Plain Language Required

     Did you know that the Plain Language Act went into effect yesterday? The Act requires Social Security and other agencies to:

(A) designate 1 or more senior officials within the agency to oversee the agency implementation of this Act:
(B) communicate the requirements of this Act to the employees of the agency;
(C) train employees of the agency in plain writing;
(D) establish a process for overseeing the ongoing compliance of the agency with the requirements of this
Act;
(E) create and maintain a plain writing section of the agency’s website as required under paragraph (2) that is accessible from the homepage of the agency’s website; and
(F) designate 1 or more agency points-of-contact to receive and respond to public input on—

(i) agency implementation of this Act; and
(ii) the agency reports required under section 5.

     Thanks to Fedblog for reporting on this. Social Security has the website. There is an official agency plan. Robin Kaplan is in charge of the effort at Social Security.

     I suggest starting with the form letter that Social Security uses to tell people that a hearing office has received a request for hearing. At least, I think the one I have seen here for decades is used nationally. It tells claimants that they will receive 20 days notice of a hearing. I think that half the people receiving that letter think that their hearing is coming up within 20 days after they receive the letter when their hearing may actually be a year or more later. I know that is a misreading but one part of plain writing is trying to reduce misunderstandings.

Scripps Papers Say Social Security Has Released Confidential Information On 400,000 People

From the Scripps newspaper chain:

The Social Security Administration has failed to inform tens of thousands of Americans it accidentally released their names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers in an electronic database widely used by U.S. business groups....

Reporters at newspapers and television stations owned by the E.W. Scripps Co. interviewed dozens of people nationwide who have had security breaches because of what Social Security officials call "inadvertent keying errors" by federal workers when entering what was supposed to be information only about dead people. None reported that the agency warned them about the breach of their confidential information.

Most of those erroneously listed as dead who were contacted for this story said they only found out about the agency's mistakes when they suffered adverse events like frozen bank accounts, canceled cellphones, refused job interviews, declined credit-card applications, denied apartment leases or refused mortgage and student-assistance loans. ...

Social Security officials admit that, each year, they accidentally release the personal information of about 14,000 living Americans by posting their files among the records of 90 million deceased Americans.

If their estimate is accurate, confidential data about more than 400,000 living Americans have been released since 1980 when the DMF became public under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

Your Tax Dollars At Work

Social Security has released Baby Names Playroom, an app for iPhones.

Additions To Compassionate Allowance List

Social Security has issued a press release touting the addition of the following to its Compassionate Allowance list:

• Malignant Multiple Sclerosis
• Paraneoplastic Pemphigus
• Multicentric Castleman Disease
• Pulmonary Kaposi Sarcoma
• Primary Central Nervous System Lymphoma
• Primary Effusion Lymphoma
• Angelman Syndrome
• Lewy Body Dementia
• Lowe Syndrome
• Corticobasal Degeneration
• Multiple System Atrophy
• Progressive Supranuclear Palsy
• The ALS/Parkinsonism Dementia Complex

Hearing Office Processing Time Report

Hearing Office Processing Time Report September 13, 2011

Former Social Security Employee To Be Sentenced

From the Gadsden (AL) Times:

A January sentencing date has been set for a former Social Security Administration employee who pleaded guilty to sending a white, powdery substance to two of her supervisors in 2009, according to federal court documents.

Michelle Holladay Ryder, 43, signed a plea agreement on Oct. 4 admitting that she mailed two letters from the Boaz Post Office that contained non-dairy creamer and included handwritten notes with derogatory remarks to two of her supervisors. ...

At the time the letters were mailed, Ryder worked at the Albertville Social Security office.

Susan Brown To Move To New Job In Seattle

I understand that Susan Brown, who has been in charge of Social Security's project to give attorneys and others who represent Social Security claimants online access to their clients' files,  will soon be moving to a different job. She will be the Regional Management Officer in the Seattle Region.

Quiz Answer

Question: Which of the following COUNTS as income for purposes of computing SSI benefits?

Possible Answers:

• The first $20 of most income received in a month;
• Income tax refunds
• Home energy assistance
• Assistance based on need funded by a State or local government
• Cash received as gifts from friends and family
• Small amounts of income received irregularly or infrequently
• Food or shelter based on need provided by a nonprofit agency

Correct answer: Cash received as gifts from friends and family

The Advocator Group Takes On The Hard Cases

This is from a press release:

You’re disabled, you’re not getting benefits, and you wonder if you’re entitled. But you’re also afraid of interacting with a federal bureaucracy, a paper intensive process, and giving one wrong answer that could disqualify you from benefits. You’re why The Advocator Group released Disability Answers, a free mobile app that tells disabled Americans whether they’ll qualify for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or Medicare. 

Try working through it. The big question is whether you have one of the 100 conditions on the compassionate allowances list. By the way, isn't that name, Advocator Group, lovely?

Update: The Washington Post has picked up on this press release. By the way, for anyone who can't figure it out, "Takes On The Hard Cases" is written sarcastically. The Advocator Group is only seeking cases that will be approved immediately with or without their help, the kind of case I don't take on because I don't want to rip off anyone, especially someone who is desperately ill.

Quiz

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