NPR On Social Security Budget And Backlogs

National Public Radio ran a piece yesterday on Social Security's backlogs and its urgent need for a bigger budget. You can listen to it online.

USA Today On Social Security Backlogs

USA Today has an article in today's paper on Social Security's backlogs, which contains some stunning information. Here is an excerpt:

The Social Security Administration faces a record — and rapidly growing — backlog of appeals by people who claim they are too disabled to work. Through June, it had just over 745,000 cases pending, and the wait for a hearing averaged 17 months, also a record.

Claimants in some parts of the country must wait up to 31 months, according to the agency. "People have died waiting for a hearing," Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue says.

The agency says the backlog doubled in six years and could reach 1 million by 2010.

There is a companion article focusing upon the terrible effects of these backlogs upon individual Social Security disability claimants. These sad stories are too familiar to anyone who has been reading this blog, but read this excerpt which focuses upon the bigger picture:

Now the commissioner of Social Security, Astrue wants to make it easier to file for disability. He's pushing simplified procedures for extreme cases, such as terminal cancer. He's updating and expanding the list of impairments that qualify for disability. He's trying to open a national center to hold electronic hearings, thereby easing backlogs in places such as Atlanta [which has some of the biggest backlogs in the country].

All of that, Astrue says, won't be enough to stop the backlog of appeals from growing because of an aging population. Social Security projects cases to grow about 90,000 annually over the next five years. That means the backlog could hit 1 million in 2010.

"I don't think there is any really easy solution," Astrue says.

The talk of the backlog increasing to one million cases appears to come from Commissioner Astrue, himself! Why would we be facing a threat that the backlog will grow to 1 million in the next three years? I thought that Commissioner Astrue was planning to reduce the backlog. That is what he was telling Congress. Why is Commissioner Astrue discouraging Congress from giving his agency any more money for fiscal year 2008 than President Bush has recommended at the same time that he is warning that his agency is facing an increase in its backlogs? I cannot understand the disconnect between this article and what Astrue has been telling Congress. Is this article a sign that Astrue is now trying to persuade the Office of Management and Budget to recommend a higher fiscal year 2009 budget? Is Astrue finally getting more accurate information about how bleak the future looks for the Social Security Administration? Is he belatedly lobbying for a bigger fiscal year 2008 budget?

By the way, there is a really easy solution to the backlogs. Budget enough money and hire enough personnel. Everything else imaginable has already been tried. Simple "brute force", as Commissioner Astrue himself put it, is the only approach that will work.

An Image From 1948

Democratic Candidate Debate On Social Security Wagebase

Fringe Benefit At SSA Central Office

From the Baltimore Sun:

The harvest was spread across folding tables - piles of potatoes, buckets of tender peaches, swollen watermelons, heaps of glossy lettuce and sweet corn.

But at the Woodlawn Farmers' Market, Karen Smith was most pleased to find the carrots that her 5-year-old son "will actually eat."

Until the market opened this month across from Social Security Administration headquarters, the boy had only tasted the prewashed, precut carrots from plastic packages. The leafy green tops were a novelty.

More On Andrew Biggs

An anonymous poster makes an excellent point about Andrew Biggs. Commissioner Astrue has just hired a replacement for Biggs as Deputy Commissioner for Policy, so if Biggs is denied a salary for serving as Deputy Commissioner, he will not be able to draw the salary as Deputy Commissioner for Policy instead.

However, I will venture a guess that the White House would want Commissioner Astrue to come up with some other salary paying slot for Biggs if Congress forbids paying a salary to Biggs as Deputy Commissioner. The White House might even want Biggs paid a bonus to make up for any difference in pay. That is the sort of feistiness or perhaps belligerence that we expect from this President. Would Commissioner Astrue be willing to show enough independence from the White House to say no to this? Finding another way to pay Biggs after Congress cuts off Biggs' salary would certainly not endear Astrue to Congress. If Astrue serves out his term as Commissioner, he will be in office for four years after Bush leaves office.

Andrew Biggs

President Bush repeatedly nominated Andrew Biggs, a huge supporter of privatizing Social Security, to become Deputy Commissioner of Social Security. The Senate repeatedly refused to even consider the nomination, so Bush gave Biggs a recess appointment, good until the beginning of the next Congress in January 2009. The House of Representatives is now threatening to cut off all funding for Mr. Biggs' job as Deputy Commissioner, meaning that Biggs could continue working as Deputy Commissioner, but he could not be paid.

This does not mean that Biggs would have to either work for free or leave Social Security. Social Security's organizational chart shows that Biggs is also Deputy Commissioner for Policy at the Social Security Administration. He would not be getting pay for that job currently, since he is being paid to serve as Deputy Commissioner, but if he lost his paycheck as Deputy Commissioner, presumably he could still draw the Deputy Commissioner for Policy paycheck and still do the Deputy Commissioner job, to the same extent that he is doing it now. I imagine that the Deputy Commissioner for Policy paycheck is a bit less than the Deputy Commissioner paycheck, however.

Is it happenstance that Biggs still has the Deputy Commissioner for Policy job or was someone expecting that Congress would cut off funding for the Deputy Commissioner job and wanted this as a backup?

Also, has Biggs actually been spotted doing the Deputy Commissioner job? I have trouble imagining him chairing a meeting about which new computer system Social Security should buy or about how Social Security will use its scarce budget resources. He just does not seem like that kind of person.

Fraud Accusation In Arizona

According to the Arizona Republic, Harold Pease, who is pictured here, has been indicted for Social Security fraud. An article in the Arizona Republic about Mr. Pease's beekeeping business led to the charge that he had been earning too much money to stay on Social Security disability benefits.

It seems to me that allowing a newspaper article about his business suggests that Mr. Pease may not have known that he was doing anything wrong.

Astrue At ALJ Conference

There is an anonymous post on the ALJ Improvement Board from someone who says they heard Commissioner Astrue speak today at the Association of Administrative Law Judges (AALJ) conference. The poster says that Astrue hopes to have new ALJs holding hearings by March 2008, that he expects to hire 700-800 support staff for hearing offices and that he hopes to have 1,200 ALJs by the end of the 2008 fiscal year, which would be September 30, 2008. Astrue also is reported to have said that he expects to be able to restart the senior attorney program soon. He is now planning to have only 10-12 ALJs in the national hearing office. They are also planning to open new hearing offices in Alaska, Michigan, Alabama and Florida (two new offices in the Sunshine state).

First, it is optimistic to expect to have new ALJs on the job by next March. I am not sure Social Security will even have a real budget by then, since the President is threatening to veto the budget bill including Social Security. Hiring always takes longer than you think it will. Second, the number of ALJs to be hired seems to be slipping. Astrue was telling Congress not too long ago that he expected to have 1,250 ALJs on board in 2008. That has already slipped to 1,200. Third, I am extremely happy to hear that the senior attorney program will be restarted. I was very afraid that the Office of Management and Budget would never let this see the light of day. Fourth, I am also happy to hear that this "national" hearing office will be small. This is a bad idea. It should not be done at all, but better small than large. New hearing offices are a great idea. Let me suggest that another hearing office is also needed in Fayetteville, NC. I do not think anyone in this area would disagree with that one.

Washington Post On Social Security Budget And Workforce

Stephen Barr writes the excellent Federal Diary column in the Washington Post. He writes today about Social Security's budget and staffing problems. The whole column is worth reading. Here are a few excerpts:

Staffing at the Social Security Administration will soon be at its lowest level since 1974. The number of disability claims waiting for hearing decisions is at an all-time high.

The drop in staffing and budget constraints have led to crowded waiting rooms and jammed telephone lines at many field offices. For every two field employees who retire or quit, Social Security replaces one.

"It is like a disaster here. We can't do the work we are getting," said WitoldSkwierczynski, an officer of the American Federation of Government Employees who specializes in Social Security field operations. ...

Richard E. Warsinskey, president of the National Council of Social Security Management Associations, said he appreciates that Congress is trying to help. But, he said, the proposed budget still means that Social Security will "be kind of treading water" next year. ...

Partly because of budget constraints, Social Security is closing field offices that serve areas with stable or shrinking populations. Offices are closing in California, Connecticut, New York, Texas and Pennsylvania, Skwierczynski said.