New Rules On Employee Privacy

An amendment of Social Security's rules on disclosure of information from today's Federal Register:

We will not disclose information when the information sought is lists of telephone numbers and/or duty stations of one or more Federal employees if the disclosure, as determined at the discretion of the official responsible for custody of the information, would place employee(s) at risk of injury or other harm. Also, we will not disclose the requested information if the information is protected from mandatory disclosure under an exemption of the Freedom of Information Act.

Light Regulatory Agenda?

According to Social Security's semi-annual regulatory agenda published today, the only rule the agency is working on at the moment is one on representation of claimants. However, there must be some problem with this agenda, since the agency is clearly working on more items than this.

CBS Item On Backlogs Coming

I had posted earlier that I had heard that CBS News was working on a piece about Social Security's backlogs. I received a telephone message this morning from CBS News, which was the first time they had contacted me. By the time I called back, I was told that they had the story ready to go, so I think we should expect the story to run soon, probably tonight, on the evening news.

NY Times Article On Social Security Disability Backlogs

The New York Times article on Social Security disability backlogs is out. Read the whole article, but here are a few excerpts:

Steadily lengthening delays in the resolution of Social Security disability claims have left hundreds of thousands of people in a kind of purgatory, now waiting as long as three years for a decision.

Two-thirds of those who appeal an initial rejection eventually win their cases.

But in the meantime, more and more people have lost their homes, declared bankruptcy or even died while awaiting an appeals hearing, say lawyers representing claimants and officials of the Social Security Administration, which administers disability benefits for those judged unable to work or who face terminal illness. ...

Progress against the backlog, if it happens, cannot undo the three years that Belinda Virgil of Fayetteville has worried about her future since her initial application was turned down. Tethered to an oxygen tank 24 hours a day because of emphysema and life-threatening sleep apnea, Ms. Virgil lost her apartment and has alternated between a sofa in her daughter’s crowded house and a friend’s place as she waits for answer to her appeal. ...

Richard and Vicki Wild and their adult son Mark, of Hillsborough, were mystified that Mark’s case would ever require a judge.

Hospitalized with increasing frequency since his severe diabetes was discovered at age 19, when he was found unconscious in a bus station, Mark Wild was eager to work as a chef. But over the course of 15 years he tried and lost jobs as a waiter and a cook. He had to drop out of culinary school because he was hospitalized so often, his parents said. ...

On Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2006, just a few days before the hearing, Mrs. Wild woke up to find her son gone. On his desk lay his watch, his ring and a bullet.

On that Thursday, Mrs. Wild, 55, got a call at work from their lawyer. “I just wanted to give you the good news,” she said he told her. “Somehow the judge has already approved the disability, it’s a done deal, Mark’s got it.”

Two hours later, a deputy sheriff and a chaplain arrived to say that hunters had found Mark Wild’s body in the woods, dead of a self-inflicted gun wound. ...

Mr. Wild has tried to go back to work, but says he is so depressed that he cannot do his job. He is applying for disability, but knows that he cannot expect an answer anytime soon.

New York Times Article On Social Security Backlogs Coming Monday

Expect a front page article on Social Security's disability backlogs on the front page of the New York Times on Monday. It should be available online later this evening.

Ninety Members Of House Of Representatives Join In Letter On SSA Funding

Social Security Perspectives has a copy of a letter signed by 90 members of the House of Representatives asking that whatever new appropriations bill is reported out to replace the one vetoed by the President have funding for the Social Security Administration at the same level as the vetoed bill.

Fifty-Four Senators Sign Letter On Social Security Funding

Take a look at the letter posted on Social Security Perspectives signed by 54 Senators urging that the Social Security Administration be funded at the full level provided for in the earlier appropriations bill vetoed by the President. Click on each page to see it full size.

Letter About SSA Funding

Below is the text of two letters sent on December 3, 2007. The same letter was sent to Senators Tom Harkin and Arlen Specter, the chair and ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee's subcommittee having jurisdiction over appropriations for the Social Security Administration and to David Obey and James Walsh, the chair and ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee. Note the long list of groups signing off on this. Impressive.

The undersigned organizations represent a significant number of the stakeholders of SSA. We respectfully request that as you work to finalize FY 2008 appropriations levels that you retain the full level of funding for the Social Security Administration (SSA), $9.872 billion, that was included in the conference agreement for the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations bill.

This level of funding is absolutely critical for SSA to address an increasing number of service delivery issues. As you are aware, SSA’s workload has grown significantly in recent years due to the aging of the population and new requirements related to Medicare and homeland security legislation. However, for the past ten years (FY 1998 through 2007) the President’s budget request for SSA’s administrative resources was lower than the Commissioner’s request, and Congress further reduced SSA’s budget by a cumulative total of almost $1.3 billion over that ten year period. Due to this prolonged underfunding, SSA has experienced serious staffing declines as workloads continue to increase. SSA has lost 4,000 positions in just the past two years.

Going back to the beginning of FY 2000, the number of pending Social Security hearings has risen from 311,000 to a record high of 758,000. In addition, approximately 84,000 of these hearings are for veterans. The average processing time from filing for a hearing to the time a hearing is finally processed has increased from about 275 days at the beginning of this decade to 512 days in FY 2007. As a result, many people are losing their homes, living in homeless shelters, going without medical help, losing custody of their children, and even dying without ever receiving a decision.

SSA actuaries estimate that SSA will receive approximately 35,000 more initial disability claims in FY 2008 than was projected in the President’s FY 2008 budget due to the fact that baby boomers are expected to file more disability claims as they approach retirement age. The President’s budget already assumed SSA would not process as many claims as it received, so this increase in receipts merely exacerbates that problem and will increase the backlog. A total of 83,000 claims would be added to the already substantial backlog. This would result in the highest ever initial disability claim pending level – 660,000 – causing processing times for initial disability claims to also increase.

Not only has there been a marked degradation in the level of service that SSA provides related to the disability process but visitors to local SSA field offices for other services are also being negatively impacted by the agency’s insufficient resources. Understaffed field offices are experiencing an ever-increasing number of visitors per week. Currently, SSA employees interview an average of 850,000 customers nationwide per week. In many field offices, these visitors experience waiting times that are in excess of 2 hours. SSA field offices receive over 60 million business-related phone calls from the public per year. A recent report states that 51% of these callers receive a busy signal.

In addition, SSA continues to be given responsibility for new workloads such as processing Medicare Part D subsidy determinations, taking and processing Medicare Part B premium determination appeals and processing increasingly complex security checks and stewardship reviews for Social Security Number issuance, SSI redeterminations and medical Continuing Disability Reviews. SSA is also facing critical needs to reinvigorate the Ticket to Work Program and other work incentives which, if successful, will reduce the number of beneficiaries dependent on benefits. These programs are designed to actually save money for the trust fund. Yet without adequate administrative funds SSA cannot possibly do all this work.

And, with the recent filing for Social Security benefits by the first baby boomer, SSA will be facing its most daunting challenge ever – the number of workers receiving Social Security retirement benefits will increase by 13 million over the next 10 years. These citizens will be contacting SSA at a time when the agency is proposing to close an increasing number of its field offices in response to inadequate funding to keep the offices adequately staffed and the doors open. Many SSA offices could close and others may reduce office hours without increased funding. With the massive number of baby boomers anticipated to need assistance and services from SSA in the years to come, it is imperative that the agency receives the resources it needs to sufficiently serve the growing numbers of people needing service from the agency.

The effects of the backlog extend throughout SSA. As SSA tries to address the crisis, the agency is forced to divert its limited resources away from its day-to-day operations in field offices and payment processing centers in order to try to manage the disability backlog.

SSA is facing these many workload challenges as its allocated staffing has dropped to the lowest level since pre SSI 1972. Since 1987 staffing has dropped by approximately 28,000. The state DDSs have lost over 900 employees in the last two years. If the necessary resources are not provided for the agency, staffing levels will continue to decline and service levels will continue to deteriorate.

We urge you to retain the full level of funding for the Social Security Administration (SSA), $9.872 billion, that was included in the conference agreement for the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations bill. This level of funding will provide SSA with the resources necessary to begin to reduce the backlog and protect many Americans from severe and unnecessary hardship. We are confident that this increased investment in SSA will benefit our entire nation. On behalf of our many members throughout the United States we appreciate your consideration of this request.

Sincerely,

AARP
Alliance for Retired Americans
American Association on Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities
American Association of People with Disabilities
American Dance Therapy Association
American Federation of Government Employees
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
American Federation of Teachers Program on Retirement and Retirees
American Network of Community Options and Resources
American Postal Workers Union Retirees
Association of Administrative Law Judges
Association for Gerontology and Human Development in Historically Black Colleges and Universities
Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
B'nai B'rith International
Easter Seals
Epilepsy Foundation
Federal Managers Association
Goodwill Industries International
Military Officers Association of America
National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association
National Alliance on Mental Illness
National Association of Area Agencies on Aging
National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities
National Association of Disability Examiners
National Association of Disability Representatives
National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers, Inc.
National Association of Retired and Senior Volunteer Program Directors, Inc.
National Association of Social Workers
National Association of State Head Injury Administrators
National Association of State Long-Term Care Ombudsman Programs
National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare
National Council of Disability Determination Directors
National Council of Social Security Management Associations
National Disability Rights Network
National Down Syndrome Society
National Multiple Sclerosis Society
National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives
National Respite Coalition
National Treasury Employees Union
OWL, The Voice of Midlife and Older Women
Paralyzed Veterans of America
Social Security Disability Coalition
The Arc of the United States
United Cerebral Palsy
United Spinal Association.
Voice of the Retarded