Chief Actuary Projects Effects Of Immigration Reform On Social Security

     From a June 28 letter from Social Security's Chief Actuary Stephen Goss to Senator Marco Rubio:

I am writing in response to your request for estimates of the long-range financial effects on Social Security of Senate Bill S. 744, as reported out by the Judiciary Committee, amended, and passed by the Senate on June 27. ...

We estimate that enactment of this Bill would increase asset reserves for the combined Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) and Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Funds by $284 billion by the end of 2024, and would extend solvency of the OASDI program for an additional 2 years ...

Telephone Problems At ODAR Today

     I'm hearing reports that Social Security's Office of Disability Adjudication and Review (ODAR) offices nationwide are experiencing telephone difficulties today. It's not clear to me whether this is affecting other parts of Social Security as well.

Some Agencies Were Prepared For Supreme Court Decision On DOMA

     I wrote last week that Social Security seemed unprepared for the decision of the Supreme Court holding the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional. Some agencies were prepared for this decision. See the memo from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued just a day after Social Security issued staff instructions to hold all claims filed by those in same sex marriages.

Payment Delays Reported

     There is a report of delays in direct deposits of Social Security benefits in the Wichita, KS area. If this report is accurate, the fault lies not with Social Security but with the Department of the Treasury which processes the direct doposits -- but Social Security will get the calls.

Continued Decline In Number Of Emloyees At Social Security

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has posted updated figures for the number of employees at Social Security.These figures do not show the effects of reductions in overtime at Social Security.

• March 2013 63,777
• December 2012 64,538
• September 2012 65,113
• June 2012 65,282
• March 2012 65,257
• December 2011 65,911
• September 2011 67,136
• June 2011 67,773
• March 2011 68,700
• December 2010 70,270
• June 2010 69,600
• March 2010 66,863
• December 2009 67,486
• September 2009 67,632
• December 2008 63,733
• September 2008 63,990
• September 2007 62,407
• September 2006 63,647
• September 2005 66,147
• September 2004 65,258
• September 2003 64,903
• September 2002 64,648
• September 2001 65,377
• September 2000 64,521

     Since the Republicans took control of the House of Representatives in January 2011, there has been a 9% decline in the number of employees at the Social Security Administration. 6,493 employees lost in about two and a half years at a time when the agency's workload is burgeoning.

Education Is So Important

    I think this chart from a recent Urban Institute report is interesting. (DI = Disability Insurance):

SSA Unprepared For SCOTUS Decision On DOMA

     Social Security has sent out its first staff instruction on what to do with same sex marriages in the wake of the Supreme Court decision that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional. The instruction is to "Take and hold all claims by individuals who are filing for benefits that are dependent upon the existence of a same-sex marriage." This is not just for those who have moved from the state in which they were married. This is for all cases. The instruction to 800 number operators is to "Please advise callers that we are working with the Department of Justice to review the decision and how it impacts our programs -- including benefits administered by this agency – to ensure that we implement the decision swiftly and smoothly."
     The Supreme Court decision that DOMA is unconstitutional didn't come as a surprise to anyone who had been paying attention. I think that Social Security could have been better prepared. How long will it take them -- and the Department of Justice -- to write staff instructions?

AP Report On Today's Hearing

     From an AP piece:

Driven to reduce a huge backlog of disability claims, Social Security is pushing judges to award benefits to people who may not deserve them, several current and former judges told Congress Thursday. 

Larry Butler, an administrative law judge from Fort Myers, Fla., called the system "paying down the backlog." 

A former Social Security judge, J.E. Sullivan, said, "The only thing that matters in the adjudication process is signing that final decision." Sullivan is now an administrative law judge for the Department of Transportation.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is investigating why many judges have high approval rates for claims already rejected twice by field offices or state agencies. Two current and two former judges spoke at a subcommittee hearing. ...

None of the judges who testified spoke of being specifically ordered to award claims. Three said they had been pressured to decide cases without fully reviewing medical files.

The judges described a system in which there is very little incentive to deny claims, but lots of pressure to approve them. It requires more documentation to deny a claim than to approve one, said Sullivan, the former Social Security judge. Also, rejected claims can be appealed while approved claims are not.

Some ALJ Testimony

     Some excerpts from the written statements of witnesses at today's hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee:

• Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Larry Butler (31% reversal rate): "The Social Security disability programs are bankrupt. ... Is SSA managing the disability system for the primary benefit of genuinely disabled individuals and taxpayers or has the disability system became a “cash cow” for other “stakeholders” (attorney and non-attorney representatives, medical providers paid through the Medicare and Medicaid programs, pharmaceutical companies, and others)?...  Did SSA management intentionally adopt or implicitly approve a policy now referred to as “paying-down-the-backlog” in order to reduce the backlog? 
• ALJ Thomas Snook (30% reversal rate): I am a Judge in name – but no one works for me. Moreover, I am judge who, according to our Chief Judge, has no authority over the personnel in my courtroom. In fact, I cannot even set the time and place of a hearing. Former Commissioner Astrue took this authority away from me. ... An outstanding attorney who practices before me recently phrased it differently: “The disability system has turned into a cottage industry for certain claimants’representatives.” He was referring to large firms who use TV advertising and other methods to sign up clients. Claimants’ representatives collectively make $1.7 billion in fees annually. That is a large cottage industry. The largest claimants’ firm Binder and Binder was according to the Wall Street Journal was bought by a hedge fund. [Actually, a private equity firm. There is a difference. Hedge funds don't acquire businesses, just securities.] ... Social Security is an Agency that doesn’t listen to its judges. In fact, the line judges are union members because the Agency refused to talk to us. 
• ALJ Drew Swank (16% reversal rate):  Social Security disability programs, however, were never designed to be a safety net for the jobless or a substitute for unemployment insurance compensation. Furthermore, there is an inherent inconsistency with the notion that a person can switch back and forth between working when the economy is good and coll ecting disability benefits when the economy is bad. ... Working or not, disabled or not, people are increasingly seeing Social Security disability benefits as a relatively easy means of earning a lifetime of government payments, and a gateway to a host of other government entitlement programs. ...  “Pay so they go away” has been an unsuccessful strategy in reducing the hearing backlog, and it will never work. For every individual improperly awarded disability benefits, there will be an incentive for others who likewise do not qualify to apply for them as well — adding to the backlog.

Round Up The Lowest Allowing ALJs And Call Them Models?

     Here's the witness list for tomorrow's hearing before the House Oversight Committee, with the reversal rates for each of the Administrative Law Judges in parentheses after their name:

• The Honorable Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-Oklahoma), Ranking Minority Member, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, United States Senate
• Glenn E. Sklar, Deputy Commissioner, Disability Adjudication and Review, Social Security Administration
• The Honorable Larry J. Butler, Administrative Law Judge, Miami Office of Disability Adjudication and Review, Social Security Administration (31%)
• The Honorable Thomas W. Snook, Administrative Law Judge, Miami Office of Disability Adjudication and Review, Social Security Administration (30%)
• The Honorable J.E. Sullivan, Administrative Law Judge, Pittsburgh Office of Administrative Law Judges, U.S. Department of Labor (14%)
• The Honorable Drew A. Swank, Administrative Law Judge, Pittsburgh Office of Administrative Law Judges, U.S. Department of Labor (16%)
• Thomas D. Sutton, Board of Directors, National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives

     Are these ALJs the committee's majority considers to be models? I don't know any of these ALJs but I wonder whether, after meeting them, the Republican committee members will still consider all of them to be admirable.