Social Security Hearing Backlogs Draw Criticism In Seattle

I had earlier posted about the story that Seattle television station KING did on the hearing backlogs at Social Security. Readers might want to take a look at the often emotional responses that story received on the KING website. Has the depth of the anger and outrage over these backlogs has registered with Commissioner Astrue?

Public relations and a Republican Congress that was willing to look the other way allowed former Commissioner Barnhart to get through her years as Commissioner without treating this as a crisis. Michael Astrue is nowhere near as good as Barnhart at public relations, but it is way too late for public relations to work anyway. A Congress controlled by Democrats is not going to let go of this. Sooner or later there is going to be a crash program to get these backlogs down. Michael Astrue could try to get out in front but at the moment, it looks as if he will have to be dragged kicking and screaming into creating a crash program, most likely with statutorily imposed deadlines, or at least the threat of them.

Buffalo News Editorial On Backlogs

The Buffalo News has run articles and editiorials about the terrible delays experienced by Social Security disability claimants in getting hearings on their cases. Here are a couple of excerpts from an editorial the newspaper is running today:

Bow your heads and pray tonight that you never have to claim Social Security disability benefits. Not only would that mean injury, but injury compounded — by the long stretch of years it can take to collect. ...

Much, if not all, of this despair could be alleviated if Congress would stop cutting into Social Security Administration funding, leaving the agency with too few resources to keep up with the flood of applicants. Buffalo is one of the worst, as claimants typically wait nearly two years for an appeals hearing.

Social Security Press Release For Memorial Day Weekend

From a Social Security press release:

Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, wants active duty personnel and their families to know that Social Security has procedures in place to expedite survivors applications and disability claims that apply to any injured military service member, regardless of where the injury occurred.

“I want to assure the brave men and women of our Armed Forces and their families that they will not have to wait for these needed benefits,” said Commissioner Astrue. “The special process is just one way Social Security can show our military personnel how much we appreciate their service.”

Monthly Statistical Packages Released

Social Security's Office of Policy has issued its monthly compilation of statistics on Title II and Title XVI of the Social Security Act.

Get E-Mails From Social Security About Program Developments

The Social Security Administration has now set up a convenient central point for registration to receive e-mail delivery of various agency newsletters and reports.

Social Security Releases 2005 Statistical Report

That is no typo. The Social Security Administration just released its 2005 Annual Statistical Report, a compilation of just about every Social Security statistic you could ask for.

Contracting News?

Perhaps someone can advise me whether the notice reproduced in part below that Social Security recently posted is a big deal. Has Social Security been contracting out mailroom services at its central offices in the past? If this is new, will any Social Security employees be displaced? I would think that mailroom services for Social Security offices would be a major endeavor. I recall hearing that mail comes into Social Security's central offices literally by the trainload.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) intends to issue a solicitation (Request for Proposal/RFP) for a contractor to provide staffing to operate SSA Headquarters mailroom operations services located in Baltimore, Maryland (and to SSA components located in outlying locations). The contractor selected for contract award shall furnish all management, supervision, labor, required to collect, process and deliver mail.

Hit Map

Above is a map provided by Google Analytics showing the geographic location of U.S. visitors to this blog over the last three weeks or so, since I began using that service. The map does not show every last hit. I have trouble interpreting the information provided with the map, but I think it only shows locations with more than a few hits. This map does not show the geographic location of visitors from the ssa.gov domain since May 8. On May 8 I posted that this blog was receiving about one third of its visitors from the Baltimore area. Later that same day some obscure change was made in Social Security's computer network to block the relaying of geographic location information from computers accessing the internet from the ssa.gov domain. As best I can tell, it is unusual for a domain to block the relaying of geographic information. I should say that there were signs of other changes at Social Security's domain at the time, such as a switch from labeling the domain SSA.gov to labeling it ssa.gov, so the geographic change may have had nothing to do with this blog. Of course, this map still shows a lot of hits from the Baltimore area since it still shows hits from home computers.

Payment Center Direct Contact

Below is a statement from a recent issuance from Social Security's Program Operations Manual Series (POMS). POMS is Social Security's most important employee manual.

The general, but simple, rule is that a PC [Payment Center] employee will not refer development to the FO [Field Office] unless face to face contact is required, or where the FO is responsible for making a final determination on the issue (such as a representative payee determination).

The PC will always obtain information, statement clarifications or required evidence via DIRCON [Direct Contact with the claimant or others] unless a face to face or field contact is needed, or one of the exceptions in GN 01070.305C. or D. below applies.

I believe this is new and significant. Can anyone help me on this?

The Most Important News This Year On Social Security

We heard what is probably be the most important news about Social Security so far this year -- and I did not immediately recognize its significance. What is this important news? Michael Astrue said at yesterday's Senate Finance Committee hearing that the Social Security Administration could not comply with statutorily mandated time limits on holding Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) hearings without more power to control ALJ behavior.

What is so important about this? Let me share the evolution of my reactions to this.

• My first reaction was "How typical of Social Security management! They have always hated independent ALJs."
• My second reaction was "This is silly. More controls on ALJ independence would do almost nothing to get the hearing backlog down."
• My third reaction was "Astrue will never get Congress to agree that ALJs should be less independent. Social Security management has wanted this for decades, but has never gotten it. When will Social Security management realize that despite whatever problems the ALJs may have with their "outliers", that the ALJs have more credibility with Congress than Social Security management."
• My fourth thought was that the important thing here was that Astrue was talking about statutorily imposed deadlines on Social Security holding ALJ hearings. Astrue would be talking about deadlines only if he was hearing about deadlines from Congress and only if he thought that there was a good chance that statutory deadlines would pass. That is of much greater importance that Michael Astrue's puny plans for dealing with Social Security's hearing backlogs. What Astrue has in mind is little more than enough to stabilize the situation. His plan will hardly make a dent in the backlog. Statutory deadlines would force the Social Security Administration to propose what is really needed -- ramping up to 2,000 or more ALJs with another 8,000 or so support staff. That is not going to happen without statutory deadlines or the serious threat of them.