI applicants who want to use the internet to apply for SSI will use the iClaim system to initiate the application process and establish the protective filing date of the application. Applicants filing for themselves can authenticate online using one of our existing authentication methods, while applicants assisting others can use iClaim without authenticating. Although SSA encourages respondents to authenticate in iClaim, they can continue to use the system without authentication. 

 When applicants who use iClaim authenticate themselves, the iClaim system can use some information already within SSA records. For all applicants, the iClaim system will prompt the Social Security Disability (Disability Insurance Benefit (DIB)) questions and pre- populate the applicant's answers within the iSSI portion of the iClaim pages. The applicants would then only need to answer simplified eligibility related questions, excerpted from the deferred SSI application, that will form the core of iSSI. These are what SSA refers to as ``basic eligibility questions.'' 

After answering the DIB and SSI basic eligibility questions, applicants will be automatically transferred to other existing steps within the SSI Application iClaim path, such as providing medical information (using the i3368, OMB No. 0960-0579) and signing a medical release using the i827 (OMB No. 0960-0623). This process will be seamless to the applicant, as the iClaim system will take them from page to page without interruption. Once the applicant submits the information online, SSA technicians will review it for completeness and send it to the Disability Determination Services (DDS) to make a disability determination. ...

Lots Of iClaims Fraud

     From a recently released report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG):

... SSA’s controls that identified potentially fraudulent iClaims were generally effective. However, the number of undetected fraudulent iClaims is unknown. Of the 70,173 potentially fraudulent iClaims OAFP [Office of Anti-Fraud Programs] identified, SSA determined 3,807 were fraudulent, 48,062 were likely fraudulent, 4,825 were not fraudulent, 11,289 were inconclusive, and 2,190 were pending. ...

     Almost 60,000 known cases where they can't tell for sure whether there was fraud or not. They admit that they have no idea how many unknown fraud cases there are. Still, they call that "generally effective"? What would ineffective look like? No, iClaims fraud is a big problem and Social Security doesn't have a handle on it.

Clarification On Third Party Assistance In Filing Claim

     This is from Social Security's Emergency Message EM-17032:

... A third party can help a claimant file for disability benefits by completing an iClaim for DIB or DIB/SSI. Once the third party submits the iClaim, the claimant receives an Internet Application Summary by mail to review, sign, and return to a field office (FO) or workload support unit (WSU). ...

     I post this -- and Social Security issued it -- because at times past some agency employees have felt it was improper, even illegal, for a third party, such as an attorney, to complete an online claim form at the behest of a claimant. This always seemed ridiculous to me but it must still make some sense to Social Security since they are still insisting that if a third party completes the online form, what has been filed is only a protective filing date until the claimant puts her or her "wet signature" on a piece of paper.
     I've often wondered whether someone could make a living just charging people a fee for helping them file their Social Security claims of all sorts; not representing them just helping them file claims. Social Security would probably try to hassle anyone who did this by insisting they get any fees they charge approved case by case even though there would be no real representation but should they? People need better help than they're getting from the Social Security Administration. Their employees do their best but the agency is understaffed and unable to deliver service at the level many people need.

Online SSI Claims Coming On March 25 -- For Some People

     From Emergency Message EM-17008:

This Emergency Message explains the policy and procedures associated with enhancements to the online benefit application (iClaim) scheduled for release on March 25, 2017.  ...

For this first release, applicants applying online for Disability Insurance Benefits (DIB) who answer “Yes” to the question, “Do you intend to file for SSI [Supplemental Security Income]?” are able to submit an iSSI application if they meet all of the following criteria:

· Age 18 through 64;· Resides in 1 of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, or the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands;
· Alleges disability, but not blindness;
· Never married; and
· Claimant’s Social Security Number (SSN) does not exists in any SSI system such as the Modernized SSI Claims System (MSSICS) and Supplemental Security Record (SSR).

     The "never married" provision rules out most adults. Why is that necessary? I assume the last provision would rule out anyone who has filed a prior SSI claim. Why is that necessary? Are these two provisions just intended to keep the roll-out slow to allow kinks to be worked out?

Good Report On iClaims For Retirement Cases

From a recent report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General (footnotes omitted):

At an April 15, 2010 hearing before the House of Representatives’ Committee on Ways and Means, Subcommittee on Social Security, Congressman Xavier Becerra asked the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) to review the iClaim application to ensure individuals filing for benefits using the iClaim application were receiving an appropriate level of service from SSA.

To address Congressman Becerra’s request, we selected a random sample of 250 RIB [Retirement Insurance Benefits] iClaim applications filed in May 2010.

We surveyed the SSA [Social Security Administration] employees who processed the RIB iClaim applications to determine the number of times the Agency had to re-contact individuals for additional information or clarification and the reasons for the re-contacts. We also obtained the employees’ perceptions of the iClaim application process. Finally, we reviewed 50 of the RIB iClaim applications from our sample to determine whether the information provided by the individuals in their iClaim applications corresponded with the information recorded in SSA’s system that was used to determine individuals’ eligibility for benefits and their benefit amounts. ...

SSA employees were generally positive regarding the amount of time it took to process an iClaim application. However, employees expressed concerns about the difficulty in re-contacting individuals.

In addition, we found that the information provided by individuals in their iClaim applications corresponded with the information recorded in SSA’s system. ...

Re-contacts with individuals are a necessary and important part of processing some iClaim applications. In fact, of the 245 individuals in our review who filed a RIB iClaim application, SSA re-contacted 144 individuals (59 percent) to obtain additional information or clarification. ...

While SSA employees had both positive and negative comments about the iClaim application, employees were generally positive about the amount of time it took to process an iClaim application. ... In fact, most employees responded iClaim applications were faster to process than in-person or telephone applications. Specifically, 62 percent of employees in our review stated iClaim applications were typically the fastest application type to process. ...

Although iClaim applications generally take the least amount of time to process, employees were concerned about the difficulty with re-contacting individuals. To fully develop the claim, we found employees had to re-contact individuals in our sample up to five times, for an average of two times per individual. ...

During our review of RIB iClaim applications, there were no indications that individuals filing for RIB using the iClaim application did not receive an appropriate level of service from SSA. In fact, SSA employees re-contacted more than half the individuals in our sample to obtain additional information or clarification. While employees raised concerns regarding some difficulty in re-contacting individuals, they also recognized that iClaim applications were typically faster to process than in-person or telephone applications. In addition, we found that the information individuals provide on their iClaim applications corresponded with the information in SSA’s system used to determine benefit eligibility and amount.

Note carefully that this was a study of the retirement claims, which are, by far, the easiest claims to take. The report would be far more mixed if it were talking about survivor claims or disability claims. Supplemental Security Income claims cannot even be taken over the internet.