Illinois Women Charged

The Quad City Times reports that two Illinois women have been charged with fraud against the SSI program. Freida Kay Curry has been charged for receiving SSI under two different Social Security numbers and Sarah E. Mortimer for claiming that her husband was not living with her, when he was.

Public Citizen Sues Over Budget Reconciliation

The Budget Reconciliation bill that was signed by the President will, among many other things, affect the way that SSI back benefits are paid by the Social Security Administration. However, there was an unusual aspect to the bill's passage. The versions passed by the two houses of Congress were not exactly identical. This has already brought about a lawsuit by an Alabama attorney. Now, Public Citizen, a major national public interest organization, has also brought suit over the matter. Interestingly enough, the Public Citizen lawsuit has been brought against the Clerk of Court. One of the minor aspects of the Budget Reconciliation bill was an increase in the filing fee for United States District Court. If the bill was not truly passed by Congress, the increase in the filing fee is not valid. Suing the Clerk of Court puts the Judicial Branch of government in the defendant's chair, even though it has little interest in the matter, and forces the Attorney General into finding some way to intervene in a lawsuit to which the Executive Branch is not a party. If nothing else, any attorney has to salute the ingenuity of Public Citizen's attorneys, Allison Zieve, Adina Rosebaum and Brian Wolfram, in framing the lawsuit in this way.

Federal Times on SSA Staffing Problems

The Federal Times reports on Social Security's staffing problems. The article indicates that efforts are underway in Congress to obtain an extra $80 million in funding to help the agency this year.

Cincinnati Bar CLE

The Cincinnati Bar Social Security Committee is putting on a Continuing Legal Education session on Friday May 5, 2006 in Cincinnati.

Social Security Advisory Board Meeting Agenda

The Social Security Advisory Board (SSAB) has announced the following schedule for its meeting on Friday, March 24:

9:15 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. Dr. Ronald Leopold, MetLife

1:45 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. Michael G. Gallagher, Associate General Counsel (Office of General Law) and James A. Winn, Associate General Counsel (Office of Program Law)

NC Man Sentenced For Social Security Fraud

The Salisbury Post reports that a NC man has been sentenced to three years in prison for receiving Social Security disability benefits without reporting that he was working under a false identity.

SSAB Urges Adequate SSA Funding

The Social Security Advisory Board (SSAB) has written the Chairman of the Appropriations Committe (although one cannot tell whether the letter was to the House Chairman or the Senate Chairman or to both) to urge adequate funding for SSA.

British Plan To Return Disabled To Work Criticized

The British Prime Minister has proposed a plan that promises to return to work one million people drawing disability benefits under British Social Security. This has relevance to the United States since there have been steadily increasing complaints that U.S. Social Security is not doing enough to return disabled Social Security recipients to work. This goes along with a belief that if further return to work efforts were made that the costs of the U.S. Social Security disability program could be cut dramatically. In Britain, the plan to return disabled people to work has been predicted to save 7 billion British pounds per year.

A key part of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's plan is to draw a distinction between those who have the potential to return to work and those who do not and to give a good deal of return to work assistance to those who have that potential, as well as applying a good deal of compulsion to them. Such a plan would be attractive to many in the U.S. The British plan, which has not yet been implemented, is drawing criticism from a new study. The author of the study, Professor Richard Berthoud of the Institute for Social and Economic Research stated recently that:

The analysis [in the government consultation paper] shows a wide range of impairments among disabled people, with a gradual deterioration in job prospects across that range. It is by no means clear, from these data, where a dividing line could be drawn between those with realistic and unrealistic expectations. The paper does not explain how this judgment will be made. Nor does it say what will happen to disabled people who try but fail to find a job over a long period, even though they had been assessed as potential workers.