AARP On Social Security Staffing

From the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) Bulletin, mailed to 29 million households:

Texans were already lining up to get help at the Social Security office in Pasadena, a suburb of Houston, at 8 a.m., an hour before the office opens. The glass-and-concrete building, which sits in a no-frills strip mall, is "known for its long waits," says Angelica Obregón, who was leaning against her walker on this muggy September morning, eyeing a gray sky that threatened rain.

"People bring chairs, people bring umbrellas, people bring their breakfasts...because they have a long wait—a long wait," says Obregón, 49, who has visited the office repeatedly about her Social Security disability case.

The Social Security Administration (SSA)—which touches the lives of virtually every American—was once touted as the preeminent can-do agency. But budget cuts, staff reductions and a growing list of new duties involving everything from Medicare to homeland security processing are taking a toll on the system that administers the nation's retirement program, its 1,500 offices in neighborhoods across the country—and the people who rely on them.

"This is a train wreck unfolding right in front of us," says Sylvester Schieber, chairman of the Social Security Advisory Board, an independent, bipartisan body whose members are appointed by the president and Congress to report on the agency.

"People will be alarmed," Schieber says, "to learn this agency they think they're going to depend on … doesn't have the resources to deal with the cases coming its way." ...

Calling a Social Security office can be as frustrating as lining up there. Today, an average of 51 percent of all calls to local offices get a busy signal, according to the SSA's own study.

The Bloomington, Ind., office, for example, serves five counties and has one person answering the phones, says Vicki Ketchum, who was interviewed before she retired as the district manager last month. "People have told me they've called the office for two weeks and couldn't get through," she says, "so they packed up the car and drove up to two hours to get here. That's not right."

Most disturbing may be the backlog in claims for disability insurance. Largely driven by boomers in their 50s—the years when working men and women are most prone to develop illnesses and disabilities, according to the SSA—the number of workers who say they are too sick or disabled to continue to work has grown by a staggering 60 percent in the past few years. Today 750,000 of these vulnerable Americans are waiting an average of 520 days—and in some areas close to three years—for a hearing on their claims.

"The agency is struggling to balance its new responsibilities and its traditional work," without added resources, Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue told a congressional hearing in May.

In a more recent interview with the AARP Bulletin, Astrue said that he is "trying to be optimistic. We're doing our best to stay as far ahead of the curve for as long as we can."

"Right now," he says, "in most parts of the country the level of service is quite high. But waiting times in some offices are more than what I or anyone else would like to see. And the disability backlog is simply unacceptable."

As the workload has been increasing, the number of SSA employees has been shrinking. The agency has lost 4,000 workers in the last two years alone, and staffing is at its lowest level in 33 years. ...

Three New Acting RCALJs

JOA reports on the CONNECT board that three new acting Regional Chief Administrative Law Judges (RCALJs) have been appointed. This is the list:

Judge Carol Sax for the Boston region
Judge Mark Sochaczewsky for the New York Region
Judge Glynn Voisin for the Philadelphia Region

An Photograph From Social Security's Earliest Days

First meeting of the Social Security Board, September 14, 1935. Left to right: Arthur J. Altmeyer, John G. Winant (Chairman), and Vincent M. Miles.

A Brief History Of The Fall Of Bush's Privatization Plan

It may only be the first draft of history, but William Galston of the Brookings Institution has written a paper entitled "Why President Bush's 2005 Social Security Initiative Failed and What It Means For the Future of the Program" and, unlike most of the recent workproduct of "think tanks" that I have read, this is a calm document. My guess is that even most on the right would have little argument with it.

Restroom Case Costly For SSA

From the Baltimore Sun:

A lot of people have done it - used the handicapped restroom stall at work when others were available. But the bad manners usually don't cost an employer thousands of dollars.

An administrative judge awarded a Social Security Administration employee who uses a wheelchair $6,500 in damages this year after nondisabled co-workers occupied the handicapped stall and caused the employee to urinate in his pants on three occasions.

The agency, Administrative Judge Laurence Gallagher ruled, discriminated against the Woodlawn-based worker by not doing enough to prevent the humiliation after he complained several times and resorted to bringing a change of clothes to work.

Charlotte Observer On Consultative Examinations

From the Charlotte Observer:

Jessie Johnson rolled his wheelchair into a small doctor's office for one of the most important appointments of his life. ,,,

But in 16 minutes Johnson emerged, wondering what had just happened.

"I could have done that exam myself," Johnson said.

He is among hundreds of Charlotte area workers who file into Glenn Baumblatt's University City office each year seeking Social Security disability benefits. ...

"The exams are bogus," said Linda Fullerton, president of the Social Security Disability Coalition, an advocacy group for the disabled. "The system is set up so you give up or die." ...

The Observer found:

• Frequent allegations that doctors spent too little time with patients. Federal rules require doctors to set aside at least 30 minutes to one hour per appointment. About half of those interviewed said their exams were shorter than 20 minutes.

• Former and current applicants and their attorneys who described odd behavior by doctors. Some complained of curious attire, such as a Hawaiian shirt. In another instance, an attorney said a doctor spent only minutes, discussing television shows, then dismissed his client.

Disability System Needs Reform?

A press release from the National Center for Policy Analysis, a Dallas based right wing think tank:

The number of workers receiving disability in the U.S. is growing so rapidly that these benefits are now the fastest rising component of Social Security spending - growing at nearly twice the rate of retirement benefits, according to a new analysis from the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA). In a separate study also released today, the NCPA says Chile's disability system costs less than half of the U.S. system - 1.8% of payroll in the U.S. versus 0.7% of payroll in Chile - and provides more generous benefits.

"Older workers often have an incentive to use disability as a form of early retirement," said NCPA President John Goodman. "In Chile, the incentive is to keep working."

The NCPA concluded that the disability system has been growing so fast in part because of perverse incentives. For example:

• According to the Social Security Trustees, the number of disabled beneficiaries more than doubled, from 3.9 million in 1985 to 8.4 million in 2006, whereas people receiving retirement benefits grew less than 25 percent over the same period. Annual disability expenditures grew five fold, while retirement benefits grew less than three-fold.
• If workers claim early retirement benefits from Social Security, the amount they receive for retirement is reduced. By contrast, a 62-year-old worker can claim disability and receive monthly benefits that are about 30 percent higher than early retirement benefits. This creates an incentive to claim disability. And, disability benefits stop if the beneficiary returns to work, therefore discouraging productive labor.
• Although less than 40 percent of disability applicants are initially approved, about 60 percent are approved after appeals. Since appeals are only made by the applicant, not Social Security, the number can only go up, never down, during the appeals process.

Chile replaced its traditional social security system 25 years ago with a system of personal retirement accounts. Workers now put 10 percent of their wages into personal retirement accounts in pension funds of their choice and pay an additional 2.4 percent for survivors' and disability insurance and administrative fees.

Depending on the number of years they have participated and the degree of their disability, Chilean workers are guaranteed to receive as much as 70 percent of their wages - a higher percentage than disabled workers in the U.S. Although workers have a lifetime to save for retirement, they can become disabled at any age. If a disabled worker's retirement account balance is insufficient to purchase an annuity that replaces a guaranteed percentage of his wages, he receives the rest from a group insurance policy purchased by the worker's pension fund. On the average, workers' own savings are projected to cover about 50 percent of the cost of their disability benefits; insurance covers the rest. Due to this reform, Chile's disability system will cost only a fourth of what it otherwise would have been, in the long run.

According to the NCPA's study, several features of Chile's disability system reduce costs and provide workers with incentives to continue working. For example:

• Part of the benefit is financed by the worker's retirement account and investment earnings on the annuity premium.
• Since disabled workers draw on their own retirement accounts to fund their benefits, workers have less of an incentive to claim disability as a form of early retirement.
• Pension funds in Chile participate in the disability assessment procedure and can challenge disability determinations made by independent medical boards.
• Once workers in Chile are approved for permanent disability, they are still permitted to work.

"The experience of Chile suggests disability costs can be contained in a way that benefits both workers and the economy," said former World Bank economist Estelle James, author of the NCPA study. "It is a model worth considering."

Unfortunately, think tanks, particularly right wing think tanks are mostly polemic factories these days. What happens in Chile when you run out of the money you put in your retirement account? If the answer is that you get nothing, then Chile's disability system is not remotely comparable to the U.S. system. What this report does not say is that the U.S. Social Security disability system is among the cheapest in the world, in every sense of the word "cheap".

Californians Angered Over Office Closing

Other Californians are upset about the possibility of the opening of a Social Security office, but residents of San Pedro have the opposite concern. From the DailyBreeze.com:

The San Pedro office of the Social Security Administration shuts its doors today, angering local lawmakers who had been told the branch would remain open another year. ...

"To say that this is unacceptable to us and to the residents of San Pedro and Wilmington who will be unfairly inconvenienced is an understatement," said U.S. Rep. Jane Harman, D-El Segundo, in a letter to Social Security Administration Commissioner Michael J. Astrue.

Harman was joined by other representatives - state Assemblywoman Betty Karnette, Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe and Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn - in objecting to the closure, which they said comes a year before the agency's lease for the San Pedro office expires and flies in the face of an agreement worked out earlier to keep the office open awhile longer.