^Commissioner Broadcast
Monday, January 14, 2008 12:36 PM
COMMISSIONER'S BROADCAST--01/14/08
A Message To All SSA And DDS employees
Disability StoryI wanted all of you to know that the CBS Evening News is doing a two-part investigative series on the disability backlog tonight and tomorrow night.
Part of what CBS will report is precisely what I told Congress in May of last year. I testified, "The length of time many people wait for their final disability decision is unacceptable. Further I said, "For some, the long wait for their day in court leads to homelessness and the loss of family and friends. Sadly, people have died waiting for a hearing."It appears from their promotional materials that the stories will focus heavily on the problems -- as you might expect from an investigative report. What is less clear is whether they will report on the solutions we have already started implementing.Let me assure you we did our best to convey to CBS that we are attacking the problems with urgency and that we have made real progress in the past year despite declining resources and increasing demands. As I told CBS, we have dedicated employees who are doing their best to address these problems.
| Yes (37) | 36% |
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| No (19) | 19% |
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| Only if a Republican is elected President in 2008 (46) | 45% |
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An investigation of potential fraud netted 83 people in Wisconsin accused of bilking the U.S. Social Security Administration of some $663,000, an agency investigator said Wednesday.According to state and federal prosecutors, the defendants falsely claimed they didn’t receive their benefit checks, and then cashed their replacement checks along with the originals.
Hunting clothes lie on the floor of his home -- his mother's basement -- and 50-year-old Robert Auer figures he'll sell those off, too. ...
A year ago, he was looking at his own stuff in the one-story bungalow on Milburn Avenue he gutted, remodeled and lived in for 12 years -- gone now in a foreclosure.
He laments that he would have been able to keep the house had he received monthly checks from Social Security Disability Insurance.
He first applied four years ago, then applied again, then again through a hearing, then through an appeal.
His is one of 26,820 disability cases that are pending in Indiana -- and more than 700,000 nationwide -- that are caught in agonizing delays, a backlog that the Social Security Administration says has mushroomed. ...
A Social Security report in September pointed out that some disabled people end up homeless or losing family and friends during their long wait to resolve their cases.
Thousands of elderly and disabled refugees who have found safety in the United States in recent years may soon find out just how cold and equivocal America’s welcome can be. These vulnerable newcomers are subject to a federal law that cuts off their disability benefits if they do not become citizens within seven years. ...
While many have done so, thousands have found it impossible to meet the deadline. Some are old and infirm and have not yet been able to pass the language and civics test. Many others are caught in a bureaucratic trap: the notoriously hapless citizenship agency, overwhelmed by security paperwork since 9/11, has not finished their background checks in time.The Social Security Administration estimates that more than 21,000 immigrants since 2003 have been cut off from disability checks for missing the seven-year deadline, and that about 35,000 more will be pushed off that cliff in the next five years unless something is done.
If you wonder who could possibly object to helping this small, fragile population, the answer is almost nobody. A bill to extend the limit to nine years passed the House last July by voice vote, with no objections, and it was to be offered for unanimous consent in the Senate. That is until Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, exercised his right to place a “hold” on the bill, sending it into limbo, where it remains.
Rose Shaw was sentenced to 33 months in prison for lying on social security applications, a mortgage loan application and forging the signature of a federal judge, U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway announced Friday.
Shaw, 50, of St. Charles, pleaded guilty in September 2007 to one felony count of social security fraud and one felony count of mortgage fraud. In addition to her prison sentence, Shaw was ordered to pay restitutions of $153,857.10 on the social security fraud and $70,718.94 on the mortgage fraud.
According to Hanaway, Shaw received monthly social security disability payments from January 1985 thought March 2006, by falsely claiming on the applications that she was mentally retarded and suffered from schizophrenia. The total amount of these benefits was approximately $153,000. Shaw was employed as a mortgage banker under the business name of Rose Shaw Enterprises LLC and Shaw Brokerage Real Estate Investment Firm LLC. On Aug. 25, 2005, Shaw forged the signature of Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Barry Schermer on a bankruptcy document.
An administrative judge remains on the job and a fourth-grade teacher has been suspended with pay after both were arrested in Escambia County on solicitation charges, officials said Thursday.Update: In 2011 Goosens' petition to seal the records concerning his 2008 arrest was granted by a Florida court. The order indicates that Goosens was not convicted of any crime in connection with his arrest.
Robert Goosens, 57, of Navarre is an administrative judge with the Social Security Administration in Mobile. ... [The two men] were charged with misdemeanors.
The judge and teacher were among six men and three women arrested during an operation in the Brownsville area that began about 6 p.m. Wednesday and ended about midnight Thursday. The operation targeted johns and prostitutes.
