Headcount Inches Down

    The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has finally posted updated numbers showing the headcount of employees at each agency as of the fourth quarter of 2023. Note that these numbers do not tell the whole story. They don't account for part time employees nor for overtime. Overtime is a huge part of the story at Social Security. A Full Time Equivalent (FTE) report would cover that but we seldom see FTE reports.  Here are Social Security's numbers as of December with earlier headcount numbers for comparison:

• December, 2023 60,343
  
• September, 2023 61,410
  
• June, 2023 60,726
  
• March, 2023  59,400
• December, 2022 58,916
  
• September, 2022 57,754
  
• June, 2022 58,332
  
• March, 2022 59,257
  
• December, 2021 60,422
  
• December 2020 61,816
  
• December 2019 61,969
  
• December 2018 62,946
  
• December 2017 62,777
• December 2016 63,364
• December 2015 65,518
• December 2014 65,430
• December 2013 61,957
• December 2012 64,538
• December 2010 70,270
• December 2009 67,486
• December 2008 63,733

 

Final Regs On Law Firms Representing Claimants Cleared For Publication

     The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has cleared Social Security's proposed final rules on the recognition of law firms representing claimants. To this point, the agency has insisted that only individuals can represent claimants. In the real world, however, there are these things called law firms and they like to do things like shift responsibility for a case from one of the firm's attorneys to another, something that is now difficult both for the law firm and Social Security. There's also the problems that ensue when an attorney leaves a law firm. Who gets the fee? This is a nice step forward for everyone, including Social Security. Expect these final regulations to be published in the Federal Register before long.

Field Office Closure

     Social Security is closing its field office in Newburgh, NY. Predictably, this is drawing opposition from local political leaders. The appropriations bill favored by Republicans in the House of Representatives would ban field office closures while failing to give the agency enough money to keep them open. How would that work?

Action In Conn Cases

     The notice reproduced below was filed by Social Security on Friday. I understand there will be more developments in the Conn cases in the near future. As always, click on the images to view full size.

At A Social Security Office In Glendale, CA Last Week

 

From the Commissioner's Twitter feed

Off Topic: Salted Peanuts In Coke Or Pepsi

     It's a slow time for Social Security news. Let me go off topic. The local newspaper did a story on the old North Carolina thing of dumping a pack of salted peanuts into a cold Coke or Pepsi. I saw that a lot when I was a boy and enjoyed doing it. I don't think I ever saw a girl, much less a woman, do it and not many grown men. I haven't seen it in years but I'm not around boys that much. I've never known how widespread a custom this is or was.

    It's actually pretty good. You get great contrasts between salty and sweet and between liquid and crunchy.

    I'm curious. Is this something you ever did? Ever saw it done?

A Poll

 

online polls

Acting Inspector General

    An otherwise negligible report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General reveals a minor detail that may interest some of my readers. The new Acting Inspector General is Michelle L. Anderson, the Assistant Inspector General for Audit. Judging by her Linked In account, she's a long time federal employee.

Real People

     From a Richmond, VA television station:

Earl Barry is frustrated with what he said has been a "demoralizing" experience navigating the process to apply for disability through the Social Security Administration (SSA). Barry told CBS 6 he has been going back and forth with the SSA on claims for more than a year.

"It's been very difficult and I am under-- I had to seek therapy because I was considering suicide," Barry said. ...

In October 2022, Berry applied for disability and was denied.

He reapplied in December 2023, but again was denied. ...

In March 2024, Barry said the company Premiere Disability filed a reconsideration request on his behalf. It's currently taking SSA seven months, on average, to respond to reconsideration requests.

Barry said Premier Disability recently informed him there could be a further delay.

"The representative found out that our appeal that we filed was not handled properly by SSA in March when they were supposed to have done it. They didn't transfer the file from the person who had it, the auditor, to the office for the appeal," Barry said.

But Barry said he can't afford to wait for assistance, should he get approved, any longer.

He said his savings have run dry and his Buckingham County house has now been foreclosed on. ...

Earlier this month, CBS 6 shared Ed Heavener's story, a Henrico County man who spent a year and a half waiting for disability and only got his money after our investigative reporters got involved. ...

After the story aired, CBS 6 newsroom was inundated with messages from people across Virginia and beyond, including Barry, complaining about customer service issues with SSA. ...

 

New Video On Commissioner's Goals

    Social Security has released a new video concerning the new Commissioner's goals. I wish I could it embed it here but I can't find a way so you'll have to click on the link. 

    Take a look and tell us your opinion.

NADE Newsletter

     The National Association of Disability Examiners (NADE), an organization for those working at state Disability Determination Services (DDS) making initial and reconsideration determinations on Social Security disability claims, has issued its Summer 2024 newsletter.

ALJs Push Annual Leave Change

     From Government Executive:

Officials with a union that represents administrative law judges at the Social Security Administration are preparing for a push to pass legislation to expand the amount of annual leave they can carry over each year. ...

The Association of Administrative Law Judges said it has been hard at work in recent months to build bipartisan support in Congress for a legislative proposal to increase that cap to 90 days. Officials said the change would be fairer to ALJs who undergo more scrutiny than most other General Schedule employees and could offer a novel way to retain a highly specialized and aging workforce. ...

[The union president] said her organization’s proposal could help the agency in two ways. First, the agency has already seen the headcount of its ALJ corps shrink from 1,645 in 2018 to only 1,170 last year. Data from an internal survey of AALJ members found that in fiscal 2023, SSA administrative law judges forfeited an average of 27 hours of leave per year due to the annual leave cap, compared to just 0.75 hours of forfeited leave on average across the General Schedule from fiscal 2019 to 2023.

At a time when the agency projects the number of initial disability determinations to increase by more than 300,000 this fiscal year—and with them, appeals of those determinations—a boost to the leave cap could allow judges to take more cases. ...

    This sounds like a hard sell to me.

Interview With The Commissioner

     The CBS affiliate in Baltimore has done an interview with Social Security Commissioner Martin O'Malley. I'll give you a fair warning that there's not much news in it. Here's something I find very mildly interesting:

... Reporter: Is it pretty amazing to you that you're here doing this? You've been the mayor of Baltimore, the governor of the state and now the commissioner for Social Security Administration. 

Martin O'Malley: I would never have dreamed, I would never have guessed, this was not a card I ever would have picked up from the table, but I was honored when the White House called and asked me to do it, because think about it, I get to travel 22 minutes in the morning across Northern Parkway to be able to serve in the national headquarters of the Social Security Administration, which serves 80 million Americans. ...

What Can We Expect On Monday?

       A tweet from the Social Security Administration:

Social Security offices will open for public service on Monday, 7/22. Staff impacted by the widespread Microsoft and CrowdStrike issues are being brought back online. Our phone lines remain operational and many online services at http://ssa.gov remain available. 

     Great, but how capable will they be of doing business? And that’s just the field offices. What about other parts of the Social Security Administration, such as the Teleservice Centers, the Program Service Centers and the Office of Hearings Operations? I know OHO was able to hold hearings yesterday but I don’t know about their work otherwise.

Field Offices Closed Due To IT Outage

    An announcement just issued by Social Security:

Due to worldwide IT outage, local Social Security offices are closed to the public today. Longer wait times on our national 800 number are expected. Some online services are unavailable at this time. We appreciate your patience while we work to restore services as quickly as possible.

    What about hearing offices?

What About The "Third Signature" Problem At The Payment Centers?

     Yesterday, we heard that Social Security was increasing the amounts of SSI benefits that could be authorized by appropriate employees at agency field offices without approval from a supervisor. This cuts down on the number of times that a "second signature" is required before a payment can go out. That helps but I think the bigger problem has been with Disability Insurance Benefits and other benefits under Title II of the Social Security Act. Individual benefits authorizers at the Title II payment centers can only approve so much without obtaining a "second signature" and if the amount goes even higher a "third signature" is required and that can take several months. They never announce these limits but I think the "third signature" threshold has been something like $50,000. A claimant with a high Primary Insurance Amount can get up to this limit with only a little over a year of back benefits. Is something being done about the Title II problem? The situation with the "third signature" cases is terrible. With inflation and higher agency backlogs there are more of the "third signature" cases. These cause severe backlogs. If you're going to do something about the SSI cases you certainly ought to do something about the Title II cases.

SSA Trying To Improve Payment Of Back SSI Benefits

     From a Social Security blog:

... Underpayments, typically back payments from the time of applying for SSI to the date the application is approved, represent money we owe for months past. People waiting on approval of SSI can experience economic insecurity while they wait for a decision.

In fiscal year 2024, our agency prioritized addressing the barriers that prevent timely payment of underpayments, not a large share of the total payments we administer under the SSI program (less than 1% annually). Overall, the SSI program has released $901 million in underpayments as of June 2024, which includes $209.1 million of our most complex and aged underpayments to roughly 81,000 people, who count on SSI as a vital lifeline. We are committed to finding solutions to challenges, such as peer reviews and installment and dedicated account processes, that have hindered timely payments.

 This year we updated a policy that required underpayments over $5,000 to be reviewed by another employee – a peer review – before we released the underpayment. In March 2024, we increased the amount from $5,000 to $15,000. Underpayments less than $15,000 can now be released without peer review. This policy change means the time it takes for SSI recipients to receive their first installment is now dramatically reduced. ...

    I wish I could say that I'm seeing improvement in this situation but I'm not. I've got a ton of backed up SSI cases awaiting payment and I see little movement. If your case gets even the least bit off the tracks, it's almost impossible to get it back on the tracks. We can't get the field offices to answer the phone. When they do answer the phone, we tell them about the problem but then nothing happens. It's a frustrating situation for us but horrific for the claimants. I'm sure it's discouraging for Social Security employees as well.

Recent Posts On Frustrated Claimants Blog

     My firm now has a second blog and it's directed at claimants rather than Social Security professionals. Take a look. Tell any claimants you know to take a look. Here are some recent posts on the For The Frustrated Social Security Disability Claimant blog:

•  A Poll
•  Have You Found That Notices From Social Security Are Hard To Understand?
•  Happy Independence Day!
•  What About Those Illegal Immigrants That They Say Are Drawing Social Security Benefits? It's A Lie
•  What Do You Like And What Do You Dislike?
•  Is Diabetes A Disability?
•  Having Trouble Finding An Attorney To Represent You? Call Us
•  How Do I File A Claim For Social Security Disability Benefits?

New Emergency Message On Collateral Estoppel

     From Emergency Message EM-24033 Disability Collateral Estoppel Policy – Change of Position

This emergency message (EM) announces the agency’s change of position (CoP) on the use of collateral estoppel to adopt prior disability determinations and decisions. ...

Beginning 7/13/2024, we will adopt our prior favorable finding of disability in a subsequent claim by the same individual for a different disability benefit or SSI payments if, in our prior final determination or decision, we have already decided that the individual is disabled for the period in question and all of the following criteria are met:

1. Both the prior determination or decision and new claim require application of the same statutory definition of disability.

2. We have not made an intervening medical determination or decision finding that the individual’s disability ceased.

3. The individual has not engaged in substantial gainful activity since the prior established onset date (EOD).

4. The EOD in the prior claim is on or before the date when the nonmedical requirements for entitlement are last met in the new claim.

5. The record with the prior favorable disability determination or decision is not in terminated status.

6. We do not have reason to believe that the prior disability determination or decision was wrong. ...

     I don't have the energy today to try to explain the concept of collateral estoppel in the Social Security world. If you don't already know you probably aren't interested in this change anyway. I'll just say that this is a modest change that helps a few claimants and which saves some work at Social Security. I never knew any reason why the policy was changed before other than generalized hostility to Social Security disability claimants.

You Can Do Your Business With Social Security By Video -- If You Can Get Through To Them By Phone.

     You can now schedule a video conference with Social Security to discuss your business with the agency. The big catch is that you have to call Social Security to schedule the video conference. As you may have heard or experienced, that's hard to do.