Pete Peterson's Expensive Obsession

    From Jeff Palmer writing at Huffington Post:

You may or may not have heard of Peter G. Peterson, but he has been trying very hard lately to make you believe your Social Security is in jeopardy. ... Peterson has spent "at least $458 million," from 2007 to 2011, to make sure that you feel that you are about to lose your "entitlements" and that we have to deal with this immediately....

So who is this mystery master of manipulation? Peterson has spent decades on Wall Street, amassing a net worth of nearly three billion dollars. He has spent some time in politics, serving under President Nixon as Secretary of Commerce. He also co-founded infamous private equity juggernaut Blackstone Group. Sounds like your typical fat cat, right?

Not exactly. While most of Peterson's cronies make no bones about their right-wing politics, Peterson really wants you to think of him as nonpartisan. Peterson is definitely a conservative, but through his billion-dollar-endowed Peter G. Peterson Foundation, he has made a gargantuan effort to present himself as a friend of both sides of the aisle. Peterson has given grants to conservative think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute. But he has also given grants to the likes of the liberal Economic Policy Institute, and Peterson's foundation has brought the likes of Bill Clinton to its fiscal summit. 

By attempting to present himself as nonpartisan, Peterson has been able to set our nation's agenda. Both Democratic and Republican politicians are being told by their sources of information that Social Security needs reform, so Social Security reform has, of course, become a big political issue. Peterson isn't exactly throwing handfuls of money at grantees and yelling, "Tell everyone we have to reform Social Security!" But he is making his priorities our priorities.  

Many Field Offices Closed Indefinitely

     From a Social Security Administration website:

The following offices will open at 10 am ET today, November 2, 2012:
New Jersey
Somerville
New York
Freeport
Mineola
Patchogue
Riverhead
West Babylon
Melville

The following office is closing at 10 am ET  today, November 2, 2012:
New Jersey
Toms River

The following Social Security Offices are closed today, November 2, 2012:

New Jersey
Bricktown
Hackensack
Hoboken
Jersey City
Neptune
New Brunswick
Parsippany

New York
Hunts Point
Hylan Boulevard
Laconia Avenue

Pennsylvania
East Stroudsburg
Fairless Hills

---

The following Social Security Offices are closed indefinitely:

New York
Astoria	Long Island City
Avenue X	Manhattan Card Center
Bedford Heights	Melville
Boro Hall	Midtown
Bronx Card Center	Mineola
Bronx Hub	New Utrecht
Brooklyn Card Center	North Bronx
Bushwick	Patchogue
Canarsie	Queens Card Center
Cypress Hills	Rego Park
Downtown	Riverhead
Dunkirk	South Bronx
East Bronx	Staten Island
East Harlem	Uptown
East Village	Washington Heights
Flatbush	West Babylon
Flushing	West Farms
Freeport	West Seneca
Grand Central	White Plains
Jamaica	Williamsburg

---

The following Social Security Office is closed until further notice:
Massachusetts
Roxbury

      Is there damage to the offices that are closed indefinitely? If so, this is a serious situation. I hope it's just lack of power. I've been through a long power outage. It's tough but flooded offices are much worse. Good luck to all involved in straightening out this situation.

     Update: The lists above are confused. All the New York offices listed as reopening today are also on the "closed indefinitely" list! The Jamaica office is shown as closed indefinitely but is this just the field office or is the payment center included? An indefinite shutdown at the Jamaica payment center would truly be a disaster for Social Security.

Happy Birthday, SSI!

     This week marks the 40th anniversary of the creation of Supplemental Security Income (SSI). The program was signed into law by President Richard Nixon.

What's An "F" Quarter?

     Ordinarily, Social Security's earnings records display a "C" for a covered quarter, that is, a quarter with sufficient earnings for the claimant to be credited with coverage for that quarter, or an "N" for a quarter where the claimant lacks sufficient earnings to be credited with a quarter of coverage. I've just seen an earnings record with a bunch of quarters labeled "F." No dollar figures for earnings are displayed for these years. There are signs that this earnings record was confusing Social Security employees as well and that the quarters were treated as covered quarters.

     These are recent quarters. The claimant says he had an unremarkable job with a hospital in North Carolina. We don't have any state or local government employees in NC who aren't covered by F.I.C.A.

     Can anyone advise me on what these quarters represent?

Office Closure List Grows

     From a Social Security Administration website:

The following offices in West Virginia will have a delayed opening at 10:00am:
Beckley
Bluefield

The following Social Security Offices are closed today, October 31, 2012 [I think these offices are closed today, that this date is the error.]:

Michigan
Fort Gratiot

New Jersey
Brick
Clifton
Hackensack
Hoboken
Jersey City
Neptune
New Brunswick
Parsippany
Somerville
Toms River
Trenton
Union Township
Woodbridge

New York
Astoria
Avenue X
Bedford Heights
Boro Hall
Bronx Card Center
Bronx Hub
Brooklyn Card Center
Bushwick
Canarsie
Cypress Hills
Downtown
East Bronx
East Harlem
East Village
Far Rockaway
Flatbush
Flushing
Freeport
Grand Central
Hunts Point
Hylan Boulevard
Jamaica
Laconia Avenue
Long Island City
Manhattan Card Center
Melville
Midtown
Mineola
New Rochelle
North Bronx
Patchogue
Peekskill
Queens Card Center
Rego Park
Riverhead
South Bronx
Staten Island
Uptown
Washington Heights
West Babylon
West Farms
West Nyack
White Plains
Williamsburg
Yonkers

Ohio
Cleveland Northwest

Pennsylvania
East Stroudsburg
Fairless Hills

West Virginia
Elkins
Welch

---

The following Social Security Office is closed until further notice:

Massachusetts
Roxbury

Social Security Number Verification Problems

      From a recent report by Social Security Office of Inspector General (OIG) (footnote omitted):

In Fiscal Year (FY) 2009, SSA [Social Security Administration] implemented the CBSV program, which is a centralized, automated process that quickly assists companies with consent-based Social Security number (SSN) verification for non-program-related reasons. CBSV is available to private businesses as well as Federal, State, and local government agencies that need consent-based SSN verification. ...

SSA’s monitoring controls for the CBSV program need to be improved. The CBSV User Agreement requires that participating companies include the date of birth (DoB) on Form SSA-89.7 However, SSA did not require the DoB as part of the matching criteria for the CBSV program. As a result, SSA verified about 227,000 names and SSNs through CBSV without verifying DoB. Of the 227,000 transactions, 337 related to children who ranged in age from 2 months to 17 years. Because SSA verified the names and SSNs without a DoB, it did not alert participating companies to possible discrepancies between the DoBs provided by individuals and the DoBs recorded in SSA records. These false positive responses may have contributed to the misuse of children’s identities. We brought this issue to the Agency’s attention in a 2009 report, but SSA had not taken steps to require that participating companies submit the DoB as part of the verification request for the CBSV program.

SSA ... [said] that it was cost-prohibitive to change the CBSV system to incorporate the DoB in the verification process at this time. However, the Agency stated it would reevaluate this decision in the future, as resources allow. In the interim, the Agency plans to include more SSN verification disclosures related to minors’ records in the audit compliance review certified public accountants conduct for participating companies.

     The benefit as well as the problem with including the date of birth in the verification process is that it dramatically increases the number of people who are denied government benefit or employment due to Social Security's database. There is a benefit because people who are applying under a false Social Security number will be denied. The problem is that most of the discrepancies caught will be false positives, that is, people who are exactly who they say they are but for whom there is a mistake in the date of birth in Social Security's records or in the records of the requesting agency or employer. Each false positive is a person who is forced to correct a mistake that he or she did not create and who may suffer serious damage in the meantime. Correcting all the errors imposes a significant workload on Social Security at a time when the agency lacks a sufficient workforce to undertake its core functions.

Astrue Receives Award

     From a Social Security press release:

Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, received the 2012 President’s Award presented by The Arc [Asociation for Retarded Citizens], one of the largest charitable organizations in the United States that serves and advocates for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD).  The President's Award honors those whose work makes a positive impact upon The Arc, its future, and the people they serve.

“Throughout his tenure, Commissioner Astrue has demonstrated a steadfast commitment to addressing the needs of people with disabilities. Bringing his unique business perspective to the Social Security Administration, he revolutionized the way it has been run and helped better serve individuals with the most significant disabilities,” said Peter Berns, Chief Executive Officer of The Arc.  “Knowing that Social Security is not just numbers and getting checks out on time, but people’s lives, he has become a true ally to the disability community in our nation.  We are thrilled to be honoring him at our national convention.”

Informal Remands -- Have They Stopped?

     I had written earlier about Social Security's faltering efforts to speed up decisions for those who are in the long queue awaiting a hearing on their Social Security disability claims. I am now noticing that my firm, which has six attorneys doing Social Security work, hasn't received an informal remand (or re-recon) decision since June. Informal remands have been one of the most important ways of speeding favorable decisions for those who are disabled. Have informal remands stopped? Have the criteria used to make informal remand decisions changed? 

     Whatever is going on -- or not going on -- increases backlogs and slows down the process. We had progress on backlogs for a time but things seem to be going backwards at the moment. This retrograde movement may get a lot worse next year, depending upon the agency's operating budget and the new Commissioner's attitude. 

     I hate the idea of two year wait times for hearings. It's just brutal on claimants. The newspaper articles of a few years ago about suicides among claimants facing a two year wait for a hearing wasn't just media hype. At ground level, it was very real. I pray we don't go back there.

New Jersey Offices Remain Closed

    From a Social Security Administration website:

The following Social Security Office [sic] is closed today, October 31, 2012:
Michigan
Fort Gratiot

New Jersey
Brick
Clifton
Hackensack
Hoboken
Jersey City
Neptune
New Brunswick
Somerville
Toms River
Trenton
Union Township

Ohio
Cleveland Northwest

     At least Social Security's central offices and the Appeals Council have reopened.

A Replacement For The F.I.C.A. Cut

From the Washington Post:

The White House is weighing the idea of a tax cut that it believes would lift Americans’ take-home pay and boost a still-struggling economy, according to people familiar with the administration’s thinking ...

The tax cut could replace the [F.I.C.A.] payroll tax cut championed by President Obama in 2011 and 2012 ...

A growing number of voices have been calling on the White House and Congress to extend the payroll tax cut ...

The administration may be looking at alternatives to the payroll tax cut because some lawmakers, particularly Democrats, don’t like the idea of using a tax that ordinarily goes to fund Social Security. Any lost revenue as a result of the payroll tax cut has been offset by additional taxpayer money. Still, powerful interest groups such as the AARP have criticized using the payroll tax cut for short-term stimulus.