Dueling Press Releases

First I read a press release from Advantage 2000 Consultants touting their ability to represent Social Security disability claimants and referring to themselves as "America's leading Social Security Disability Insurance representation firm."

Then I read this press release from Allsup (emphasis added):

Allsup (www.allsup.com), the nation’s leading Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) representation company, has named Karen Hercules-Doerr as National Sales Director of Consumer Sales & Marketing.

Hercules-Doerr will oversee efforts to raise awareness and educate individuals nationwide about the Social Security Disability Insurance program and the assistance that is available for people with disabilities. These steps include reaching out to social workers, case managers and medical professionals in assisting people who have become disabled and unable to work. ...

Founded in 1984, Allsup has helped more than 100,000 Americans with disabilities obtain $1.5 billion in Social Security and Medicare payments. Allsup has a 97 percent award rate and received the Better Business Bureau Torch Award for excellence in customer service. Today, the company has 500 employees working to pre-qualify individuals to ensure eligibility, develop an accurate factual record and represent applicants through the disability decision process.

I think that few law firm would try to get away with describing itself as the "leading" Social Security law firm or talking about a 97% success rate. State bars take a dim view of that sort of thing.

Guard Stabbed At Seattle Office

From the Seattle Times:

A South Carolina man with a history of mental illness and an apparent grudge against the Social Security Administration was charged with stabbing a guard Wednesday morning at the administration's office in South Seattle.

Calvin Eugene Bennett, 50, appeared distracted and did not speak Wednesday afternoon during a brief court appearance where he was charged with assault on a federal officer. ...

The complaint filed in Wednesday's attack alleges that Bennett was seen outside the Social Security offices on South Lane Street more than a half-hour before Wednesday's 9 a.m. opening. Witnesses said that two minutes before the doors were to open, Bennett began hacking at the doors with a knife, according to the complaint. ...

The guard, identified in the documents by the initials "J.R.," was attacked when he opened the doors to check on the commotion. One witness said the guard was stabbed twice in the head.

Lorie Dankers, the spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said the guard was armed but never had a chance to draw his weapon. "He suffered stab wounds in both hands and his head," she said.

SSA Extended USProtect Contract After Problems Already Apparent

USProtect's website contains a press release showing that the Social Security Administration extended its contract with USProtect in July 2006. However, the company's problems were already apparent in 2002 and became more obvious in 2005 when bribery charges were filed.

Bribery was apparently involved in getting the contract with the Social Security Administration -- not bribery of anyone at Social Security, but bribery of a General Services Administration official who gave recommended USProtect to Social Security. Apparently, it was Social Security's Office of Inspector General who first received an anonymous report of the bribery involved in getting the Social Security contract.

Obviously, the Social Security Administration was aware of serious problems at USProtect in 2006 when the contract was extended. Why was this company's contract with Social Security extended?

SSA Dropped Crime Ridden USProtect Just Last Friday

The mess with USProtect, which had been providing security guard services to the Social Security Administration keeps looking worse. The former chief officer of USProtect has pleaded guilty to bribing a contracting officer at the General Services Administration.

Apparently, the Social Security Administration stopped using USProtect just last Friday. Why did it take so long to drop them? USProtect officers had been in major criminal trouble since 2005! Its former chief financial officer has pleaded guilty to withholding information about felony convictions to get $150 million in federal contracts.

USProtect Defunct

From WUSA in Baltimore (emphasis added):

Federal prosecutors have moved to seize $6.9 million from a bank account owned by USProtect, two homes in Naples, Florida, and a boat owned by the past and present owners of an apparently defunct security contracting firm.

On Monday, 9NEWS NOW reported USProtect had locked its doors after being unable to make its payroll last week. Hundreds of employees are impacted. ...

In Washington, US Protect employed hundreds of Court Security Officers at most of the city's courthouses. The company also had contracts for several other courthouses scattered across the United States. In addition to the Department of Justice, US Protect also done business with the Dept. of Homeland Security, the US Air Force and the Social Security Administration. ...

Leaders of the International Union of United Government Security Officers of America tell 9NEWS NOW this is the second collapse of a major government security contractor in less than a year here in the Washington area. International President James Carney adds several more companies have gone under elsewhere around the country. Carney calls it a "growing epidemic" due to contractors under-bidding multi-million-dollar federal security contract proposals. He says sooner or later they find themselves unable to meet their largest expense: the payroll.

Tuesday's forfeiture move came as sentencings of three former company officials approach following earlier guilty pleas to major corruption charges. ...

Richard Hudec, who took over USProtect, later pleaded guilty to charges of concealing earlier felony convictions from federal contracting officials, as well as tax evasion charges.

I do not know whether this is adversely affecting Social Security Administration operations.

World's Largest VOIP For SSA

From a press release issued by Nortel:

The U.S. Social Security Administration(2) (SSA) has confirmed selection of a team led by Nortel Government Solutions(1) to deploy one of the world's largest enterprise VoIP [Voice over Internet Protocol] networks under the 10-year, US$300 million Telephone Systems Replacement Project(2) (TSRP). ...

TSRP is expected to expand and improve services for an anticipated influx of new users, including retiring 'baby boomers.' It will include a centrally managed contact center solution with carrier-class unified messaging and interactive voice response (IVR) capable of supporting 55,000 field office agents. This will provide a common, more friendly 'look and feel' for users and faster, more efficient call handling through skills-based routing that matches each caller's inquiry to the most appropriate agent. ...

Core network rollout begins immediately and is expected to be complete within 180 days. The schedule calls for replacement of existing telephone systems in 205 of the SSA's nearly 1,600 field offices in the first year and another 500 per year after that. The contract also includes network integration operation, maintenance, user support and training. ...

The Nortel Government Solutions team includes General Dynamics, Black Box Network Services, Shared Technologies, York Telecom, High Wire Networks, NetIQ, NETCOM Technologies and Pal-Tech.

Fee Payment Numbers

The Social Security Administration has finally posted updated numbers on payments of fees to attorneys and others for representing Social Security claimants:

Fee Payments
Month/Year	Volume	Amount
Jan-08	20,559	$75,368,163.45
Feb-08	26,570	$95,228,284.32

Waiting In The Carolinas

From the Charlotte Observer:

A Freedom of Information Act request, federal reports and interviews showed the Carolinas had about 48,500 pending disability cases, including about 8,700 in the Charlotte area. Waits at Charlotte's Disability and Adjudication and Hearing Office ranked among the worst -- 125 out of 141 offices in the nation.

The reason: Charlotte administrative law judges, on average, decided 375 cases in 2006. The Social Security Administration asks judges to make 500 to 600 decisions a year.

Though officials tried to remove reporters from the hearing office, the Observer spent more than 40 hours monitoring workers. At any given time, half of the six courtrooms were not in use.

Judges blamed the problems on staffing. The Social Security Administration has since announced it is hiring more judges to reduce delays.