Too Late

From Melanie Payne at the Fort Myers, FL News-Press:

Rick Shagla can't walk. The stiff fingers of his hands are splayed at odd angles, making his handwriting illegible.

He's lost sensation in his extremities. If he can't see his hands and feet, he loses where they are. Unless he's paying attention, he could place his hand on the burner of a hot stove and he wouldn't know it.

Shagla was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome in 1987. He then had testicular cancer. He continued to develop neuro-muscular problems and needed a wheelchair.

In 2002, the Social Security Administration deemed Shagla permanently disabled, granting him full benefits and Medicare eligibility. By 2008, he was receiving $2,487 a month.

Then, in February, Shagla got a letter saying that his Social Security Disability payments had been miscalculated over the past six years. He'd been overpaid, on average, by $1,200 a month.

Not only would his payments be cut to $1,100 a month, he also owed the agency $83,252.

Sometimes when people call me, I can hear so much panic in their voices that it scares me. Shagla's call was one of those.

This was a desperate man.

He'd been evicted. He couldn't pay his Medicare supplemental health insurance.

"They just ripped my life apart," the 47-year-old man said as he sat surrounded by moving boxes. "I'll end up going to a nursing home."

I called Social Security in Atlanta and spoke with Patti Patterson. After a week or so, she called me back.

"Good news," Patterson said. "It was a mistake."

Patterson said Shagla would get his money for March in a couple of weeks, and in April, he'd be reinstated to his previous level of benefits.

"This is rare," Patterson said of the error made in Shagla's benefit change. "We have told him we're sorry."

I got lost in Patterson's explanation of how the mistake was made. But that's OK. I don't need to know how it happened.

I did wonder, however, how often it happens and how long it takes to fix if you don't have The News-Press calling Social Security for a statement?

The answer: All the time and forever.

According to Douglas Mohney, an attorney with the Avard Law Offices in Cape Coral, Social Security is, "an incredibly complex system and tens of thousands of people a year get hung up by not quite knowing the rules since no one gives a complete explanation."

People receiving benefits can suddenly stop getting them, like Shagla, and it takes years to have them reinstated.

Other people trying to qualify for benefits are repeatedly denied and have to wait for a hearing before an administrative law judge, Mohney said.

Getting a hearing can take years. One of Mohney's clients applied for Social Security Disability in 2005. His hearing is scheduled for April 1.

"He's on a cane, and he's been homeless four or five times," Mohney said.

Many of his clients die while waiting.

When I was talking to Mohney, he had on his desk the file of a woman who had been waiting three years for a hearing. She had a number of health problems, including depression.

Mohney had just received notice that her hearing had been scheduled for April.

But she won't need it.

She committed suicide.

Package Destroyed Outside Salt Lake City Office

From KSL radio:

A suspicious package led to the closure of several blocks in downtown Salt Lake today.

The package was found outside the local Social Security office ...

About 20 to 30 people were evacuated from the Social Security building.

Investigators say the package was wrapped in twine and had TV remote controls.

Just after 1 p.m. the package was destroyed. Investigators say the package contained food and personal items.

"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.