Social Security Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) have frequently been criticized for inconsistency. Some Social Security ALJs approve 90% or more of the disability claims they hear. Others approve less than 20%. A report on the Cox News Service shows that this sort of inconsistency is not just a Social Security problem. Immigration judges making decisions on applications for asylum show a similar pattern of inconsistency, with one immigration judge approving 90% of asylum applications while another approves only 3%. One interesting aspect of this report is that the Office of Immigration Review released the data in a manner which shows what each judge did, by name. Social Security has released similar data, but refused to identify ALJs by name.
Aug 1, 2006
Social Security Disability 50 Years Old This Month
Social Security has put out a news release marking the 50th anniversary of disability insurance benefits this month. The Herald Star Online has published the news release.
Jul 31, 2006
Republican Plans To Get Serious On Social Security Privatization In January
From a Washington Times interview with House Majority Leader John Boehner:
Q: Where does Social Security reform stand?
A: I just met with Congressman [Frank R. Wolf, Virginia Republican], a few minutes ago with his SAFE Commission [formed to fix the entitlement programs]. In 1990 when I first ran for Congress, I talked about the need to reform these big entitlement programs because the sooner we began the process, the easier it would be to make the necessary changes so that these programs were sustainable for the long term. … If I’m around in a leadership role come January, we’re going to get serious about this.
Empire Justice Center Newsletter
The Empire Justice Center of New York has published the July issue of Disability Law News, its quarterly newletter on Social Security and SSI disability issues.
Pilot Program To Allow Representatives To Appear At Video Hearings Using Their Own Video Equipment
Social Security has published a notice in the Federal Register that it "is now preparing to pilot a program wherein private representatives and their clients may appear at ALJ hearings using privately owned video equipment." This would dramatically simplify matters for Binder and Binder and others who seek to represent Social Security claimants on a national basis. No one has or is likely to have a truly national network of attorneys or other representatives who can easily appear at Social Security hearings anywhere in the country. Currently such firms must fly in attorneys for many hearings at considerable cost. Allowing the attorneys to participate via their own video equipment would be much cheaper. It would allow law firms who wish to represent Social Security claimants nationally to do so without ever having face to face contact with most of their clients.
New Rules On Replacement Social Security Cards
The Social Security Administration has published interim final rules on replacement Social Security cards. In general, the rules limit an individual to three replacement cards in one year and ten in a lifetime.
Jul 30, 2006
Backlogs in Nevada
The Reno Gazette-Journal reports on growing backlogs in processing Social Security claims in Nevada. Because of workload pressures Nevada has stopped processing reconsideration appeals of Social Security disability benefits denials, with serious consequences for disability benefits applicants. The same thing is happening in many states. Other states have not stopped doing reconsiderations, but have merely slowed down.
Stopping or slowing reconsiderations is a short term way for Social Security to deal with a shortage of personnel. This is not something that can be continued for more than a few months before there are articles in newspapers all over the country. So what is the long term fix for the problem? At the moment there is none. Social Security's staff is projected to shrink by another 2,000 in fiscal year 2007, which begins in a little over two months. The number of disability claims being filed is increasing and will continue to increase for a decade or more as baby boomers age. The workload pressures can only get worse. The Disability Service Improvement (DSI) plan that will substitute Reviewing Officers (RO) for reconsideration will only make the problem worse, at least in the short run and probably the long run, since it will almost certainly take more staff for RO review than for reconsideration, and few outside the immediate circle of the Commissioner of Social Security really believe that the introduction of ROs will significantly cut the number of people requesting hearings before Administrative Law Judges (ALJs). Even if the RO program does somehow cut the number of people requesting ALJ hearings, the staff cutbacks and increased claim load already coming will completely overwhelm any increased efficiency.
Without significant budget increases, including increased staff, Social Security is heading towards massive problems. The only question is whether this will come to the public's attention as a sudden trainwreck or whether it can be managed so that the public only becomes aware slowly that the Social Security Administration has largely stopped processing appeals of disability claims. The answer to this question may depend upon which party is in control of Congress after this fall's election.
Stopping or slowing reconsiderations is a short term way for Social Security to deal with a shortage of personnel. This is not something that can be continued for more than a few months before there are articles in newspapers all over the country. So what is the long term fix for the problem? At the moment there is none. Social Security's staff is projected to shrink by another 2,000 in fiscal year 2007, which begins in a little over two months. The number of disability claims being filed is increasing and will continue to increase for a decade or more as baby boomers age. The workload pressures can only get worse. The Disability Service Improvement (DSI) plan that will substitute Reviewing Officers (RO) for reconsideration will only make the problem worse, at least in the short run and probably the long run, since it will almost certainly take more staff for RO review than for reconsideration, and few outside the immediate circle of the Commissioner of Social Security really believe that the introduction of ROs will significantly cut the number of people requesting hearings before Administrative Law Judges (ALJs). Even if the RO program does somehow cut the number of people requesting ALJ hearings, the staff cutbacks and increased claim load already coming will completely overwhelm any increased efficiency.
Without significant budget increases, including increased staff, Social Security is heading towards massive problems. The only question is whether this will come to the public's attention as a sudden trainwreck or whether it can be managed so that the public only becomes aware slowly that the Social Security Administration has largely stopped processing appeals of disability claims. The answer to this question may depend upon which party is in control of Congress after this fall's election.
Jul 29, 2006
LTD Settlement in California
There is a important interplay between long term disability (LTD) benefits under insurance policies and employer pension plans and Social Security disability benefits because LTD plans almost always offset their benefits by Social Security disabisity benefits. In December 2005 the California Insurance Commissioner issued an order that would have dramatically altered LTD benefits in the nation's largest state. The order would have forbidden LTD plans from reducing their benefits by the amount of Social Security disability benefits, among other things. The LTD industry sued. The Insurance Journal reports that there is now a partial settlement in the case. Apparently, the California Insurance Commissioner has dropped the ban on offsetting Social Security disability benefits, while the insurers have agreed that they cannot include a "discretionary" clause which gave them an almost unlimited ability to deny LTD claims at their discretion. The insurers also agreed to a standard definition of disability and pre-existing conditions.
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