Op Ed On The SSI Marriage Penalty But It's More Complicated Than Presented

    There's an op ed in the New York Times on the marriage penalty in the SSI program which is preventing a couple who each have Down Syndrome from marrying. 

    The author completely misses or at least doesn't write about the strong possibility that the couple will soon be eligible for Disabled Adult Child (DAC) benefits, if they're not already. Marriage won't be a problem for DAC as long as both are eligible for DAC, which is itself crazy! DAC pays benefits on the Social Security account of a parent but the parent must be deceased or on benefits on their own account. Since the man with Down Syndrome is 44 and the woman is 40, their parents are at or near retirement age. Usually marriage ends DAC but not if you marry someone who is also eligible for DAC.

    I hate, hate, hate counseling someone newly entitled to DAC that they probably don't want to get married because it will probably end their DAC but it's my job. This may be the worst provision in the Social Security Act.

Overpayment Administrative Tolerance Changing From $1,000 To $2,000 Today

     From Emergency Message EM-24019:

... Effective May 13, 2024, we are updating the administrative waiver tolerance policy to improve customer service, reduce the burden to overpaid individuals, and increase front-line staff efficiency. We are implementing the following changes: ...

· Increased the administrative waiver tolerance amount from $1,000 to $2,000 for Title II and Title XVI. ...

    What does this mean? It means that if you have an overpayment below $2,000 it will now be waived pretty much automatically -- as long as you ask for waiver.

Another Social Security Blog Aimed At Claimants

     My firm has started a new blog directed at Social Security disability claimants, rather than Social Security professionals. It's called For The Frustrated Social Security Disability Claimant. Here are links to some recent posts:

• Some Grim Numbers

• Creamy Or Crunchy?

• Higher Taxes On Billionaires To Support Social Security?
  

• Why Does Social Security Turn Down So Many 100% Disabled Vets?

• Getting Your Papers In Order

• Twelve Secrets For Doing Your Best At Your Social Security Disability Hearing

• What's A BNC?

• There's Help For Frustrated Social Security Disability Claimants

• Don't Be Your Own Worst Enemy!

• Top Three Tips for Winning a Social Security Disability Case

• Social Security Disability: Working Despite the Pain

• Why Did The Rate At Which Social Security Disability Claims Were Filed Plummet After 2000?

 

Deep Red In More Than One Way

 

From a Social Security fact sheet

Does This Make You Feel Better?

     I don't know whether this will make the U.S. Social Security Administration feel any better about its own telephone service but it sounds like they're having similar problems in the United Kingdom, although I may have to explain that the entity that I'm linking to, Rightsnet, is a U.K. organization of people involved in helping those with social security problems in that nation. The image to the left mentions the two main types of social security disability benefits in the U.K.

Top Ten Baby Names For 2023

     As announced by Social Security:

Boys	Girls
1. Liam	1. Olivia
2. Noah	2. Emma
3. Oliver	3. Charlotte
4. James	4. Amelia
5. Elijah	5. Sophia
6. Mateo	6. Mia
7. Theodore	7. Isabella
8. Henry	8. Ava
9. Lucas	9. Evelyn
10. William	10. Luna

SSA Commissioner Touts Accomplishments

I can't tell. Is that logo in the center a physical object or generated electronically?

     From a Social Security website touting Commissioner Martin O'Malley's accomplishments during his first 100 days in office:

... Between November and April, SSA has reduced the average waiting time from 42 minutes to 24 minutes. Further, no one calling SSA receives busy signals and over 35 percent of our callers now receive a call back instead of holding. ...

SSA is updating its Program Operations Manual System (POMS) so agency employees are no longer forced to require wet signatures from customers where eSignature options are available. ...

[Since the agency's appropriations bill passed] Commissioner O’Malley has lifted the agency-wide hiring freeze and approved 1,600 critical hires for the teleservice centers. We also authorized 1,290 field office hires, 600 hires for the State disability determination services, and 300 hires for our hearing offices. ...

New Union Management Cooperation Councils (UMCCs) - which the Special Advisor to the Federal Labor Relations Authority described as being at the forefront of Union-Management collaboration - are engaged in productive and specific pre-decisional discussions between AFGE and SSA management on a variety of topics including improvements to new-hire training, which has been a key area for improvement towards retention of staff. 

Monthly Labor Roundtables and the UMCC provide regular opportunities to maintain an open dialogue between Labor and Management at all levels of SSA, which improves employee morale and efficient. ...

It's Official

     It's official. The fee cap on the amount that attorneys can charge Social Security claimants is going up to $9,200 on November 30.

Why The Overtime?

     Below is the recently released stat sheet concerning operations at Social Security's Office of Hearings Operations (OHO).

Click on image to view full size

    Why is OHO getting any overtime? These funds are urgently needed for other parts of the agency. 59,000 hours in April?

The Right Will Spin The Trustees Report As Showing That The Doomsday That They Have Always Predicted For Social Security Is Right Around The Corner But Actually The Report Is Good News This Year

     From a press release:

The Social Security Board of Trustees today released its annual report on the financial status of the health of the Social Security Trust Funds. The combined asset reserves of the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance (OASI and DI) Trust Funds are projected to have enough dedicated revenue to pay all scheduled benefits and associated administrative costs until 2035, one year later than projected last year, with 83 percent of benefits payable at that time.

In the 2024 Annual Report to Congress, the Trustees announced:

• The asset reserves of the combined OASI and DI Trust Funds declined by $41 billion in 2023 to a total of $2.788 trillion.
• The total annual cost of the program is projected to exceed total annual income in 2024 and remain higher throughout the 75-year projection period. Total cost began to be higher than total income in 2021. Social Security’s cost has exceeded its non-interest income since 2010.
• The year when the combined trust fund reserves are projected to become depleted, if Congress does not act before then, is 2035. At that time, there would be sufficient income coming in to pay 83 percent of scheduled benefits. ...

National Disability Forum On AI Scheduled For May 15

     From Social Security:

Save The Date – National Disability Forum

We will host the next virtual National Disability Forum (NDF) on Wednesday, May 15, 2024. The title is “How Artificial Intelligence May Affect the Landscape of Social Security - Part 2.” The event will take place through Microsoft Teams from 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. ET.

For more information about the NDF, we encourage you and your clients to visit our What’s New page at www.ssa.gov/news/advocates.html. You and your clients can email questions to OEA.Net.Post@ssa.gov.

94% Satisfaction Rate At Canada's OHO

     The Social Security Tribunal of Canada is something like the Office of Hearings Operations at the U.S. Social Security Administration except that it has a wider jurisdiction, taking in unemployment insurance as well. The folks at the Social Security Tribunal of Canada publish the results of quarterly client satisfaction  surveys. The surveys are taken after a hearing and before a decision. The most recent survey showed a 94% satisfaction rate.

    I wonder what that number would be in the U.S.

Critter Control Did Their Job

     On May 8 Social Security plans to reopen that Cleveland field office which had recently closed due to raccoons in the attic. I guess they're gone or nearly gone.

Social Security Fraud Leads To Lengthy Jail Terms

     From a press release:

Two Raleigh, North Carolina men, Joseph Kingsley Irona and Mamady Fadima Conde, were sentenced for conspiracy to commit money laundering. Both men previously pled guilty to the charge. Irona was sentenced to 84 months’ imprisonment and three years of supervised release. Conde was sentenced to 60 months’ imprisonment and five years of supervised release. ...

According to court documents and other information presented in court, Irona and Conde were involved in a highly complex network of bank accounts at multiple financial institutions. This network was used for laundering over $1 million criminal proceeds derived from various fraud schemes, particularly identity theft. One particularly intricate scheme involved the misuse of stolen victim identifiers to submit online applications for Social Security retirement benefits in victims’ names. After the applications were approved, the resulting payments were unlawfully deposited into accounts within the money laundering network, including accounts held by Irona and Conde. After receiving criminal proceeds, Irona and Conde took elaborate steps to dissipate the funds and obscure their source and destination. ...

Tiny Feet Scurrying Around Over Your Head

     From a Cleveland television station:

The Social Security office in Middleburg Heights, on Pearl Rd., is temporarily closed due to a raccoon infestation.

People trying to take care of business Wednesday at the office found locked doors and signs stating the closure. ...

Michael Murphy, President of Local 3448 of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), said problems with raccoons inside the office have been building.

“These employees were reporting concerns of noises above the ceiling as far back as January,” Murphy said. “The staff said five raccoons were removed from the building as of yesterday.” ...

    I've had racoons in my attic. Getting rid of them is expensive. Keeping them from coming back may be even more expensive.

How Much Do VEs and MEs Make?

     This is from a Freedom of Information Act response that Social Security posted recently.

You Get What You Pay For

     Social Security has decided to post a Freedom of Information Act response they've given showing the rates at which the Alabama Disability Determination Section (DDS) paid for medical examinations and some other things they ordered. This is from 2020 so it's a bit out of date but take a look. I'm only posting the first page here. The whole thing which runs to 20 pages is linked above. The last page may surprise you a bit.

    Don't these rates seem a little low -- or maybe a lot low?

Click on image to view full size

Results Of An SSI Outreach Project

 

    From The Hill:

... SSA mailed outreach letters to individuals informing them of potential eligibility for Supplemental Security Income (SSI), a program that provides modest cash benefits and access to Medicaid for low-income disabled and elderly individuals. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) forcefully pushed for the outreach during a Senate Finance hearing in 2021.   

Wyden’s push and SSA’s actions did much to help impoverished disabled and elderly citizens, with SSA indicating the outreach will increase lifetime SSI payments to these individuals by about $530 million. 

The cost of the outreach totaled $32 million, implying the ratio of benefits received by the public to the cost of the outreach is 17 to 1. Mailing informational letters, part of SSA’s Equity and Outreach initiatives, proved to be a highly efficient mechanism to help individuals in poverty.  ...

SSA’s outreach was targeted to Social Security beneficiaries who had very low Social Security benefit amounts and, therefore, might qualify for some SSI benefits. ...

    Here's a link to Social Security's report on this project.

Not Good News For Those Who Love Telework

 

    From WISH-TV:

A former Social Security Administration employee has been charged with one count of wire fraud after officials say he defrauded the organization for over three years. …

According to court documents, Christopher Markham, 40, had been employed by the administration and assigned to an office in Anderson. 

Between February 2019, and June 2022, documents say Markham “made it appear” he was teleworking his full-time job for the SSA during regular workdays. But instead, he was working as a home inspector for his own company, Markham Inspection Services. 

Markham continued to collect his full federal salary and benefits from the SSA at the time, attorneys said.

The release says Markham “routinely” performed home inspections, making it appear as though he was teleworking while working for the SSA, while hiding that he was not performing administrative work by allowing his wife and mother access to his Social Security Administration computer to send emails. …

Creamy Or Crunchy?

     From Nextgov/FCW:

...The longer arc of this agency is a phenomenally dedicated, committed, compassionate culture. [SSA staff has] been traumatized by the increased volume and nine years of steady staff reductions, given the lack of any Congressional attention to our budget or even the decency of our own appropriations hearings, said [Social Security Commissioner Martin] O'Malley” ...

The SSI program “purports to be a program of last resort,” but “forces the poorest of people to jump through hoops, stand on their head and gargle peanut butter in order to qualify for it,” he told lawmakers at a recent hearing. ...