Dec 14, 2023
Dec 13, 2023
Now They Make It Public
I can't say whether this is related to the recent publicity concerning overpayments to Social Security claimants but the agency has decided to make public its longstanding policy of waiving overpayments of less than $1,000 in most cases. The policy has been around for a long time, at least for SSI cases, but
it was previously labeled "sensitive" in Social Security's manual and withheld from the public. Now
it's out there for everyone to see. The exception to these administrative waivers is cases where the claimant is at fault. My experience is that they only refuse to waive these small overpayments when it's obvious that the claimant is a bad actor.
Now, how about let's raise that amount from $1,000 to $5,000? How long has it been at $1,000? Also, how about waiving these without demanding that the claimant file a request for waiver? These waivers may be nearly automatic but the big catch is that you have to file a request for waiver. Most of these small overpayments aren't waived because the claimant doesn't know to request waiver or can't figure out how to complete a waiver request form or, perhaps more important, can't get through to a Social Security office to ask what to do.
Dec 12, 2023
How Many More Kids Should Be Drawing SSI?
From How Many Medicaid Recipients Might Be Eligible For SSI by Michael Levere and David Wittenburg for the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College:
Children’s participation in the federal Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program has declined substantially over the past decade. Many children with disabilities might be eligible for SSI, yet barriers such as a lack of knowledge of the program or perceived challenges with applying may limit participation. In this paper, we use machine learning models on Medicaid administrative data to estimate the number and characteristics of children who are potentially eligible for SSI but do not currently receive benefits.
The paper found that:
- A substantial number of children are potentially eligible for SSI. Depending on the exact probability used to define potential eligibility, the increase could likely range from 10 percent to 55 percent increase in enrollment (relative to the current number of SSI recipients). ...
Note that the title of the study is misleading. They're not talking about all potential SSI recipients; just children.
Dec 11, 2023
Support For Updating SSI
From a press release:
In the latest sign of strong momentum for U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown’s (D-OH) bipartisan legislation to fix the Social Security Income program, the executives of the eight leading banks in the United States endorsed the SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act. The legislation ... is the first bipartisan, bicameral bill to increase SSI’s asset limits and ensure disabled and elderly Americans can work and save for emergencies without putting at risk the benefits they rely on to live.
During the U.S. Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee’s annual hearing with the big bank executives, Brown described how SSI’s outdated eligibility rules lock beneficiaries in poverty and that his bill – co-sponsored by BHUA Committee member Sen. Rounds and already supported by JP Morgan Chase – would raise the asset limit. When asked if the executives would join in supporting the bill, each of them confirmed they supported the measure. ...
Introduced in September 2023, the bill is also endorsed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Microsoft, Transunion, the Kroger Company, the Food Association, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, AARP, Bipartisan Policy Center, The Arc, National Association of Evangelicals, Faith and Freedom Coalition, Jewish Federations of North America, Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, American Academy of Pediatrics, Autism Society of America, CEO Commission for Disability Employment, Cure SMA, Coalition on Human Needs, Justice in Aging, Muscular Dystrophy Association, National Down Syndrome Society, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Prosperity Now, Social Security Works, and nearly 300 other local and national organizations. ...
Dec 10, 2023
Dec 9, 2023
Kijakazi And The Presidential Prayer Team
The Acting Commissioner of Social Security, Kililo Kijakazi, is listed as an Executive Prayer Leader for the Presidential Prayer Team, which apparently does what its name suggests. It organizes prayer on behalf of the President of the United States. Many members of Congress are members of the Presidential Prayer Team, including many Republicans who certainly don't give one the impression that they regard Joe Biden as their brother in Christ.
Dec 8, 2023
Kijakazi Made A Mistake
From Government Executive:
The Social Security Administration has demanded money back from more than 2 million people a year — more than twice as many people as the head of the agency disclosed at an October congressional hearing.
That’s according to a document KFF Health News and Cox Media Group obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Acting Commissioner of the Social Security Administration Kilolo Kijakazi read aloud from the document during the hearing but repeatedly left out an entire category of beneficiaries displayed on the paper as well. ...
The document obtained via FOIA shows that the numbers Kijakazi gave at the hearing covered only two of the three Social Security benefit programs. They did not cover Supplemental Security Income, or SSI ...
Kijakazi should have included the SSI numbers or made it clear that she wasn't including them but to defend her more than she deserves, the Social Security Subcommittee has no jurisdiction over SSI. Perhaps more important, while SSI is part of the Social Security Act (Title XVI of it), most of the titles of the Social Security Act cover things like Medicare that aren't generally considered part of "Social Security." To the extent that we consider SSI as part of "Social Security" it's because the Social Security Administration, uh, administers it. Generally, Title II of the Social Security Act (providing old age, survivor and disability benefits based upon work credits) is always what people are thinking about when they refer to "Social Security" but sometimes they're also thinking about SSI.
Dec 7, 2023
What's At Stake For SSA With Generative AI
The Acting Commissioner of Social Security recently made the decision that the agency will, for now, have no involvement with Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI). While I have a healthy skepticism that AI will ever have much role in taking or adjudicating Social Security claims, there's one area where Generative AI may be of considerable assistance and that's dealing with the COBOL problem. Social Security's most important computer programs are written in the ancient COBOL programming language. Many other agencies and private companies are similarly dependent upon COBOL. Schools are no longer teaching COBOL. Computer programmers don't want to work with it. Few programmers are available to work on COBOL programs and those programmers have long since gone gray.
IBM, and probably others, have decided that Generative AI may be the cure for COBOL problems. There would be no need to laboriously rewrite all the old programs in newer programming languages. AI would quickly rewrite the old COBOL programs in modern computer programming languages. Programmers would be more widely available for modern computer languages. Corrections and improvements to existing programs would become easier. That would be a godsend to Social Security, if it works.
Dec 6, 2023
Social Security Says Don't Rely On SkillTRAN For Numbers Of Jobs
From Emergency Message EM-21065 REV, Guidelines for Using Occupational Information in Electronic Tools issued yesterday (emphasis added):
In making disability determinations, SSA relies primarily on the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) (including its companion publication, the Selected Characteristics of Occupations (SCO)) for information about the requirements of work in the national economy. The SSA Digital Library hosts three searchable databases developed by SkillTRAN for the DOT. Adjudicators may use these tools to help make an assessment at step four (see 20 CFR 404.1560(b)(2) and 416.960(b)(2)) or step five (see 20 CFR 404.1566(d), 404.1568(d)(2), 416.966(d), and 416.968(d)(2)) of the sequential evaluation process. ...
- [The three searchable databases] contain
DOT and SCO occupational information developed by the United States
Department of Labor (DOL). This information is useful, but it does not
replace SSA policy or adjudicative judgment and decision-making. While
the DOT and SCO are acceptable sources of occupational information for
adjudicating disability claims, they also contain (1) information that
must not be used in disability adjudication because our rules and subregulatory guidance do not permit it and (2) information of which we do not take administrative notice. ...
- Federal agencies now publish labor market information
by the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code. Those with
vocational expertise use various approaches to arrive at informed
estimates of numbers of jobs that exist within a DOT occupation. Results
may differ given the method used for the estimate. We have not reviewed
and do not specifically endorse the SkillTRAN proprietary algorithm. ...
To explain, in responding to hypothetical questions, vocational experts testifying at hearings on Social Security disability claims give lists of jobs that a hypothetical claimant could perform. They also testify to the numbers of such jobs in the economy. The numbers of jobs figures come from a propriety program, SkillTRAN. I think that everyone who has looked at this issue, including Administrative Law Judges, knows that those SkillTRAN numbers are bull. Social Security is finally acknowledging this.
Will this affect cases where these numbers have already been cited in decisions? We'll see.
Dec 5, 2023
AI Out At Social Security, For Now
From Fedscoop:
The Social Security Administration has banned the use of generative artificial intelligence-based tools on agency devices, FedScoop has confirmed. The block, which is temporary, is meant to ensure the security of data and systems.
The agency’s block of these third-party tools was disclosed earlier this month in a management advisory report for this fiscal year, published by the SSA’s inspector general office. The report noted that the decision was made to protect personally identifiable information, along with health, sensitive and other non-public information, that risked being shared through the use of the technology.
The Social Security Administration said the block was a precautionary measure and that the agency has yet to use generative AI. When asked if the ban applies to agency laptops and mobile devices, a spokesperson said the block “is designed to be agency-wide.” ...
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