Lisa De Soto At NOSSCR Conference -- 140,000 Unexpected Requests For Hearing!

Lisa DeSoto, Social Security's Deputy Commissioner for the Office of Disability Adjudication and Review, spoke today at the conference of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) in Miami. I will summarize only those things she said that sounded like news to me, with my comments in brackets and italicized following.

• The Social Security Administration is receiving 140,000 more requests for hearing this fiscal year than expected. [This is stunning news. This changes everything. Social Security had a plan that, if you squinted hard and really wanted to believe, would eliminate the backlog of cases awaiting a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) by 2013. That plan does not begin to solve the backlog with this increased number of requests for hearing. By my rough calculation, Social Security now needs 250 more ALJs than they previously thought. There was no sign that Social Security's plans have changed a bit to deal with this new fact. Has anyone mentioned this to the Congressional committees involved?]
• There are no longer any cases that have been awaiting a hearing before an ALJ for 1,000 days or longer. [But the total number of people who are waiting for an ALJ hearing has to be rising rapidly because of those 140,000 unexpected requests for hearing.]
• There were 28,623 cases in which claimants had been awaiting 900 days or longer for an ALj hearing, as of May 31, 2008. De Soto wants that number down to zero by the end of the fiscal year -- September 30, 2008. [But the total number of people who are waiting for an ALJ hearing must be rising rapidly because of those 140,000 unexpected requests for hearing.]
• Approximately 17,000 claimants have been approved as a result of informal remands, also known as re-recons.
• Informal remands, also known as re-recons, will be extended to e-files.
• As of May 31, 2008, there have been 14,974 senior attorney decisions.
• The prognosis for the next fiscal year, which begins on October 1, 2008 is "not positive." De Soto emphasized the near certainty that the agency will be operating under a continuing resolution until well into the fiscal year as a reason. [It will certainly be difficult for the agency to work under a continuing resolution for what may be six months, but the 140,000 requests for hearing that no one planned for may be an even bigger problem.]
• There are now five ALJs in the national hearing center in Falls Church, VA. They are helping out with cases from Cleveland, Atlanta and Detroit. She plans to add five more ALJs to this national hearing office.
• A second national hearing office is to be added in Albuquerque. This office is to have six ALJs.
• 73% of the the cases pending upon requests for hearing was e-files by March 2008.
• The Forms Integrated Templates (FIT) that may be used to draft favorable decisions by attorneys representing claimants is now available in MS Word on Social Security's website.
• E-pulling of exhibits is about to be implemented in Tupelo, MS on a pilot basis. De Soto claims that e-pulling of exhibits is 80% accurate. [Everyone I have talked other than De Soto has rolled his or her eyes when the subject of e-pulling came up. Skepticism about e-pulling is nearly universal in the field.]
  
• E-scheduling of hearings is to be in place nationally by October 2008. [It would be nice to get e-files truly working before we go on to "E" anything else.]
• There will be 60,000 more ALJ dispositions this year than last. [But the 140,000 unanticipated increase in the number of requests for hearing completely overwhelms the 60,000 increase.]
• Social Security is "aware" of a need for a better network of Vocational and Medical experts.
• De Soto wants new regulations in the near future regarding the Disability Review Board in Region I, to allow the Appeals Council to dispose of these cases. [This is part of the fallout from the demise of former Commissioner Barnhart's doomed plan for dealing with Social Security's backlogs]
  

Nancy Shor At NOSSCR Conference

A few excerpts from the remarks made by Nancy Shor, the Executive Director of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR), at the NOSSCR conference in Miami Beach:

• The Appeal Council will be getting the capacity to handle e-files.
• Social Security currently has 12 disciplinary actions against Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) pending at the Merit Systems Protection Board (which adjudicates these actions). Social Security Commissioner Astrue plans to decide what to do next on ALJ discipline after seeing the results of these actions.
• The Social Security Administration wants to start tracking fee petitions.
• There are problems with direct deposit of funds for representing Social Security claimants into bank accounts with Wells Fargo Bank. The bank is insisting that the direct deposits may only go in escrow accounts.
• The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will not require attorneys to take an examination in order to represent claimants before that agency, but will require VA specific Continuing Legal Education courses.
  

Marianna LaCanfora At NOSSCR Conference

Marianna LaCanfora, the Assistant Deputy Commissioner for the Office of Retirement and Disability Programs, spoke today at the conference of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) in Miami Beach. I will attempt to summarize only those things she said that seemed new to me and add a few comments in brackets and italicized.

• Social Security expects a 40% increase in retirement claims and a 10% increase in disability claims over the next ten years.
• In the next year or so, the "principal representative" (a term which she did not define) would be able to file claims for their clients as well as form 1696 online. The "principal representative" would be able to file form 1695 online and get a receipt. She hopes that this will become not only possible, but mandatory -- for represented claimants.
  
• Beginning in September 2008 Social Security will begin testing online attorney access to Social Security e-files. She hopes to make this generally available by early 2009. [Early 2009? I will believe it when I see it.]
  
• She wishes to introduce an automated system by which medical records are obtained automatically before claims files ever reach Disability Determination agencies for adjudication. A Harvard professor has convinced her that this is possible. [Maybe for one Boston hospital, but it is pure fantasy to talk about this happening generally at any point in the reasonably foreseeable future.]
• She expects far more Listings to be published in 2009. [I think that she needs a reminder that there will be a new President next year and that all rulemaking will be dramatically delayed as a result. If the new President is named Obama, everything in the pipeline will get a very detailed, skeptical examination.]

Debit Cards Coming In Florida

From the Treasure Coast Palm newspaper:

The government's use of ATM debit cards for payments to citizens is to expanding to incorporate thousands of Social Security recipients in Florida. ...

Nationwide, about 60,000 Social Security checks are forged annually and 600,000 are reported stolen, officials said. Millions of dollars are involved.

So by August, the federal Department of the Treasury is planning to start offering debit cards to Social Security recipients who don't have bank accounts in Florida. The federal program could help many of the nearly 11,000 Treasure Coast Social Security recipients.

While no local figures are available, nationally about 28 percent of Social Security retirement recipients nationally don't have checking accounts. The percentage figure is much higher — 59 percent — among disabled and lower-income individuals getting Social Security supplemental payments.

New Central Office Digs Coming

From the Baltimore Business Journal -- and make sure to read to the end:

The U.S. Social Security Administration could soon be vacating its Metro West facility in downtown Baltimore for a new city headquarters, more than 18 months after it started looking for new space.

The federal General Services Administration, overseeing the search, said Wednesday it has narrowed its search to two sites in Baltimore City: 2600 Liberty Heights Ave.; and 6100 Wabash Ave. ...

The move would involve only a portion of Social Security's 300 N. Greene St. headquarters. ...

As the Baltimore Business Journal first reported Sept. 22, Social Security is planning to downsize to smaller space because of cutbacks in its workforce. ...

The agency once employed as many as 5,000 people, a number which has since fallen to under 2,000 people.

Criticism For Obama Plan

From Dow Jones:

Some Social Security experts - including Democrats and liberal economists - are wary of a proposal from presumptive Democratic nominee U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., to shore up the federal retirement program by raising taxes on the highest earners.

Obama has said he wants to raise limits on wages that are subject to the 12.4% federal Social Security tax. That is the only specific proposal in documents from the Obama campaign directed at helping make the Social Security program solvent over the long term.

Under current law, Social Security taxes are collected only on the first $102, 000 of an individual's income, indexed for inflation. Proposals to increase or eliminate that cap have been around for years, advanced mostly by Democrats who claim that the wage cap unfairly burdens lower and middle-class workers.

But some economists and politicians warn that lifting the cap jeopardizes a feature that has underpinned the success of the Social Security system since its inception in 1935 - the notion that one will ultimately benefit from the system in proportion to what one has paid into it.

"As someone who has contributed to Obama's campaign and will vote for him in November, I don't think that's one of his better proposals," said Henry Aaron, an economist at the Brookings Institution, of Obama's plan to lift the Social Security wage cap.

I can only guess that Aaron's preference is for cutting benefits or raising taxes on poorer people.

Fraud In Montana

From the Bozeman Daily Chronicle:

A 49-year-old Three Forks man illegally used his elderly mother’s Social Security benefits to buy tires, pay taxes and cover his restaurant and bar bills, while simultaneously neglecting his mother’s health and well being, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

Pendelton Bernard Merriam pleaded guilty to Social Security fraud in Helena on Thursday, according to the U.S. attorney for the District of Montana. ...

Merriam applied to be his mother’s “representative payee,” and promised to use the Social Security payments for his mother’s current needs and save any “currently unneeded benefits for future use,” according to the government.

SSI Monthly Stats

The Social Security Administration has released its monthly package of statistics from the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program.