SSAB Meeting Agenda

The Social Security Advisory Board (SSAB) had a meeting yesterday. The agenda was not posted until just about the moment the meeting began. The agenda is below. It suggests that the SSAB is considering some general Social Security reform proposal. It is almost amusing that Republicans still believe that they a "reform" proposal put forward, in essence, by the Bush Administration has any hope of adoption.

Social Security Advisory Board
Meeting Agenda
Thursday, November 30, 2006

9:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. Dan Crippen; Chair, Technical Panel on Assumptions and Methods

1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. Stephen Goss; Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration

New Form To Allow Attorneys To Get Fees Raises Host Of Questions

Social Security has issued a new form SSA-1695 which attorneys and others representing claimants before the agency must file in order to get withholding of fees. The form asks for the claimant's Social Security number, as well as the attorney's or representative's Social Security number. This will allow Social Security to produce 1099 forms for those representing claimants and to use direct deposit for payment of the fees.

The problem with the form is that it includes a section that asks the attorney or representative to "List below the Social Security Numbers and names of all other claimants not mentioned above. " Does this mean that the attorney or representative must list the name and Social Security number of all of the claimant's dependents who might receive benefits on the account? If it does not mean this, what does it mean? What is the point of requiring this information? Requiring it dramatically increases the compliance difficulty for the attorney or representative. Many attorneys and representatives routinely take down the names of their clients' dependents but it has not been routine to take down their Social Security numbers. For an attorney with a modest Social Security practice, which might be 200 clients, getting this information would take a good deal of effort. There would certainly be clients who would resist giving the information. Many claimants do not like the idea of their attorney or representative getting a fee out of the dependent benefits. There are many claimants who do not know their children's Social Security numbers and cannot readily obtain them because the children live with their mother and the claimant is estranged from the mother. What happens if the attorney does not list all of the children or does not get all of the Social Security numbers down accurately? Does the attorney or representative just not get a fee from those benefits? Why would Social Security want to go to the trouble of entering all this information in its own database anyway? What happens if the attorney or representative supplies the form to Social Security, but the data is not properly entered in Social Security's database? Social Security has problems already with data entry. This would add several hundred thousand new data entry items each year to Social Security's burden.

Poor Funding For SSA Under Continuing Resolution

Stephen Barr reports in his Washington Post column that the continuing funding resolution that Social Security is working under funds the agency only at the lowest level that had been under consideration in Congress, which answers my question as to why the agency does not drop the hiring freeze. It also means that Social Security may have little choice but to furlough employees before a real funding bill is passed.

Senate Letter On Social Security Funding

The Federal Times has now posted a copy of the letter signed by 54 senators, 12 of them Republicans and 42 of them Democrats demanding more funding for the Social Security Administration.

This raises the question. Should Social Security continue its hiring freeze? Commissioner Barnhart put a hiring freeze into effect because of fear that the agency would be stuck with the draconian budget put forward by the Appropriations Committee of the House of Representatives during the current Congress. It is now clear that no FY 2007 budget will be adopted for the agency during the current Congress. With Democrats in the majority in both houses of Congress when a budget is finally passed next year, it seems fairly clear that nothing like the draconian budget reported out of committee in the House this year will be adopted.

Senators Press For Adequate Funding For Social Security

This is from a November 22, 2006 press release:

WASHINGTON D.C. – U.S. Senator Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) and Senator Kent Conrad (D-North Dakota) urged Senate Majority and Minority Leaders and the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Committee to provide additional funding for the Social Security Administration (SSA) budget in the final fiscal year 2007 Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill. The Appropriations Committee approved the Fiscal Year (FY) 2007 Labor- HHS Appropriations bill in July of this year to provide $9.1 billion to the SSA for administrative expenses, $401 million less than the President’s budget request and $54 million below the FY 2006 appropriated level.

The impact of a 2007 budget shortfall could potentially require the Social Security Administration to layoff staff throughout the country, causing delays in service for Social Security recipients and impacting services to Medicare beneficiaries.

“This Social Security Administration funding shortfall could disrupt those essential services provided to millions of Americans and Mainers at a time when we can ill afford to leave Social Security recipients out in the cold,” Snowe said. “Our seniors need to have certainty – they need to know that if they have problems with their Social Security or Medicare benefits that the resources are available to fix the problem. If we under fund the administrative budget of the SSA then we will see longer waits and greater confusions for people across the country. I believe this shortfall must be closed when the Senate takes up this funding bill and I urge the bipartisan leadership in the Senate to find the funding to close this gap. At a time when hundreds of thousands of Baby Boomers are retiring, these budget cuts are wrong headed and irresponsible.”

Senator Snowe and Senator Conrad, joined by more than 50 Senators, sent the following letter to the bipartisan Senate Leadership.

India And US Negotiating Social Security Agreement

Rediff India Abroad reports that India is attempting to negotiate a Social Security agreement with the United States so that Indians temporarily working in the U.S. do not have to pay U.S. Social Security taxes.

So You Think We Have Social Security Problems In The U.S.?

The People's Daily Online reports that about $900 million has been misappropriated from China's Social Security system. Some of it went directly into private bank accounts. Other funds were illegally invested.

Washington Post On Social Security Staffing Problems And Medicare

From Stephen Barr's column in the Washington Post:

Staffing problems at the Social Security Administration could make it difficult for field offices to handle increased telephone calls and visits prompted by an upcoming increase in Medicare premiums, according to the Government Accountability Office.

Social Security began mailing notices of the higher, income-based premiums on Monday and expects all 1.6 million affected enrollees to have them in hand by the end of next week. Enrollees may request a recalculation of their premium if they think incorrect tax data have been used to determine their income and set their premium, or if they have recently experienced an income loss from a spouse's death, a divorce or some other "life-changing event."

In a letter sent last week to the Senate Finance Committee, the GAO warned that Social Security is coping with staff shortages and operating under a hiring freeze just as the agency's workload is expected to jump because of the premium increases. The GAO, the congressional auditing agency, noted that the premium change, though approved by Congress in 2003, may come as a surprise to some beneficiaries.

Mark Lassiter, a Social Security spokesman, said the agency plans to shift workloads among field offices if some offices "are getting disproportionately hit" by telephone calls and visits from Medicare beneficiaries.

He expressed confidence that the agency's 1,300 field offices will be able to handle any surge in work. "We do the work we are assigned to get done," he said. ...

The GAO said implementing income-based premiums will cost Social Security an additional $200 million in administrative expenses between fiscal 2006 and 2010.

The extra work comes at a tough time for the agency. Social Security has adopted a hiring freeze because Congress has not been able to complete work on the agency's fiscal 2007 appropriations bill. Agency officials also have warned that it could be forced next year to send employees home without pay, perhaps for as long as 10 days, if Congress does not reverse proposed budget cuts.

Here is a link to the GAO report.