Witness List For Social Security Subcommittee Hearing

The House Social Security Subcommittee has released the witness list for the June 15 hearing on Social Security's Disability Service Improvement plan:

Panel: The Honorable Jo Anne B. Barnhart, Commissioner, Social Security Administration

	Panel:
	Robert E. Robertson, Director, Education, Workforce, and Income Security Issues, U.S. Government Accountability Office
	Marty Ford, Co-Chair, Social Security Task Force, Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities
	Sarah H. Bohr, President, National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives, Atlantic Beach, Florida
	James Hill, President, Chapter 224, National Treasury Employees Union, Cleveland, Ohio
	The Honorable Ronald G. Bernoski, President, Association of Administrative Law Judges, Inc., Sussex, Wisconsin
	Gary Flack, Chairman, Social Security Section, Federal Bar Association, Atlanta, Georgia

New Ruling

Social Security Ruling 06-02p has been published. The ruling deals with a situation in which one child has been determined to be the child of a deceased wage earner and eligible for benefits and the brother or sister of that child files a claim for benefits on the same account. If the second child can prove via DNA testing that he or she is the sibling of the child already on benefits, then the second child can also be accepted by Social Security as eligible for benefits on the same account.

A Small Sign

Social Security has a huge amount of work to do to make the Reviewing Official position that is the keystone of Commissioner Barnhart's Disability Service Improvement plan work. There will be many, many details to attend to. One small sign of this on-going effort appeared in the Federal Register recently. Under the Paperwork Reduction Act all government agencies must submit all new forms to be filled out by the public to the Office of Management and Budget for approval and publish a notice in the Federal Register. Social Security has published a notice concerning a new form to request Reviewing Officer review. This can only be the tip of an iceberg. The vast majority of what has to be done will not require any public notice.

Social Security Computer Security Excellent

The Tyler Morning Telegraph reports that Social Security received an A+ grade from the House Government Reform Committee on computer security, making it the top agency in the federal government.

Social Security Budget News

According to the Washington Post, the House Appropriations Committee has approved an additional $184 million dollars next year for Social Security. Meanwhile, the Senate Finance Committee has approved $38 million in supplemental funding to Social Security for the current fiscal year to deal with the costs associated with Katrina and other hurricanes in 2005. Neither bill has been finally passed, however.

Homelessness, Brain Damage and Social Security Disability Benefits

A Minnesota researcher has performed psychological testing on 50 homeless people and found that about 20 of them were suffering from dementia or other serious brain damage. As a result many of them have qualified for Social Security disability benefits. Many of the homeless people may have been born with cognitive limitations. Drug abuse and alcoholism may have caused more brain damage. Others may have suffered brain damage as a result of assaults suffered while living on tough streets. Similar research is underway in at least two other locations.

Social Security Fraud in Buffalo

The Buffalo News reports that two individuals have pleaded guilty to Social Security fraud. One of the two had failed to report her mother's death and had pocketed the checks that kept coming. In in the other case, the defendant had failed to report his absence from the U.S.

House Social Security Subcommittee Hearing

The Social Security Subcommittee of the House of Representatives has scheduled a hearing for June 15 on the Disability Service Improvement project at Social Security. The hearing notice includes discouraging data about Social Security workloads and backlogs:

The DI and SSI applications to Federally-funded State Disability Determination Service agencies for a decision have increased 22 percent over the past five years, from 2.1 million in Fiscal Year (FY) 2000 to 2.55 million in FY 2005. Despite the increased workloads, the SSA has increased its productivity by 12.6 percent since 2001. However, the rapid rise in applications, coupled with budgetary constraints, have resulted in longer processing times for cases heard by Administrative Law Judges– from 415 days in FY 2005 to 477 days in April 2006. The number of hearing requests waiting for a decision has increased from about 708,000 in FY 2005 to 727,629 in April 2006, and the Agency expects this number to rise to 767,000 in FY 2007.