I've Been Talking About This For Years. It's Absurd. It's Abusive. Why Don't People Care?

     From the Washington Post:

A few weeks ago, with no notice, the U.S. government intercepted Mary Grice’s tax refunds from both the IRS and the state of Maryland. Grice had no idea that Uncle Sam had seized her money until some days later, when she got a letter saying that her refund had gone to satisfy an old debt to the government — a very old debt. 

When Grice was 4, back in 1960, her father died, leaving her mother with five children to raise. Until the kids turned 18, Sadie Grice got survivor benefits from Social Security to help feed and clothe them 

Now, Social Security claims it overpaid someone in the Grice family — it’s not sure who — in 1977. After 37 years of silence, four years after Sadie Grice died, the government is coming after her daughter. Why the feds chose to take Mary’s money, rather than her surviving siblings’, is a mystery. ... 

The aggressive effort to collect old debts started three years ago — the result of a single sentence tucked into the farm bill lifting the 10-year statute of limitations on old debts to Uncle Sam.

Pictures On Social Security Cards?

     From the Washington Post:

 As Republicans push for new voting restrictions around the country, a handful of Democrats have coalesced around an impromptu idea: placing a photo on Social Security cards.

 U.N. ambassador and civil rights activist Andrew Young — who chairs a nonpartisan voting rights group calledWhy Tuesday? — buttonholed President Obama and two of his predecessors in Texas this week in an effort to win their support for the concept. Former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter endorsed the idea, while the White House declined to comment.

     Update: Michael Hiltzik thinks this is a terrible idea.

House Oversight Committee Hearing

     The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing yesterday on Social Security's continuing disability reviews. Here are links to the written statements:

• Marianna LaCanfora, Acting Deputy Commissioner, Retirement and Disability Policy, Social Security Administration
• Patrick P. O’Carroll, Jr., Inspector General, Social Security Administration 
• Jennifer Nottingham, President, National Association of Disability Examiners  
• Daniel Bertoni, Director, Education, Workforce, and Income Security, U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO)
• Jennifer Shaw Lockhart, State Director, Sooner SUCCESS, The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center

      LaCanfora, O'Carroll  and Nottingham all talked about the limitations on continuing disability reviews caused by inadquate administrative funding. Bertoni, as is normal for witnesses from the GAO, said nothing of consequence other that the agency was doing a bad job and ought to be doing better without saying what exactly they should be doing different given budget restraints. I think that if GAO had its way agencies would spend 100% of their funding making sure that they don't misspend any money. I don't know what Lockhart was talking about. Her written testimony seemed to have nothing to do with Social Security.

Should Social Security Comb Through Social Media Postings By Disability Claimants?

     From the Washington Times:

Key members of Congress said Tuesday that two Social Security judges may have approved thousands of bogus disability claims, but the agency has never gone back to review those judges’ cases to stop the ones that were fraudulent.

Rep. James Lankford, Oklahoma Republican, and Rep. Jackie Speier, California Democrat, who head the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on health care, say Social Security employees should be allowed to look at the social media profiles of those applying for disability, reasoning that photos and other information people post can expose the applicants as able-bodied.

The lawmakers also said the agency should come up with a system to review cases from “red-flag” judges who show inclinations toward rubber-stamping applications.

In an exhaustive 11-page memo to Social Security acting Commissioner Carolyn W. Colvin, the lawmakers detailed nearly a dozen recommendations for improving a disability system that has received an explosion of applications in recent years and is in danger of going bankrupt by 2016.

Mr. Lankford and Ms. Speier said it was indefensible that the agency hasn’t reviewed applications approved by two administrative law judges, David B. Daugherty in West Virginia and Charles Bridges in Pennsylvania, who have been accused of making bogus disability determinations. ...

The oversight committee has been looking into the disability issue for some time and took testimony from Jasper J. Bede, a regional chief administrative law judge who told investigators that some judges appeared to be rubber-stamping applications.

Judge Bede singled out Judge Bridges, who decided more than 2,000 cases a year and who often went beyond looking at an applicant’s disability and considered income or other factors.

What Happens When An SSI Recipient Fails To Cash Their SSI Check?

     Social Security still issues some checks to Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients. What happens if they don't cash those checks? The Department of the Treasury, which actually cuts the checks, notifies Social Security that a check wasn't cashed within a reasonable time. You'd think that Social Security would then check to see what was going on. Is the intended recipient dead? Is the intended recipient in prison? Is the intended recipient in a nursing home and no one is taking care of his or her affairs? There's lots of possible explanations why a really poor person wouldn't cash a check and most of them suggest that Social Security should check to see what had happened. A recent report of Social Security's Office of the Inspector General suggests that most of the time nothing is done. Specifically, in 100 cases picked at random, nothing was done in 87 cases. 

     This sort of laxity can happen at any agency at any time but it's been happening a lot at Social Security in recent years and lack of adequate funding has a lot to do with it. There aren't enough warm bodies to get all the work done.

Online Social Security Card Replacement Coming

     From a contracting notice posted by the Social Security Administration:

SSA is developing an Internet-based Social Security Number (SSN) Replacement Card (iSSNRC) application to improve service to the public.

 iSSNRC will allow U.S. citizens who meet certain criteria to request replacement SSN cards online by completing an application and providing data from their U.S. State-issued drivers' licenses (DL) or U.S. State-issued identification (ID) cards as evidence of identity. SSA then needs to electronically verify that the DL or State ID card information entered matches the data on the issuing State's database for the document being verified.

Boldly Go

Watching TV At Headquarters

    From a contracting notice posted by the Social Security Administration:

The Social Security Administration (SSA), Office of Acquisition and Grants (OAG) ... is currently performing market research to determine the availability of sources to provide Community Antenna Television (CATV) and a high-speed internet solution for the headquarters campus. SSA's CATV port distribution system supports local and national network broadcasts throughout headquarters (HQ) and outlying campus buildings. We are looking for sources capable of providing and supporting business information channel lineups for a minimum of 500 ports. ...

Currently, 615 television ports are utilized across HQ campus buildings. ... Television requirements support SSA's executives, senior staff, senior management staff and technical support staff, as well as selected knowledge worker positions requiring real time news and communication. These features allow SSA staff to stay informed during events, weather situations, and emergencies. ...

Our current lineup includes ABC, CBS CNBC, CNN, CNN Headline News CSPAN 1, CSPAN 2, CSPAN 3, FOX, FOX News, Fox Business News, MPT MSNBC, NBC, PBS, and The Weather Channel. ...

The CATV network is also an alternate delivery method for Interactive Video Tele-training (IVT) broadcasts, which provides educational and training content to SSA HQ's components. We currently broadcast seven channels from three local studios and four regional studios. The agency supports a distribution system to insert agency programs that are broadcasted via the CATV network. ...

We request information from businesses that believe they have a bona-fide capability to meet the agency's requirements.

This Article Nails All The Social Security Disability Themes

     Here's an article that talks about these Social Security disability themes:

• It's wonderful when a person who draws Social Security disability can go back to work. We need to do more to encourage that.
• The number of people on Social Security disability benefits is soaring. It's an unsustainable burden for the government.
• Giving Social Security disability benefits to people hurts them because they should be working.
• Tightening the disability rules by making it impossible to get on benefits for obesity wasn't enough.
• Fraudulent claimants for Social Security disability benefits pay money for phoney medical reports.
• High unemployment rates lead to more people on Social Security disability benefits.
• Social Security disability benefits aren't enough to live on.

     The plot twist here is that it's about Australia.

Off Topic: Well, There's Your Problem