Results Of Last Week's Unscientific Poll

The best current The Daily Show correspondent/contributor is...

Samantha Bee (5) 19%

Lewis Black (5) 19%

John Hodgman (4) 15%

Jason Jones (0) 0%

Aasif Mandvi (1) 4%

John Oliver (3) 11%

Rob Riggle (8) 30%

Larry Wilmore (1) 4%

And one write in vote for Demetri Martin.

I detect the possibility of some poll skewing. Rob Riggle?

I am glad to know that someone likes Demetri Martin's jokes. The nervous, uncomfortable laughter I hear from the studio audience on those rare occasions when Martin appears suggests that I am not the only one who is unable to appreciate his brand of humor.

Beta Test Of Electronic Submission Of Disability Claims By Third Parties

From an announcement by the Social Security Administration:

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is pleased to announce that, in 2008, the agency will develop and implement a Beta test of a web service which will allow the submission of Initial-level claims, including Disability applications and Adult Disability Reports, from companies who assist the public with filing for benefits.

In 2008, SSA plans to develop the web service to initially collect data on the Internet Social Security Benefit Application and Disability Report. Note that when a third party submits an application, SSA must contact the claimant before it is considered valid. In the initial phase, organizations will be able to submit claims data in bulk and receive a confirmation of receipt of the submitted data. In subsequent phases, the systems interface will also include the ability for organizations to check on the status of previously submitted claims information.

SSA would like to extend an invitation to companies who assist individuals with their Social Security benefit applications, to participate in this web service claims data exchange Beta test. The Beta test is structured to use the "consolidator" model, where the participating company serves as a conduit to receive claims data from their client base and electronically transfer the data to SSA.

After the initial disability claims data collection effort in 2008 is evaluated, SSA will add functional capabilities in future years to collect data on electronic appeal forms and integrated claims applications. This multi-year initiative will provide a comprehensive systems interface for companies to send claims data (including Title II Retirement and Spouse application data, disability data, and medical evidence) to SSA on behalf of their clients. The envisioned long-range solution beyond 2008 is a web service that will facilitate the collection of data through the entire life-cycle of Internet applications, including Title II and Title XVI initial claims and appeals.

New ALJ Register Finally

According to numerous anonymous posts on the ALJ Discussion Forum and the ALJ Improvement Board, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has barely beaten the gun and produced a "register", or list of candidates from which the Social Security Administration (SSA) may select new Administrative Law Judges (ALJs). OPM was under great pressure from Congress to produce a new register by the end of this month.

The problem now is that SSA cannot hire any ALJs until it gets an appropriation. Currently, the agency is working under a continuing funding resolution and has no money to hire new employees. It may be next year before an appropriation is signed by the President and some time after that before new ALJs are hired.

Status Of Social Security Appropriations

From the Capitol Insider put out by the Disability Policy Collaboration:

House and Senate conferees are expected to resolve the differences ($1.9 billion) in spending for the FY 2008 Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education appropriations bill [which includes Social Security]. This bill could be the first (out of twelve) FY [fiscal year] 2008 appropriations bill sent to the White House for action by the President. The President has continued to send out strong veto threats on this bill since it spends more than the Administration budget request for these three departments. The bill might be sent as a single bill or combined with another appropriations bill (e.g. Veterans Administration and Military Construction) that the President wants to sign into law.

Effect Of Proposed Procedural Changes

The procedural changes proposed by the Social Security Administration yesterday will cause significantly fewer disability claims to be approved. That is not my assessment, but the Social Security Administration's assessment. The regulatory proposal contains an estimate of the expected effect upon the Social Security trust fund. The estimate is that the savings peak in 2012 with a $215 million reduction in benefit payments and that the total savings in benefits paid over ten years are $1.531 billion. That is a lot of claimants whose cases who would be denied as a result of this proposal, probably thousands each year.

E-Mail Delivery Of Social Security News

You can now receive postings to this blog by e-mail. To sign up for e-mail delivery send an e-mail to Social Security News or go to Topica and register.

I had earlier warned that there might be technical problems early on. The only technical problem that I have seen was that my personal spam filter initially misidentified the e-mailed items from Social Security News as spam and routed them to the spam bin, but that was a simple matter to correct. Any subscriber with that problem would have to correct it on their own end.

Robert Ball On Cutting Social Security

Even this many years after leaving office, Robert Ball is Mr. Social Security. From the Washington Post:

In the Oct. 19 editorial " Mr. Giuliani's No-Tax Pledge," The Post stated: "It's no more responsible for Republicans to rule out tax increases [to strengthen Social Security] than it is for Democrats to insist on no benefit cuts." The Post praised, as a "bipartisan blend," President Ronald Reagan's acceptance of a 1983 fix that included both.

I take exception. It's the essence of responsibility, in my view, to insist on no benefit cuts.

n 1983, I served on the National Commission on Social Security Reform (better known as the Greenspan Commission) and represented House Speaker Tip O'Neill in negotiations with the White House. What was right in 1983 -- a balanced package of benefit cuts and tax increases as part, roughly half, of the final agreement -- would be wrong today.

Social Security benefits are modest by any measure and are already being cut -- by raising the age of eligibility for full benefits and by deducting ever-rising Medicare premiums from benefit checks. So the benefits provided for under present law will replace, on average, a lower percentage of prior earnings than in the past. To cut them further would undermine all that Social Security has achieved -- exposing millions of vulnerable people, both elderly and disabled, to needless economic hardship.

Social Security has never been more important to more Americans than it is now. Private pension plans continue to dwindle -- currently covering only about 20 percent of private-sector employees -- and the national rate of savings hovers around zero. We just can't afford to cut Social Security benefits further. There's no way to make up for the loss.

Social Security benefits are vital to nearly all recipients. About a third of the elderly rely on Social Security for 90 percent or more of their income; two-thirds count on it to supply at least half of their income. The program lifts 13 million elderly beneficiaries above poverty.

Without Social Security, 55 percent of the disabled -- and a million children -- would live in poverty. The program is particularly important to women and minorities. It provides 90 percent or more of the incomes of almost half of all unmarried women age 65 and older (including those who are widowed, are divorced or never married), and it is the sole source of income for 40 percent of elderly African Americans and Hispanic Americans.

Social Security is the nation's most effective anti-poverty program. But it's much more than that. For every worker it provides a solid base on which to try to build an adequate level of retirement income. To weaken that foundation would be grossly irresponsible.

The good news is that there's no need to weaken it. We can shore up Social Security for the future without cutting benefits -- or raising contribution rates. The program can be brought into close actuarial balance over the long run with just three revenue-enhancing changes that are desirable in any case:

¿Gradually increase the maximum amount of earnings covered by Social Security so that the traditional goal -- covering 90 percent of all earnings -- is once again achieved. This change would affect only the 6 percent of earners who make more than the maximum covered amount (now just under $100,000), and implementing the change gradually over the next 20 to 30 years would have only a minimal impact on them.

* Allow Social Security to improve earnings by investing some of its assets -- up to 20 percent, say -- in equities, as just about all other public and private pension plans do.

* Provide a new source of income by retaining a residual estate tax and dedicating it to Social Security. By 2010, the estate tax will affect only individuals with estates worth more than $3.5 million ($7 million for couples). Dedicating the income from the tax to Social Security would considerably improve the progressivity of Social Security financing as well as increasing revenue.

Presidential candidates should be expected to discuss Social Security financing. But in 2008 they shouldn't be held to a 1983 formula. We're in a different time, with different needs -- and there are much better options available than benefit cuts.

Robert M. Ball was commissioner of Social Security in the Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon administrations.

Study On Social Security Disability Decision-Making

From the abstract of "How Large Are The Classification Errors In The Social Security Disability Award Process" by Hugo Benitez-Silva, Moshe Buchinsky and John Rust (emphasis added):

This paper presents an "audit" of the multistage application and appeal process that the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) uses to determine eligibility for disability benefits from the Disability Insurance (DI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs. ... We find that approximately 20\% of SSI/DI applicants who are ultimately awarded benefits are not disabled, and that 60\% of applicants who were denied benefits are disabled.

And from the body of the report:

... our results suggest ...——that the high reversal rates by the ALJs actually serves to reduce the classication error rates. We find that the low initial award rate at the DDS level produces a high rate of rejection errors at this stage. The DDS centers appear to behave according to a philosophy of “when in doubt, reject”. However, self-selection is operative: we find that applicants who appeal an initial rejection by the DDS are more likely to be truly disabled than the initial pools of applicants that the DDS evaluated. Therefore, the relatively high acceptance rate by the ALJs, combined with the self-selection in the decision to appeal an initial rejection, signicantly reduces the rate of rejection errors without increasing the rate of award errors.