"Relatively Small And Manageable"

From the non-partisan Center for Budget and Policy Priorities:

Social Security’s funding shortfall is relatively small and manageable. The trustees report reaffirms that Social Security is in excellent financial shape over the near term. The program will be able to pay 100 percent of promised benefits for more than three decades — until 2041. At that point, income will be sufficient to pay only 78 percent of benefits. Measured over the next 75 years, the amount by which income will fall short of what is needed to pay benefits amounts to 0.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Many combinations of modest revenue increases and benefit reductions would remedy the projected shortfall for 75 years and beyond.[1] Social Security is structurally sound and does not require drastic changes.

Delays For The Mentally Ill

From WHQR public radio in Wilmington, NC:

Starting the rest of your life with a severe mental illness is a difficult thing. Advocates say just the process of getting coverage for treatment can be a Herculean task. Mike Glancy works as a paralegal to help the mentally ill who can't work receive Social Security Disability Insurance.

"I try to comfort them and commiserate. What can you say to a desperate person who is chronically ill and in pain and mentally ill and have to deal with that. It's hard enough. But then they have to deal with all the financial concerns and worries, it's agonizing."

Getting on disability is a lengthy process. It starts with filing a claim including medical records to prove illness or injury. Only one in four claims are approved off the bat. The rest have to file an appeal and go through a hearing before finally getting the okay for benefits. Glancy says it's a process that often stretches for months on end.

"They're calling me that they're about to lose their house, their car's been taken or whatever because they have no way of paying for it."

The audio is available online.

Idaho Is #1

From the Idaho Statesman:

For the second straight year, the state agency charged with helping people with disabilities receive Social Security payments is the national leader in processing those claims.

The Idaho Disability Determinations Service - a division of the Idaho Department of Labor - extended its top ranking for expediting claims through 2007 by processing cases in an average of 58 to 60 days, depending on the type of claim. The national processing time averaged more than 84 days.

In ranking the agency the best overall in the nation, the Social Security Administration issued its 15th Commissioner's Citation to Idaho, citing "exemplary accuracy, timeliness and productivity that resulted in exceptional service for Idaho citizens with disabilities."

Nearly 300 claims were processed on average each week during the year, the second highest total in the country and well above the national average of 243 claims per week.

So, who is in last place?

Another Take On Trustees Report

From the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College:

The Trustees of the Social Security system have just issued the 2008 projections for the system over the next 75 years. The report contains two surprises. First, the 75-year deficit dropped to 1.70 percent of taxable payrolls from the roughly 2 percent it has been for the last 14 years. The decline was driven primarily by a change in the way Social Security projects immigration. Although the Trustees still project that the trust fund will be exhausted in 2041, the improved outlook enables scheduled payroll taxes to cover more than three-quarters of promised benefits after that point. The second noteworthy difference between this report and earlier ones is that it has not been signed by any public trustees. But this omission reflects a failure with the political process, not with the program itself.

So why did all of those public trustees refuse to sign the report? It sounds like they did not want to associate themselves with a pitch for privatization, particularly at a time when Social Security's long term financing looks better and better.

Social Security "Financially Unsustainable"

From Agence France Presse:

US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Tuesday that America's Social Security program for the retired is "financially unsustainable" and needs an urgent overhaul.

Paulson, speaking after a government panel had completed its annual assessment of the Social Security and Medicare benefits programs, said waves of retiring Americans threaten to soon deplete available funds stockpiled in the two programs.

Biggs Now At AEI

I am not going to follow this guy's career forever, but Andrew Biggs, who was given a recess appointment as Social Security's Deputy Commissioner, is now a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a right wing "think tank." I put "think tank" in quotations because I there seems to be little going on there other than the production of polemics. Biggs' ardent support for privatizing Social Security made it impossible for him to be confirmed as Deputy Commissioner of Social Security.

Assault Charge In Pennsylvania

From the Philadelphia Daily News:

An official with the Social Security Administration testified yesterday that he "felt threatened" when a West Kensington man yelled obscenities at him over the phone and said he would "kick the s---" out of him. ...

Michael Bankoff is on trial in federal court for allegedly threatening to assault three officials at the district office in February and March 2007. ...

Earlier, during opening arguments, Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Hardy said that Bankoff, 28, formerly of E. Tusculum Street near B St., was angry because SSA had discovered that it had overpaid Bankoff more than $9,400 in disability benefits and that he would have to return the money.

The payments were made from April 2001 to May 2003, when Bankoff was ineligible for payments because he was in prison for a state conviction. ...

Defense attorney James J. McHugh, Jr. said in his opening argument that the Social Security Administration had found in 1999 that Bankoff suffered from schizophrenia and other mental disorders. "He does things impulsively, without thinking and without intent," McHugh said.

Social Security Opinion On Legal Effect Of Sex Change Surgery

An opinion, apparently from Social Security's Office of Regional Counsel:

You asked whether Leslie A. M~(the claimant), who was born a male and underwent sex reassignment surgery after marrying Janet L. G~ (the insured), could be considered the insured's spouse for purposes of a widower's lump sum death payment. ...

The claimant and the insured were domiciled in California at the time of the insured's death. In California, "[o]nly a marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized." Cal. Fam. Code § 308.5. When the claimant and the insured married each other in 1973, they were a male and female, respectively. Thus, their marriage was clearly a valid marriage recognized under California law at its inception. ...

If a state recognizes an individual's ability to undergo a sex change, we must determine whether the individual has taken the appropriate action to obtain state recognition of the change. If the state does not recognize an individual's ability to undergo a sex change, or the individual has not followed the procedure set out by the state for it to recognize a sex change, we will find an individual to be the birth sex. Although both California and Montana have procedures to obtain state recognition of a sex change, the claimant did not avail herself of these procedures. ...

Since there is no state recognition of claimant's sex change, the claimant is considered a male, and the marriage between the claimant and the insured would remain a valid marriage between a male and female at the insured's death. Therefore, the claimant has the status of "spouse" for purposes of the lump sum death payment.