Lowest Approval Rate In History

From a press release issued by the Council for Disability Awareness (which appears to be a Long Term Disability Insurance industry group):

The number of workers applying for SSDI disability payments increased to 2.2 million in 2007, 2.6% more that in 2006, while the number of disabled workers approved for payments declined to 37.6 percent, the lowest approval rate in the history of the program.

NY Times Editorial On E-Verify

From today's New York Times:

To hear some in Congress tell it, the federal government urgently needs to expand its electronic employment verification system, E-Verify, to all corners of the country and force every business to use it. But a hearing in the House last week raised serious questions about the costs and collateral damage of that expansion, the latest scheme by hard-liners to slam the door shut on unauthorized immigrant workers. ...

Barbara Kennelly, a former Democratic representative from Connecticut and president of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, warned at the hearing that forcing Social Security to take on the enormous burden of immigration enforcement would be a harmful diversion from its core mission and could strain the bureaucracy to the breaking point.

Lie Detectors For Social Security Claimants?

This is from The Inquirer, a British newspaper, repeat, a British newspaper:

THE GOVERNMENT has put £1.5million up for another round of lie detector test pilots for social security helplines run by local authorities in the UK. ...

The DWP [agency administering British Social Security?] said today in a statement that "initial results" from the seven pilots it has conducted across seven local authorities had been "successful". It provided no other details but said the results justified another round of pilot projects with another fifteen local authorities. ...

The software, licensed through Capita by Digilog UK, which bought the UK licence from Nemesysco, an Israeli software developer, attaches risk scores to people after analysing their voices on the telephone. It will alert a call handler with a "pip" and an on-screen assessment if it thinks it has detected a "high-risk" person. According to Capita, half the people it assesses as high risk turn out to be no risk at all.

Harrow Council said today it had saved an estimated £420,000 in the year since it first installed the software. This was derived from a DWP estimate of the amount a person would typically claim on benefit.

The figure was calculated on the assumption that 132 people who refused to complete the voice-risk analysis assessment would otherwise have tried to cheat the system; and that 500 people who, though they had been flagged as low risk, had declared their personal circumstances had changed and no longer needed benefits would also have otherwise attempted to cheat the system.

Out of 1559 benefits claimants processed by the lie detection system, 118 were flagged as high risk. Just 24 of those, or 1.5 per cent, had their benefits decreased as a result of the intrusion.

Federal Times On Senate Finance Hearing

Some excerpts from an article in the Federal Times:

... [E]xperts warned that unless Congress appropriates more funds to increase field office staff, dire consequences would follow. “We could be going down a cliff if things continue,” [Richard] Warsinskey [of the National Council of Social Security Management Associations] said in an interview after the hearing. “It’s been a steady slide downward. We’re entering a fragile period.”

Added GAO’s [Government Accountability Office's Barbara] Bovbjerg: “Hope for the future is running out.” ...

Pressed by Baucus, McMahon promised to finalize the agency’s annual strategic plan to Congress by July 4.

A goal of the plan is to reduce wait times for visitors to field offices by five minutes to 10 minutes for those with appointments and 10 minutes to 15 minutes for those without them.

Waiting In Rochester

A brief excerpt from an article in the Daily Record of Rochester, NY:

Smith ultimately waited for three years before his appeal was heard by an administrative law judge in Rochester.

The hearing on March 6 lasted about 10 minutes. The judge asked Smith a few questions about his surgery and medical problems, and said that he had already reviewed the materials. Most claimants have to wait 30 to 45 days for a written decision; but this time, Smith was lucky. The judge granted his appeal on the spot.

A Ray Of Light For Galveston

Local efforts to prevent the Social Security Administration from closing its Galveston field office may be starting to get somewhere. The Daily News of Galveston County is reporting that while the office may close, a satellite office may open there in its place. Local Congressman Ron Paul, who is still running for President, is refusing to get involved, however.

Most Popular Baby Names: A Social Security Press Release Worth Reading

The Social Security Administration has released its list of most popular baby names for 2007. This is always a fascinating item, but I have to commend whoever wrote this press release. Included are discussions of the effects on baby naming of popular figures such as Danica Patrick, JaMarcus Russell, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Elvis, the popularity of names rhyming with the word "maiden" and names for girls that reflect spiritual concepts, such as the name "Neveah." You're familiar with the spiritual meaning of the name "Neveah", aren't you? Anyway, here is the top ten list:

Boys:	Girls:
1) Jacob 2) Michael 3) Ethan 4) Joshua 5) Daniel 6) Christopher 7) Anthony 8) William 9) Matthew 10) Andrew	1) Emily 2) Isabella 3) Emma 4) Ava 5) Madison 6) Sophia 7) Olivia 8) Abigail 9) Hannah 10) Elizabeth

ALJ School

An anonymous poster on the ALJ Discussion Forum gives an interesting description of the training that the Social Security Administration gives to newly hired Administrative Law Judges (ALJs). It is worth a read. The Commissioner spoke to the group.