Dispute Over Office Relocation In Albuquerque

Congresswoman talking with people in line to enter SSA office

     From the NM Political Report (emphasis added):

Congresswoman Michelle Lujan Grisham is asking the head of the Social Security Administration to suspend a move of an office to a downtown Albuquerque call center. ...

The second-term member of Congress described people waiting outside with “no shade, no chairs, no benches, no anything.” She expressed concern that a move to the downtown call center would exacerbate these and other problems. ...

“The primary reason for our move is to provide an improved experience for our customers in the Albuquerque area,” Regional Communications Director of the SSA Dallas office Sarah Schultz-Lackey said in a statement provided to New Mexico Political Report Tuesday evening. “The new office will allow us to offer  streamlined customer service with more interviewing windows at the front of the office.”

“We will have a larger lobby in this new space with increased seating,” the statement continued.

Lujan Grisham says that there is not suitable parking for those seeking help from the Social Security Administration and the parking that is available is not free.

“Given that SSA refuses to validate visitor parking, your planned move will impose new expenses on many people who live at or near the poverty line,” she wrote.

Another parking issue Lujan Grisham identified is the lack of parking for disabled individuals. She wrote that there is no such parking in a two-block radius and “there is no disable drop-off zone next to the building.” ...

No Good Choice

    A TV station in Atlanta is reporting on the dilemma faced by many who are denied by one of Social Security's Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) -- appeal and fact horrendous delays with only a limited chance of success -- or start over again with a new claim and still face horrendous delays but stand a better chance of success. Oh, and if you choose the new claim route, you're almost certainly giving up on all the benefits up to the date of the ALJ denial even though in some cases the ALJ denial is just ridiculous.

     It's like they deliberately stacking the deck against you. There's no good choice.

Facebook Can't Challenge Subpoenas For Info On Those Accused Of Social Security Fraud

     From Reuters:

Facebook Inc cannot challenge search warrants New York prosecutors used to get information from its site on hundreds of users suspected of Social Security fraud, a state appeals court said on Tuesday, in a decision likely making it harder for New Yorkers to keep their digital lives private.

The warrants, which applied to 381 users' photos, private messages and other account information, could only be challenged by individual defendants after prosecutors gathered evidence, the Manhattan-based court unanimously ruled. ... 

The Manhattan District Attorney's office served the warrants on Facebook in 2013, seeking information on dozens of people later indicted for Social Security fraud, including police officers and firefighters who allegedly feigned illness in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks....

The court on Tuesday said the only way to challenge warrants was for defendants in criminal cases to move to suppress the evidence they produced.

Facebook spokesman said the company disagreed with the decision and was considering an appeal. 

A spokeswoman for the district attorney's office said prosecutors had secured nearly $25 million from people who were targets in the probe. 

"In many cases, evidence on their Facebook accounts directly contradicted the lies the defendants told to the Social Security Administration," she said. ...

Disability Trust Fund Numbers Released -- Why Don't We Just Make The Problem Go Away?

     The Social Security Administration has released the numbers on the operation of its Disability Insurance Trust Fund through the end of the second quarter of calendar year 2015. The Trust Fund stood at $50.8 billion as of the end of June. Here are some numbers showing how things have been going.

• The Disability Trust Fund lost $3.5 billion in the second quarter of this year compared to a loss of $4.1 billion in the second quarter of 2014. 
• The Trust Fund has lost $9.4 billion so far this year compared to a loss of $10.4 billion in the first half of last year.
• In the past four quarters the Trust Fund lost $29.2 billion, compared to a loss of $30.9 billion in the four quarters before that.

     The trend is clear. The Disability Insurance Trust Fund is losing money and will be exhausted in the not too distant future. However, it's not been losing ground as fast as it was. If the Trust Fund loses ground at the same rate as it has over the last year, it will barely limp into January 2017 before running out of money. If Trust Fund operations continue to improve as they have been improving lately, it will last a bit longer, until around the end of the first quarter of calendar year 2017. The only way you get the Trust Fund running out of money before the end of 2016, as Social Security's actuaries have done, is to project that the Trust Fund will start doing worse than it's been doing, which is certainly possible, but which seems unlikely at the moment.

     To remind readers, the Social Security Administration could dramatically change the prospects of the Disability Insurance Trust Fund, possibly preventing it from ever running out of money, by changing its position on benefit payments to those who are dually eligible for Disability Insurance Benefits and a Social Security Retirement or Survivors benefit. Now the dually eligible are always paid the Disability Insurance Benefit first and any extra benefit is paid out of the Retirement and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund. The statute doesn't require this. Reversing this doesn't require Congressional approval and doesn't affect any benefit payments either now or in the future. Why go through endless bickering and threats to disability claimants and recipients when it's easy to make the problem go away?

Motion Filed To Stop Hearings For Former Clients Of Eric Conn

     From WYMT:

He calls it a "planned assault" on nearly 1,500 people.

Attorney Ned Pillersdorf said a motion to stop social security benefit hearings was submitted to a federal judge.

The S.S.A. is reviewing benefits rewarded to disability attorney Eric C. Conn's clients. ...

Hearings are expected to being in September and will likely take months to finish.

     This is all I know, folks.

     Update: Pillersdorf has posted the pleadings on his firm's Facebook page.

Lawsuit Against Eric Conn Not Going So Well

     Eric Conn has been accused of defrauding Social Security by many, including a Congressional committee and 60 Minutes. However, Conn's problems really began with a qui tam action. Qui tam is a very odd type of lawsuit. A party, called a relator (not realtor) brings a lawsuit in the name of the government against a person whom they believe is defrauding the government. The government has to review the case to see if they believe it has enough merit that the government should take over the case. If the government declines, the case can still go forward but the relators must bear the burden of proceeding with the case. If the qui tam lawsuit is eventually successful in forcing the defendant to pay damages to the government, the relator gets part of the damages. In Eric Conn's case, the government declined to take over the case. That's a sign that the case being brought by the relator may lack merit, or at least enough merit that damages are likely. In Conn's case, the relators are going forward with the qui tam case, although it seems like the case is proceeding at a glacial pace. The most recent thing that's happened is that the Court has ruled on Conn's motion to dismiss the case. The Court has dismissed most, but not all, of the case. This link will only work for a couple of weeks. I hope it works for Social Security employees. Let me know.

     Many believe that Conn is clearly guilty of fraud. He may be guilty as sin. I don't know. I've written before that to me he seems more like a doofus than a criminal. Fraud is awfully difficult to prove. So far, no criminal charges have been brought against Conn. Social Security has not been able to even suspend Conn from practicing before the agency. This qui tam case may not be going so well for the relators. However, Conn's Social Security practice has almost certainly been ruined, probably permanently. The litigation expenses may well bankrupt him. If you're looking for him to be punished, that may be all you get.

Hard To Make A Living Representing Social Security Claimants

     Crain's Detroit, a business newspaper, is running an article on the business of representing Social Security claimants. I can say from personal experience that it's a difficult business to be in. The article notes this. The firms that the newspaper talked with had all decreased the number of attorneys doing Social Security work. Apparently, hearing backlogs in the Detroit area are far, far lower than they are where I'm practicing.

He Got Hooked

     From the Associated Press:

A Massachusetts man seen manning big fishing rods and harpooning huge fish on the reality show Wicked Tuna collected government benefits while claiming to be disabled and unable to work, federal prosecutors said.

Paul Hebert, 50, of Gloucester, Massachusetts, accepted more than $44,000 in Social Security and Medicaid benefits between 2010 and 2013, according to a four-count indictment filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Burlington.

One Sign Of The Field Office Backlogs

     An e-mail I received today from a legal assistant at my firm: "_____ [Field Office] is again telling people it will take them 90 days to even call the clients for the SSI resource interview after they have been approved."

     Actually, it probably won't take that field office that long to do an interview needed before benefits can be computed and paid but it tells you something about workloads at Social Security's field offices that one would say this to a desperately poor person who has just been found disabled.

     And a Social Security spokesperson recently used the phrase "world class service"?

What Entitlement Crisis?

    That "entitlement crisis"? Paul Krugman says it never existed. This chart seems to bear him out.