Federal Court Filing Fee to Increase

The civil filing fee for United States District Courts will increase to $350 on April 9, 2006. The filing fee for the federal Courts of Appeals will rise to $450 at the same time. Social Security disability claims are a significant part of the federal District Courts' workload. This increase in the filing fee will undoubtedly increase even further the percentage of Social Security claimants who proceed in forma pauperis -- that is, in the form of a pauper to avoid the filing fee -- in the federal courts.

Senate Hearing on March 14

The Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing on March 14 on administrative challenges facing the Social Security Administration. The following people are scheduled to testify:

Jo Anne B. Barnhart, Commissioner, Social Security Administration, Baltimore, Maryland

Patrick P. O’Carroll, Jr., Inspector General, Social Security Administration, Baltimore, Maryland

Richard E. Warsinskey, President, National Council of Social Security, Management Associations, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio

Eileen Sweeny, Co-Chair, Social Security Task Force, Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities Senior Fellow, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Washington, DC

Erwin Hathaway, Social Security Disability Insurance Beneficiary, Trego, Montana

Bush Budget Proposal on Workers Compensation Offset

The Bush Administration fiscal year 2007 budget includes a proposal to alter Social Security's workers compensation offset. The offset affects claimants who receive both disability insurance benefits and workers compensation. More information is trickling out about the proposal, which is still under development. Under current law (to greatly oversimplify) a claimant is allowed to keep up to 80% of their pre-disability income. The new plan would reduce the Social Security disability benefits of anyone receiving workers compensation by 37% for up to the first five years they are on Social Security disability benefits. The reduction would be less than 37% if the workers compensation benefits were less than 37% of Social Security disability benefits. Lump sum workers compensation benefits could not be attributed to a period of time longer than five years. There would be no effect in states with reverse workers compensation offsets, which reduce workers compensation on account of Social Security disability benefits.

Collecting Social Security Overpayments From Federal Employees

Today's Federal Register contains a Notice of Proposed Rule-Making (NPRM) from Social Security that would provide for offsetting the salaries of federal employees to collect their overpayments from the Social Security Administration.

Social Security Issues Disability Report

The Social Security Administration has released its annual statistical report on the disability insurance program. Perhaps of most interest is the the percentage of all disability claims approved after all levels of review:

1999 61.4%
2000 62.6%
2001 63.0%
2002 59.8%
2003 53.3%

One major reason for the decrease in the percentage of claims allowed is a huge increase in technical denials, which went up from 104,330 in 1999 to 374,430 in 2003. This may be due to Social Security's staffing problems. More claimants with low intelligence levels or serious mental illness, who needed but did not get sympathetic help from Social Security, may have been denied for failure to cooperate.

You Can't "Withdraw" From Social Security

Social Security's Office of Regional Counsel felt the need to publish a written opinion that Social Security would ignore a "Notice of Revocation and a Notice of Mandatory Exertion of All Unalienable Rights" from a man who wished to withdraw from Social Security on the grounds that he was a sovereign citizen of Michigan, but not of the United States.

Study on Latinos and Social Security

HispanicBusiness.com reports that several universities will collaborate on a national research project on the impact of Social Security on the U.S. Latino population. Although labeled as a research project, it is apparent that educating Latinos about Social Security is also a major aim of the project.

Social Security Wins Technology Award

The Social Security Administration has been awarded the SHARE 2006 Award for Excellence in Technology. SHARE describes itself as"an independent, volunteer-run association providing IBM customers with user-focused education, professional networking, and a forum to influence the Information Technology (IT) industry." The award is sponsored by IBM. According to SHARE's press release:

The team from the Social Security Administration was honored with this award as a result of their innovation in network connectivity, which resulted in providing thousands of employees with a network that is significantly more resilient, reliable and scalable to better manage data regarding taxes, retirement, disability, family benefits, survivors and Medicare.