Do Not Fold, Spindle Or Mutilate

How many are now familiar with that once familiar phrase, “Do not fold, spindle or mutilate”?

Punch card operations at Social Security in 1930s

Political Appointments At Social Security

     One of the items that Social Security recently posted is a list of Non-Career Senior Executive Service employees as of last September. See below. Somebody can correct me if I'm wrong but I believe these are the political appointments at Social Security that's don't require Senate confirmation.

     By the way, I had posted about Mr. Sliwka before. I didn't realize he was a political. At least nominally, he's the person in charge of Covid-19 preparedness. You never know about politicals, though, particularly in the Trump Administration.

Draft Bill Gives Little New Funding To SSA But Does Protect ALJs

     From a press release:

The House Appropriations Committee today released the draft fiscal year 2021 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (LHHS) funding bill, which will be considered in subcommittee tomorrow. The legislation includes funding for programs within the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and other related agencies, including the Social Security Administration. ...

$13 billion for the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) operating expenses, with an increase of $100 million above the FY 2020 enacted level to hire additional staff at field offices, teleservice and processing centers and improve public services. ...

• Continuing Disability Reviews—The bill includes a new provision prohibiting the Social Security Administration from finalizing or implementing a new rule that would significantly increase the number and frequency of CDRs, cutting benefits to Social Security and SSI disabled beneficiaries.   
   
• Administrative Law Judges—The bill includes a new provision prohibiting the Social Security Administration from finalizing or implementing a proposed rule that would replace an individual’s right to appeal their denied application for Social Security or SSI benefits before an independent Administrative Law Judges at a hearing, with an appeal before an SSA staff attorney.

     Note that $100 million is less than 1% of the budget. Even in a time of recession, this may not be enough to cover inflation. I don't this this would lead to any new hiring.

Kiosks Coming To Field Offices

     From a Request For Information recently posted by the Social Security Administration:

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is improving its field office kiosk technology for visitors to check-in and perform simple self-help services.  We seek a solution easily usable by all members of the public that visit our field offices and accessible to people with a disability.  The kiosks will be:

• Standalone, enclosed units
• Ruggedized for use in semi-supervised locations 
• Zero client based systems
• USB attached peripheral devices installed inside the kiosk cabinet 
• Meet agency accessibility and usability requirements

The agency will design and host the software on its own infrastructure.  This includes software accessibility features that rely on hardware components.  For instance, the software is designed to start a screen reader when a user inserts a headphone jack into the kiosk and this will require headphone jack sockets that include a tip switch that detects the insertion and removal of a headphone jack.

The government provided software for the check-in kiosk is nearly complete. We have an immediate need to install several hundred to a couple thousand check-in kiosks within 12-18 months. 

Because the check-in kiosk solution needs to be deployed in the near future, we are interested in cabinet designs that are already “on the shelf” and will require little modification.  If costs and timelines are not impacted, we may consider a custom cabinet design.

Why Are Simple Things So Hard?

     What's it like dealing with Social Security these days? Here's a sample. Client gets approved. The field office needs a copy of his birth certificate. Client's father was in the military and assigned overseas when the client was born, overseas. His birth was registered with the U.S. embassy of the country where he was born. That's the way these things are done. The client reports back to me that the field office told him that the Department of State birth registration form isn't good enough. I wonder if someone at the field office doesn't know that this sort of document meets the agency's requirements or if there's some other problem. It takes two weeks and several phone calls before someone at the field office calls back to say the State Department form is fine. It's just that the client faxed it to them and they need to see the original. They never told the client this was the problem. They must have given the client their fax number. We didn't. The field office suggests that the client come around to the back door of the office and knock.  Someone should be there to inspect the original and give it back to the client. We were told they were doing this sort of thing regularly. We hadn't heard they were doing this. Certainly, the client hadn't been told they were doing that. Remember, the field office gave the client their fax number and only later decided that the faxed copy wasn't good enough but then failed to tell the client what he needed to do.

     Who knows whether other field offices are doing this back door business?

     Dealing with Social Security has always been harder than it should be. It's much harder now.

ALJ Training Notebook

     As part of its long list of proactive disclosures, Social Security has released its 2019_ALJ Training Materials It's more than 1,000 pages long. The vast majority of it, if not all of it, is material that was already available to the public. Someone with more time on their hands than me may be able to comb through it and find new material. It may be a useful desk book for attorneys representing claimants since it contains most of the policies that Administrative Law Judges are supposed to follow.

SSA Starting To Track Seila Law Objections

     I can't confirm it but there's a report that Social Security is starting to track Seila Law objections to ALJs holding hearings and issuing decisions. This is going to be a nightmare if the Commissioner doesn't resign. Gambling on the Supreme Court finding that it's much more important for the President to manage the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency that most people have never heard of, than the Social Security Administration which sends a monthly check to one person in five in this country sounds insane to me.
     If you're an attorney representing Social Security claimants and you're not filing Seila Law objections you must have paid no attention to what happened with Lucia. I got a bunch of cases remanded because of Lucia. Did you? Don't miss the boat again.

SSA Releases Big Batch Of Proactive Disclosures

      Social Security has an office whose job is responding to requests made under the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA). They respond directly to those making the requests but from time to time they also post "Proactive Disclosures" online, apparently derived from items they're already disclosed in response to individual requests. They're just made a huge dump of 51 Proactive Disclosures. I'll pull out some items to post about here when I have time but you may want to take a look at the list now.

     By the way, they have lists of Top 100 Firms & Reps by Fee and Top 300 Fee Payments These lists are inaccurate. I know because my name and my firm's name are on the lists. I know the figures given for me and my firm are way off. I have no idea how they could be so far off. I also caution that those who have never tried to practice Social Security law have no clue about the expenses involved or the sort of investment required. The profit margin, when there is one, is a much smaller percentage than you would think. If you think that practicing Social Security law is a fast track to riches, I invite you to give it a try but know that there will be months, especially in the first few years or if there's a pandemic, when you have to sweat covering your overhead. There are reasons almost no one is leaving the employment of the Social Security Administration to hang out a shingle and represent claimants.

OHO Receipts Starting To Level Off

Click on image to view full size

Social Security's Regulatory Agenda

     Below is Social Security's Regulatory Agenda as of this summer. Proposed rule stage means that no proposal has been published in the Federal Register for comments. Final rule stage means that the proposed rule has been published in the Federal Register for comments. Social Security is dealing with the comments. In one case, the Musculoskeletal Listings changes, the agency has sent a proposed final rule to the Office of Management and Budget for review prior to publication as a final rule. How many of these will be completed by next inauguration day?

Agency	Stage of Rulemaking	Title	RIN
SSA	Proposed Rule Stage	Minimum Monthly Withholding Amount for Recovery of Title II Benefit Overpayments (3752P)	0960-AH42
SSA	Proposed Rule Stage	Use of Electronic Payroll Data To Improve Program Administration	0960-AH88
SSA	Proposed Rule Stage	Administrative Rules For Non-Attorney Representatives and Claimant Representatives	0960-AI22
SSA	Proposed Rule Stage	Privacy Act Exemption: Anti-Fraud Enterprise Solution (AFES)	0960-AI31
SSA	Proposed Rule Stage	Revising Evaluation of Vocational Factors in the Disability Determination Process	0960-AI40
SSA	Proposed Rule Stage	Revised Medical Criteria for Evaluating Cardiovascular Disorders	0960-AI43
SSA	Proposed Rule Stage	Civil Monetary Penalties, Assessments and Recommended Exclusions	0960-AI49
SSA	Final Rule Stage	Revised Medical Criteria for Evaluating Musculoskeletal Disorders (3318P)	0960-AG38
SSA	Final Rule Stage	Revised Medical Criteria for Evaluating Digestive Disorders and Skin Disorders	0960-AG65
SSA	Final Rule Stage	Hearings Held by Administrative Appeals Judges of the Appeals Council	0960-AI25
SSA	Final Rule Stage	Rules Regarding the Frequency and Notice of Continuing Disability Reviews	0960-AI27
SSA	Final Rule Stage	Improved Agency Guidance Documents	0960-AI47
SSA	Final Rule Stage	Extension of Expiration Dates for Three Body Systems	0960-AI48