WCPO On Backlogs

Television station WCPO of Cincinnati is running a story on Social Security backlogs. You can watch online or read the text.

KSL On Backlogs

Radio station KSL of Salt Lake City, UT is running a story on Social Security's backlogs. There has been an explosion of stories along these lines since the USA Today article. It is impractical and pointless to link to all of them here. The USA Today article has to be the strongest publicity yet for Social Security's backlog and budget problems.

Albany Times Union On Backlogs

From the Albany, NY Times Union:

When it comes to waiting for Social Security disability insurance benefit claims to be processed, New York state has a backlog bigger than the population of Troy.

More than 52,000 people statewide have been waiting months or years for decisions on their applications, according to two groups that researched the problem. It's the 18th worst showing among the states in disability backlogs.

Albany is in the district of Mike McNulty, the chairman of the House Social Security Subcommittee.

The article also contains this, which may make a few people cringe:

"The Social Security crisis is already here today, manifesting itself first in the disability program," said Allsup, who was a claims and field representative for the agency before starting his company, which represents disability applicants. "They are a direct reflection of staffing problems that Social Security has."

The rankings were also compiled by the American Association of People with Disabilities, the nation's largest cross-disability membership organizations. Andrew J. Imparato, president and CEO of the not-for-profit, said the wait is keeping seriously disabled Americans from getting insurance they paid for.

I had earlier posted about the apparent alliance between Allsup and the American Association of People with Disabilities, which until this alliance seemed to have little interest in Social Security disability matters.

Nobody Could Have Foreseen This Problem

From an article by Eric Yoder in Government Executive published on September 1, 2001 (emphasis added):

During the next 10 years, the Social Security Administration's retirement processing workload is projected to increase by one-fifth as the oldest of the 77 million baby boomers enter their 60s. At the same time, the disability insurance workload is projected to rise by one-half as the rest of the boomers hit ages at which they are more likely to file disability claims. By 2020, the retirement workload will increase by one-half and the disability workload by three-fourths over current levels. Meanwhile, claims under the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program for the poor, disabled and elderly are expected to grow by one-fifth by 2020. ...

According to "2010 Vision [a report prepared by the Social Security Administration in 2000]," SSA would need 95,000 to 100,000 work years to handle its projected 2010 workload using current methods. [Social Security's annual staffing is now about 65,000 work years] "We recognize that an infusion of this level of resources is neither likely nor the best means to achieve our vision," it says. Thus the agency plans to make more and better use of technology. ...

Says [Stanford] Ross [a former Commissioner of Social Security], "The agency, I think, is whistling a little in the dark. They're saying, 'Well, if we get this, that and the other thing, we'll do the job. We always have. We'll be OK.' I don't think you'll wind up with the resources you're going to need unless you make your case clear. The beginning of getting the resources is being candid with the Congress and OMB and the President and the public about how deep and serious your problems are.

"Clearly, the number of workers is inadequate for the workload, and, short term, there's no substitute for the number of workers. Longer term, maybe technology and different methods of doing business can substitute for bodies, but I don't think that's true in the short term," he says. "The public is going to be ill-served if these shortfalls in service delivery are not corrected, like, yesterday. It's not being well-served right now in some ways."

This puts into better focus just how irresponsible former Commissioner Barnhart was. She was entering office about the time this was published and, undoubtedly, was made aware of the 2010 Vision report. Instead of vigorously pushing for increased staffing for Social Security, she promised that her "plan" would dramatically improve service at Social Security without any increase in personnel. Indeed, she seemed to have no objection as her agency's staffing was cut.

Backlog Of Disability Claims By State

The Associated Press is reporting a list of the "backlog of disability claims by state." It has already been picked up by a number of newspapers. I do not know what this means, but here is their list:

STATE BACKLOG BENEFICIARIES PCT

Kansas 14,842 55,542 26.7

D.C. 2,299 10,233 22.5

North Dakota 2,518 11,604 21.7

Michigan 49,951 250,351 20.0

Alabama 30,972 178,375 17.4

South Carolina 22,653 135,892 16.7

Indiana 24,330 148,690 16.4

Mississippi 16,346 109,531 14.9

Georgia 30,498 205,249 14.9

New Mexico 7,088 48,044 14.8

Ohio 36,561 251,748 14.5

Tennessee 26,709 190,539 14.0

Montana 3,019 21,611 14.0

Louisiana 15,857 114,609 13.8

Colorado 10,217 75,836 13.5

Oregon 10,349 78,860 13.1

Nebraska 4,356 33,915 12.8

New York 52,212 416,715 12.5

Missouri 19,648 168,301 11.7

West Virginia 9,479 83,143 11.4

Washington 14,754 130,146 1 1.3

Pennsylvania 33,454 309,778 10.8

Wisconsin 12,481 116,190 10.7

North Carolina 27,390 261,068 10.5

Illinois 24,278 231,633 10.5

Oklahoma 9,536 97,042 9.8

Texas 39,211 410,912 9.5

Arkansas 10,357 109,118 9.5

Rhode Island 2,779 29,721 9.4

Florida 38,056 407,268 9.3

Utah 2,903 32,274 9.0

Minnesota 8,087 94,885 8.5

Delaware 1,765 21,685 8.1

Kentucky 12,906 167,356 7.7

Maine 3,647 48,022 7.6

Maryland 6,155 94,524 6.5

Iowa 3,961 61,782 6.4

New Hampshire 2,158 34,310 6.3

California 35,568 570,084 6.2

Connecticut 3,761 67,281 5.6

New Jersey 8,586 158,619 5.4

Virginia 6,539 173,734 3.8

Arizona 4,607 125,727 3.7

Massachusetts 5,436 158,781 3.4

Nevada 1,014 46,966 2.2

Hawaii 362 19,203 1.9

TOTAL 709,655 6,566,897 10.8

Figures are as of end of 2006.

Backlog figures not available for Alaska, Idaho, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming.

Las Vegas Sun Editorial On Social Security Staffing

Some excerpts from a Las Vegas Sun editorial:

People waiting for their disability claims to be decided are going broke because the federal government cannot handle the claims quickly enough. ...

When it was under Republican control, Congress spent years trimming the Social Security Administration. In the past two years there were more than 2,300 jobs cut from field offices, where people go in to file and, as is often necessary, appeal their claims....

The backlog is a result of cuts that have left the agency at its lowest staffing level since the early 1970s, followed by a dramatic increase in claims. ...

Congress should increase funding and make whatever changes are necessary in the Social Security Administration to cut down the wait.

More Medicare Premium Deduction Problems

I thought that Social Security and CMS had straightened this out, but the problem goes on and on. This is from the Orange County (CA) Register:

Some Social Security recipients will see their payments reduced next month - in some cases significantly - to correct an error in their Medicare premium deductions, Medicare officials have confirmed.

The government failed to deduct enough to cover their Medicare premiums this year, so the shortfall will be taken out in one lump sum from the Social Security checks that will be sent out next week, said Jeff Nelligan, a spokesman for the Centers for Medicare Services in Washington, D.C.

About 15,000 of the country's 4.9 million Social Security recipients are affected, he said. Letters went out this week to those recipients who will get the additional deduction.

National Academies On Rep Payees

From a press release issued by the National Academies:

Although most people who receive and manage Social Security benefits on behalf of other individuals perform their duties well, the Social Security Administration's "representative payee" program should take steps to better prevent and detect the misuse of funds, says a new report from the National Research Council. Currently the program requires reporting by representative payees, but the process does not appear to be effective at identifying cases in which benefits are misspent. The rate of misuse, although very low, is significantly higher than SSA's official estimate, the report says. It offers a new method to aid the agency in identifying possible misuse, and recommends improved support for representative payees and closer tracking of their performance.

"Though the program is meeting the needs of most beneficiaries, the Social Security Administration is not obtaining the information it needs to detect misuse of benefits and provide the best service possible," said Barbara Bailar, chair of the committee that wrote the report, and former senior vice president for survey research at the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center. ...

A national survey conducted as part of the study found that almost 95 percent of beneficiaries are "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with their representative payees. And both representatives and beneficiaries understand representatives' basic responsibilities, which include managing funds to help meet beneficiaries' needs for food, clothing, and shelter. However, many representatives are unaware of SSA's requirement that any unused funds must be placed in a special savings account for beneficiaries. SSA should enforce this requirement and encourage representative payees to conserve funds, the report says. Formal training also should be provided to representatives, along with better long-term support through field staff, toll-free telephone numbers to call for assistance, Web-based information, and other avenues....

SSA should shift from auditing a random sample of representative payees to conducting more targeted audits of those most likely to misspend funds, the report says. In a small in-depth study of a specially identified sample of representatives, the committee found that those with certain characteristics -- for example, those who do not live with the beneficiary, who change residences frequently, or who have a felony conviction – tend to have higher rates of misuse. ...

The study was sponsored by the Social Security Administration.

The entire study can be downloaded for free as a PDF document by registering with the National Academies.