Another Expensive Report Destined To Gather Dust

     Several researchers at Mathematica has done a study for Social Security on Employment Experiences of Young Adults and High Earners Who Receive Social Security Disability Benefits: Findings from Semistructed Interviews. The report is 131 pages. It certainly cost Social Security tens of thousands of dollars, maybe hundreds of thousands. There's nothing wrong with the report. I'm sure the researchers did a competent job. It's just that it's worthless. It repeats what everyone who's looked at the situation already knew. In the end, they recommend that Social Security offer case managers or community liaisons to assist claimants who want to return to work and, of course, they recommend more research. I think that new employees of Beltway Bandits like Mathematica must learn on their first day at work that every report they produce must include a self-serving recommendation for more research.
     Social Security doesn't have the money for case managers. The agency does have enough money to waste on this sort of pointless research, however. Even though it's worthless, the research is relatively inexpensive compared to what it would cost to actually do something worthwhile.  Paying Mathematica for a useless report allows Social Security to pretend that it's doing something about returning disability recipients to work. 

     I don't want to be too critical of Social Security. Nothing they would do if they had the money would make that much difference anyway but they don't have the money to do anything other than pay Beltway Bandits for useless reports.

Whistleblowers Allege Lack Of Accountability

     From WSAZ:

A decade after first sounding the alarm about an alleged scheme to defraud the Social Security Administration over disability claims, Jennifer Griffith and Sarah Carver are now speaking out. 

In 2011, Griffith and Carver filed a whistleblower lawsuit against attorney Eric Conn, former Social Security Administrative Judge David Daugherty and Psychologist Dr. Alfred Adkins ...

Despite the arrests, both Griffith and Carver say the current indictments aren't enough. ...

"I do think there should be more people because there were more people within the agency that were allowed to either retire early or were promoted," Sarah Carver said. "Several of the managers that were in management throughout this time that this was all going on, several were still there or have received major promotions. It's the lack of accountability that I feel is an issue." 

After exposing this scheme, Griffith and Carver say they were harassed while still working at the Huntington Social Security office by their superiors and even their own fellow co-workers....

Carver says during the investigation, she was forced to work in a room by herself at the Social Security office eight hours a day for 10 months. She says during that time, Eric Conn and others hired a private investigator to follow her around, in hopes of getting her fired from her job....

How Does SSA Still Get Away With Using Phony Vocational Evidence?

     The Indiana Lawyer has a nice article on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals' refusal to accept the highly dubious vocational evidence that Social Security uses in deciding on disability claims. It makes you wonder why other circuits aren't following the 7th Circuit's lead.

Why Can't I Download Files?

     When an attorney needs a copy of his or her client's file, the attorney can go online and ask for a copy of the entire electronic file. It's not immediately available. Usually, though, it's available within an hour or two. That system isn't working now and hasn't been working since April 4. In fact, the system seems to have completely or near completely shut down. No files are available for pickup. I am sure that Social Security knows there's a problem but there's been no notification about the problem or when it might get fixed. It would be nice if we could hear something.

Newsflash: There's No Free Lunch

     Social Security's Office of Chief Actuary recently completed a set of estimates on the effects of a wide range of proposals concerning Social Security disability benefits. Here are some estimates that may surprise you:

• Implementing any type of benefit offset scheme would cost money, not save money;
• Changes to the grid regulations would have only a minor effect;
• Changes to evidence submission rules would have a negligible effect;
• Eliminating reconsideration would cost money although not that much
• A change to suspend benefits or offset benefits due to the receipt of unemployment insurance benefits would have a negligible effect;
• Any changes in program integrity would have almost no effect.

     If you want to have a significant effect on the Disability Insurance Trust Fund, you either have to make it much more difficult to get on benefits or reduce benefit payments or raise taxes. You're not going to accomplish much without making a lot of people mad.

Eric Conn Arrested

     From WSAZ:

Disability attorney Eric Conn, who has faced accusations of colluding with a judge to rig Social Security cases, is in custody Monday night in the Pike County Detention Center, according to the jail’s website. 

Conn is being held for U.S. Marshals, the jail reports. 

He was booked at 7:15 p.m. Monday. No bond has been set. 

The charges against Conn are conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, conspiracy to retaliate against a witness, destruction of records in a federal investigation, false statements, transactional money laundering, and conspiracy to structure currency transactions.

     Update: Here's a link to the indictment. David Daugherty and Alfred Adkins were also indicted.It's alleged that Conn was giving former ALJ Daugherty $9,000 to $9,500 per month in cash. If that's accurate, both Conn and Daugherty were amazingly stupid but if that's what they did, I don't understand why it took so long to indict.

It's Like Pregnancy

     There have been many complaints about long delays in releasing fees to attorneys who represent Social Security claimants. These fees are withheld from the back benefits of the claimants involved. The Social Security Administration receives a user fee for their costs in withholding and paying these fees. I hear that in a recent telephone call with Social Security management about the problem the National Organization of Social Security Claimant Representatives (NOSSCR) was told that the agency didn't even consider a fee payment to be delayed unless the delay was more than nine months!

     If you were deliberately trying to drive attorneys out of the practice of Social Security law, this would be a good way to do it.

Lies, Damn Lies And Zombie Lies

      Neil Buchanan explores two important question: Why do Republicans keep lying about Social Security and why does mainstream media keep repeating those lies? Paul Krugman calls them "zombie lies" because you just can't kill them.

Social Security Headcount Holds Steady

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has posted updated figures for the number of employees at the Social Security Administration as of the end of calendar year 2015:

• December 2015 65,518
• September 2015 65,717
• June 2015 65,666
• March 2015 64,432
• December 2014 65,430
• September 2014 64,684
• June 2014 62,651
• March 2014 60,820
• December 2013 61,957
• September 2013 62,543
• June 2013 62,877
• March 2013 63,777
• December 2012 64,538
• September 2012 65,113
• September 2011 67,136
• December 2010 70,270
• December 2009 67,486
• September 2009 67,632
• December 2008 63,733
• September 2008 63,990

The Real Social Security Disability Fraud?

     Steve Berenson of the Thomas Jefferson School of Law has written for the DePaul Journal for Social Justice about what he considers The Real Social Security Disability Fraud(s).