Staffing Improves At Hearing Offices

From a recent report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General:

In March 2009, SSA’s Commissioner testified that about 4.5 staff per ALJ (referred to as the staffing ratio) was necessary to maximize the number of legally sufficient hearings and decisions by ALJs [Administrative Law Judges]. In this context, “staff” represents both decision writers and other support staff. Moreover, in a Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 memorandum, ODAR’s [Office of Disability Adjudication and Review's] Deputy Commissioner recommended the Regions hire 1.5 decision writers per ALJ and 2.5 other support staff per ALJ (referred to as the staffing mix ratio), thereby giving additional definition to the Commissioner’s staffing ratio goal. [And adding confusion, since that would be a 4 to 1 ratio, rather than 4.5 to 1.]

RESULTS OF REVIEW

In FY 2009, as a result of additional Agency funding, ODAR increased the number of its ALJs to approximately 1,200 (about a 19-percent increase since FY 2000) and the number of its hearing office managers and support staff to about 6,200 (almost a 25-percent increase over the same period). By July 2009, ODAR’s staffing ratio was about 5.1, exceeding the Agency’s national goal of 4.5 staff per ALJ. However, our review of ODAR’s staffing reports found that 42 hearing offices did not meet the national staffing ratio goal, and 7 of those hearing offices had staffing ratios below 4.0. In addition, ODAR’s staffing ratio had not been adjusted to reflect attorney adjudicators who perform two roles—staffing duties when drafting decisions and ALJ duties when issuing fully favorable on-the-record decisions.

In terms of the staffing mix at hearing offices, we found that the hearing offices that met or exceeded the 1.5 decision writers-per-ALJ staffing mix goal had, on average, an almost 9-percent higher productivity rate than those hearing offices with a ratio less than the goal. We did not find similar productivity differences for the other support staffing mix goal. ...

Fiscal Year National
Staffing Ratio
2006 4.23
2007 4.46
20081 4.08
2009 5.06

The Sky Is Falling

When you see headlines such as Social Security Races To 'Negative' (their single quotes, not mine) and Rush Of Retirements Push Social Security To Brink in USA Today you know someone is pushing private accounts. Sure enough, here is George Will's column touting a scheme proposed by Republican Congressman Paul Ryan:

Medicare and Social Security would be preserved for those currently receiving benefits or becoming eligible in the next 10 years (those 55 and older today). Both programs would be made permanently solvent. ...

Ryan's plan would allow workers younger than 55 the choice of investing more than one-third of their current Social Security taxes in personal retirement accounts similar to the Thrift Savings Plan long available to, and immensely popular with, federal employees. This investment would be inheritable property, guaranteeing that individuals will never lose the ability to dispose of every dollar they put into these accounts.

Ryan would raise the retirement age. If, when Congress created Social Security in 1935, it had indexed the retirement age (then 65) to life expectancy, today the age would be in the mid-70s. The system was never intended to do what it is doing -- subsidizing retirements that extend from one-third to one-half of retirees' adult lives.

I certainly hope that Republicans in Congress get a chance to vote on this proposal. By the way, I am pretty sure that the numbers do not come close to working for Ryan's scheme. If you stop one-third of the FICA taxes going into the trust funds, you soon run out of money to pay current retirees. Also, by the way, investing one-third of your FICA is not going to support you for long in retirement. It is not that much money.

In Vitro And Social Security

From the Chicago Tribune:

A[n Iowa] legislative subcommittee approved a measure Thursday giving inheritance rights to children born up to two years after their father's death.

The measure would mean children conceived through in vitro fertilization would be entitled to benefits such as Social Security survivor payments even if they were gestated after a parent's death.

The subcommittee approved the plan after hearing from Patti Beeler, a West Branch woman who gave birth to a girl after her husband died of cancer. She had to go to court to receive Social Security benefits because of a 150-year-old law limiting inheritance to children conceived during marriage.

The Social Security Administration is appealing a ruling granting her those benefits.

1099s

Attorneys and others who receive fees paid directly by Social Security for representing Social Security claimants have been receiving 1099s this week that are supposed to show the monies they were paid by Social Security in 2009. The comment heard from almost everyone receiving one of these 1099s is that it shows significantly less gross income than it should, perhaps 20% to 35% less. This is no big deal since it will not cause any tax problems for anyone but, still, it is something that should be fixed. I have heard speculation that the 1099s are not including fees paid in Supplemental Security Income (SSI) cases, that they do not include fees paid on dependent benefits or that only fees authorized by Social Security's Office of Central Operations are included. I expect that someone at Social Security knows the explanation. Can anyone enlighten us?

Centenarian Project

The Paperwork Reduction Act requires federal agencies who want to collect information from the public to go through some formalities, one of which is publishing a notice in the Federal Register., about any new information collection forms. Here is an excerpt from a Paperwork Reduction Act notice that Social Security recently posted in the Federal Register:

Centenarian Project Development Worksheets: Face-to-Face Interview; Telephone Interview; Third Party Contact ... SSA [Social Security Administration] is conducting interviews with centenary beneficiaries age 103 and older to assess: (1) If the beneficiaries are still living; (2) to prevent fraud, through either identity misrepresentation or representative payee misuse of funds; and (3) to assess the well-being of the beneficiaries. SSA's San Francisco field offices are currently using this survey and we intend to expand its use to all other SSA field offices.

Bomb Scare In Texas

The Victoria, Texas Social Security office was evacuated on Wednesday after a suspicious package was found in the lobby.

1099s Start Arriving

Attorneys have started receiving 1099s from Social Security showing attorney fees paid by Social Security. I have already received reports of income reported in box 7 instead of box 14, which is where I believe it is supposed to be reported, and of a 1099 not recording all Social Security attorney fees paid to an attorney in 2009, which will not cause problems for the attorney, but which is a bad sign anyway.

What are you seeing?

Is Social Security An Out Of Control Entitlement?

It is an article of faith among many that entitlements are destroying the federal budget and that Social Security is a big part of the entitlement monster. That may be true of Medicare, but Social Security? Take a look at this chart from the New York Times. Does it look like Social Security is threatening to wreck the federal budget? By the way, the author does make one big mistake. Social Security is not off budget. It should be and probably will be in the not too distant future, but it isn't now.

Union Newsletter Out

Council 220 of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) ,the union that represents most Social Security employees, has issued its January 2010 newsletter.

The union and Social Security are in contract negotiations. The newsletter quotes the union president, Witold Skwierczynski, as saying that “After reviewing the Agency’s initial contract proposals, it is clear that SSA’s [Social Security Administration's] intent is to severely restrict the [Union’s] ability to represent SSA employees" which sounds like the prospects for a new contract are poor, but for Skwierczynski this is a bit tame.

The newsletter contains an interesting allegation of management impropriety at a field office:

The manager of the Independence, Missouri Social Security Office has apparently found a unique way to make himself look better: take applications from people with-out actually contacting them, and then process those phony claims.

When Jared Gaspard realized in June that his office would not meet its statistical “goals” for that month, he checked the agency’s computer system to determine who had filed for Social Security Disability but not SSI.

According to Witold Skwierczynski, the President of the National Council of SSA Field Operations Locals, Gaspard then manufactured a series of SSI applications.

Interesting Turnaround

Small town newspaper runs article encouraging people to use the internet to do business with Social Security. Sounds like it is probably something written by Social Security. The Rutland, VT Herald is running this kind of article and it was written by Social Security. The interesting thing about the article is that it begins like this:

If you have recently called Social Security, you may have gotten a busy signal or been put on hold. When visiting an office you may have had to wait longer to see someone. ...

This wave [of baby boomer retirees] is generating a "tsunami" of retirement and disability applications – an expected 40 percent annual increase.

Social Security does not expect to be able to increase staff to meet the demand. More people contacting the same number of Social Security workers equals busy signals on the phone and longer waits in the office. If we cannot hire more people what else can we do to help the increasing number of people in need of our services?

Instead of pretending that it is giving good service, the agency is now touting its poor service as a reason why the public should do its Social Security business online. That is quite a change.

By the way, have Social Security's online services advanced to the point where it saves staff time for the public to file claims online?