Cleveland Editorial

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

After nearly four years, Social Security disability applicants can be forgiven for being cynical about the latest pledges to end the backlog that keeps their cases in limbo.

This time, however, there is a ray of hope that the reforms will work. The Social Security Administration has a bigger budget from Congress and a newly rediscovered sense of urgency about the plight of the 14,090 applicants in Northeast Ohio who have been waiting for months, in some cases years, for a resolution.

The delays are inexcusable. They heap bureaucratic agony on once-proud working people laid low by crippling diseases or accidents. Some people lost their homes, their medical insurance or their very lives before a judge awarded them a disability payment.

The latest reforms could unclog this blocked spigot. And other remedies are in the works that focus on technology and personnel. More judges will be added to the Social Security bench, and current judges are giving priority to the oldest cases and using videos at hearings or not holding hearings at all - simply relying on the documents before them.

Judges should make sure to use the no-hearings solution carefully, so fraud doesn't flourish in the system. But with thousands awaiting a decision - and a possible tidal wave of dis-abled baby boomers not far down the road - the Social Security Administration has to stop making promises and start delivering on them.

Fee Payments

The Social Security Administration has released updated data on payments of fees to attorneys and others for representing Social Security claimants. Payments were way down in December 2007.

As I mention each time I post this data, it should be of interest not merely to those who represent Social Security claimants. Attorneys and other who represent Social Security claimants are paid at about the same time as the Social Security claimants themselves. When we see a slowdown in payments to those who represent Social Security claimants, we are seeing strong evidence of a slowdown in payments to the claimants themselves. No only do claimants have to wait and wait for adjudication of their claims, they often have to wait for payment after a favorable decision.

Fee Payments
Month/Year	Volume	Amount
Jan-07	15,331	$55,149,991.81
Feb-07	19,301	$69,731,683.72
Mar-07	26,505	$94,396,916.02
Apr-07	26,889	$96,650,134.82
May-07	24,429	$86,625,391.60
June-07	27,716	$99,357,038.71
July-07	21,807	$78,273,082.88
Aug-07	28,607	$101,523,346.40
Sept-07	21,409	$75,663,579.78
Oct-07	21,903	$79,209,567.01
Nov-07	27,096	$97,365,979.66
Dec-07	17,991	$63,943,231.30

Charities Help Alleviate Misery Caused By Delays At Social Security

From The Ledger of Lakeland, FL:

It was early October when the power company cut off Justin Barber for not paying his bills, plunging the Auburndale man ever deeper into despair over his worsening health.

A severe case of sleep apnea has prevented Barber from holding a job for the past few years, and his only means of income has been the charity of relatives, friends, his church and the occasional assistance of Polk County Social Services. ...

Now in its 39th year, the Heart program also helped Barber catch up on rent, keeping him from losing his modest apartment. The program is for people who have fallen on hard times because of sickness, injury or loss of job and have exhausted other forms of assistance.

The Heart program relies solely on donations an d the many resources of United Way of Central Florida, which screens applicants and assists in helping them complete applications that are forwarded to a committee of social services experts for consideration. ...

While applicants are considered on a case-by-case basis, the one constant is that they are people whose circumstances are temporary.

Such is the case with Barber, who has applied for Social Security disability benefits and is awaiting his second determination

His case is a good one, according to experts on Social Security eligibility, and Barber is optimistic of his chances. Meanwhile, however, he has only food stamps and the generosity of others to keep him from being put out onto the streets.

An Update

From the CBS News website:

Here’s an update on Armen Keteyian’s investigation on the failures of social security disability. Scott Watson, who fractured his spinal cord after a failed back surgery, appeared in our story on Monday, January 14. He was turned down TWICE for federal disability, and has been waiting nearly a year. Now we’ve learned just days after our story aired, he’s been approved. He was told our story DID NOT influence the reversal.

An Item Placed On The Agenda For Consideration After The Election -- Eliminate The Five Month Waiting Period

A press release from Representative Joseph Crowley:

Washington - Congressman Joseph Crowley (D-Queens & the Bronx) Wednesday questioned the Social Security Administration about the need to eliminate the backlogs in handling disability casework, as well as shorten or end the 5-month mandated waiting period for eligible Americans to receive Social Security disability benefits.

Crowley, a member of the House Committee on Ways and Means, which has jurisdiction over health, tax, trade, Social Security and pension issues, spoke at a hearing on the need for the Federal government to provide more efficient and effective assistance to disabled Americans, including many of our returning veterans.

At the hearing, the Social Security Administration stated that they had not planned on reviewing the five-month waiting period before one can receive SSDI, but agreed to review this limit under questioning from Crowley.

Supreme Court Takes Major LTD Case

Folks who work at Social Security may not notice it, but there is a major interaction between Social Security disability benefits and Long Term Disability (LTD) benefits under employer pension plans. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a major case about LTD. From the Associated Press:

The Supreme Court on Friday said it would rule on an appeal by MetLife Inc. in a case that could make employee benefit plans more expensive. [Obviously, the "more expensive" bit is from MetLife. The other side would say "more fair."]

The dispute centers on whether insurance companies such as MetLife have a conflict of interest when they both administer employee disability plans -- which requires deciding whether employees are eligible for benefits -- and pay benefits under them. If the court rules that handling both functions constitutes a conflict, that could encourage employers to hire separate companies for each function, potentially raising the plans' costs, lawyers for MetLife argue. ...

The case is MetLife v. Wanda Glenn, 06-923. Oral arguments in the case haven't yet been scheduled.

Economic Stimulus Package

I do not want to belabor the point, but last month an extra $200 million to help Social Security work off its hearing backlog was out of the question for President Bush. Today, President Bush is calling for a $140 billion economic stimulus package.

I think it is fair to be skeptical of any statement by any member of the Bush Administration, including Michael Astrue, the Commissioner of Social Security, professing concern about Social Security's backlogs. I would not go so far as to say that the Bush Administration desires that there be large backlogs at Social Security, but, at best, this Administration is indifferent to those backlogs.

Waiting In Fort Wayne

WANE in Fort Wayne, IN is running a local follow-up story to the CBS News report on the problems in Social Security Security's disability programs. See it online.