Duplicate Social Security Checks Sent

The Social Security Administration has issued an emergency message instructing its staff on handling a mistake made by the Department of the Treasury's Austin Financial Center. It seems that 485 duplicate Social Security benefit checks were released on January 18. Apparently, all of the checks were to claimants for regular monthly benefits.
The mistake happened in a transition to using white envelopes instead of brown for benefit checks. The change was not supposed to have been made until February but someone jumped the gun and prepared 485 checks using the white envelopes. The mistake was caught and the checks were prepared again using brown envelopes, but someone forgot to destroy the checks in the white envelopes and both sets of checks were mailed.

Rally for Social Security Privatization

Something tells me this is the kind of help Bush would prefer to do without. This is a press release from the National Center for Policy Analysis:

The day before President Bush is scheduled to deliver his State of the Union address, students on college campuses across the country will rally and march in support of Social Security reform and call on President Bush to keep it at the top of Washington's agenda. Students will gather on college campuses across the country at noon today in a unified show of support. Students on each campus will march carrying homemade signs and banners while distributing fact sheets to fellow students.
WHAT: Student Rally for Social Security
WHERE: College Campuses
WHEN: TODAY, Monday, Jan. 30, 12 p.m.

The nationwide rally was organized by the National Center for Policy Analysis's "Team NCPA" Social Security initiative, and joined by student leaders from Students for Saving Social Security. The College Team NCPA is a special project of the NCPA to educate policy makers, opinion leaders and the general public about the problems facing Social Security and the benefits of personal investment-based reform.

Monthly Stats

For a snapshot of Social Security's current status, take a look at SSA's just released monthly statistical summary.

The Crime Beat

The Chattanoogan.com reports that a Cleveland, TN man is facing sentencing for not telling SSA that his mother had died and taking the Social Security benefits sent to her for 18 years. He received $182,092 that he should not have received.

Maximus Also Has Conflict

I had posted earlier about the apparent conflict of interest of Social Security Disability Consultants being a Social Security contractor, while representing claimants before SSA. Social Security Disability Consultants is not the only Social Security contractor with this problem. Maximus has a huge contract for the Ticket to Work program, but is also involved in representing Social Security claimants.

Second Non-Attorney Exam Results

In November 2005, for the second time, Social Security administered the examination to qualify for non-attorney withholding of fees for representing claimants before the agency. By Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request I have obtained the following list of those who qualified as a result of this examination.

State City Name
AL, Decatur, Rodney D. Bains

AL, Anniston, Lana L. Chamlee

AL, Decatur, William H. Horton

AL, Sylacauga, Randall S. McKee

AL, Bessemer , Darlene W. Trammell

AR, Rogers, Laura K. Bender

AR, Little Rock, Nonia L. Hartman

CA, El Segundo, Anthony S. Adderley

CA, Redding, Shirley A. Hull

CA, Valencia, Derek S. Margolis-Devermont

CA, Redding, Jack A. Matlock

CA, Redding, Alice P. Stribling

CA, Eureka, David J. Villec

CO, Grand Junction, Judith L. Knouse

CO, Colorado Springs, Gerald W. Riley

FL, Pensacola, Patrick S. Cornelius

FL, Bokeelia, Theresa Daniels

FL, Glenwood, Bernice Y. Ippolito

FL, Deltona, Ron I. Pekoe

FL, Longwood, Ellen M. Runge

GA, Clayton, Randy L. Adams

ID, Lewiston, Deah M. Louis

ID, Lewiston, Leigh A. Newman

IN, New Albany, Donna L. Stephenson

KY, Greensburg, Tivoli A. Altman

KY, Lexington, Patsy R. Hughes

KY, Georgetown, Laura B. Palmer

KY, Lexington, Teresa A. Searcy

MA, New Bedford, Michelle R. Pequita

MI, Livonia, Bonnie M. Donahue

MI, Novi, Jennifer L. Eliassen

MI, West Bloomfield, Melissa A. Gries

MI, Novi, Denise S. Kamisar

MI, Farmington Hills, Cynthia V. Lachowski

MI, West Bloomfield, Patrice Ladd

MI, Ann Arbor, Elizabeth Struble

MN, Cook, Dennis G. Teachout

MO, Marshall, Robin D. Cox

MO, St. Louis, Lindsay Howell

MS, Tupelo, James L. Bryan

MS, Raynham, Debra M. Emerick

MS, Jackson, Wesley Hutchen

MS, Cleveland, Vassie M. Pegues

NC, Greensboro, David Allen

NC, Raleigh, Jonathan C. Brookshire

NC, Winston Salem, Virginia B. Campbell

NC, Greensboro, Donald P. Martin

NC, Timberlake, Don M. Narensky

NC, Wilmington, Northrope D. Rice

NJ, Magnolia, Leo Hamilton

NM, Albuquerque, Estanislao M. Gomez

NY, New York, Daniel S. Jones

NY, Rochester, Anne L. Lang

NY, West Leyden, Kimberly G. MacDougall

NY, Rochester, Mary D. Wilcox-Perry

OH, Cleveland , Stephanie D. Lucky

OK, Tulsa, Christopher G. Carr

OR, Elgin, Katherine M. Harrison

PA, Pittsburgh, Marcy L. Pitts

SC, Charleston, Charles N. Straney

SC, Hilton Head Island, Eleanor K. Swierk

SC, Shaw AFB, Rosemary Z. Wessendorf

TN, East Ridge, Robert M. Rasbury

TX, Wake Village, Valerie K. DePriest

TX, Austin, Kate Fiorillo

TX, Austin, David W. Gibbs

TX, Weslaco, Braulio Gonzales

TX, San Antonio, Peter C. Higgins

TX, Austin, Jeanne S. List

TX, Odessa, Marc K. Powell

TX, Fort Worth, David E. Price

TX, Midland, Norma G. Revilla

TX, Lubbock, Daniel Rey

TX, San Antonio, Jimmy W. Shepherd

TX, Waxahachie, Betty J. Square Jefferson

TX, Lubbock, Connie L. Vance

VA, Portsmouth, Herman W. Bates

VA, Abingdon, Eric G. Reese

VT, Waterbury, Michael F. Milne

WA, Bremerton, Matthew P. Moreno

WA, Puyallup, David S. Simonson

WY, Cheyenne, Lori L. Martin

$40 Million Accelerated Benefits Contract to MDRC

Social Security has awarded a $40 million contract to MDRC to design a national demonstration program for accelerated benefits. Here is a link to information about the request for proposals, describing what SSA desires. This is a brief description of what SSA says it wants:

In the Accelerated Benefits demonstration project, SSA plans to test the immediate provision of health care benefits for certain Social Security disability beneficiaries who have medical conditions that are expected to improve or could possibly improve with appropriate medical treatment. The goal of the demonstration is to provide access to medical care and treatment early enough to prevent further deterioration or help improve their medical condition and enable more beneficiaries to return to work and thereby maximize their economic self-sufficiency through employment.

The Act provides that a newly awarded SSDI beneficiary must undergo a five month waiting period after the onset of disability before cash benefits begin. This is intended to permit recovery time for those disabilities expected to improve. Once those cash benefits have begun, an SSDI beneficiary must wait an additional 24 months for Medicare benefits (or 29 months from the date of disability onset). Unfortunately, a beneficiary’s health condition may deteriorate during these periods because of the natural progression of the condition, lack of medical access and/or medical care (including prescription drugs), or even physical inactivity. SSA data also show that the likelihood of returning to work diminishes the longer one is away from the labor force.

With the AB demonstration project, SSA seeks to determine whether providing immediate medical benefits will improve the health and the subsequent return to work outcomes for certain SSDI beneficiaries. SSA expects that, with the accelerated receipt of medical benefits and appropriate employment supports, the participants may recover more quickly, re-enter the labor force sooner, and ultimately decrease their long term dependence on cash benefits.

UK May Offshore Social Security Work

The British government may be looking at other ways of cutting costs in its Social Security system. HindustanTimes.com reports that the British government is considering sending call center and other work associated with its Social Security system to Eastern Europe or India!