New Regulatory Proposal On Hearings

Below is a description of a regulatory proposal that the Social Security Administration has filed with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). OMB approval is required before this may be published in the Federal Register as a Notice of Proposed Rule-Making (NPRM).

We propose to amend several regulations and provide new regulatory language to address inefficiencies in the hearings process. The amendments include provisions clarifying that claims denied by state Disability Determination Services and other adjudicators for “failure to cooperate” are technical denials rather than medical determinations, and providing flexibility in setting the time and place of hearings. We also intend to propose new regulatory provisions that will allow ALJs to dismiss a request for a hearing where a claimant has abandoned his or her claim and to specify regulatory standards that require ALJs to clearly articulate their rationale when issuing decisions on remanded claims.

An Idea From Japan

From Kyodo News:

Japan should consider hiking the tobacco tax to cover the ballooning social security costs that are accompanying the rapid aging of society, economic and fiscal policy minister Hiroko Ota said Friday. ...

Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said Thursday raising the tobacco tax is an "interesting idea."

But he also said a sharp increase could prove fatal to thousands of Japanese tobacco farmers and the matter should be taken up by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's tax panel.

Machimura also said he realizes the tobacco tax hike is being proposed also as a measure to curb smoking in Japan and reduce the related health problems.

NC Man Charged

From WSOC in Charlotte, NC:

A 46-year-old Denver [NC] man is accused by authorities of continuing to receive his parents' Social Security checks years after they died. Lincoln County Sheriff's Office Detective Lt. Hal Kluttz said in a statement that Timothy Mark Camp continued to receive the payments over a six-year period between 2000 and 2006 after his parents died. Kluttz said the checks totaled more than $41,000.

Social Security Bulletin Released

The Social Security Administration has released the most recent issue of the Social Security Bulletin, a scholarly journal mostly devoted to statistical research papers.

SEM, PPC And SEO Help Atlanta Law Firm

From a press release:

Berry and Associates has recently expanded on their nationally targeted search engine marketing (SEM) project for its website nationaldisabilitylawyer.com. The Social Security Disability Attorney firm has recently enabled an online pay per click (PPC) campaign.

The online marketing campaign is a supplement to a recent website launch and organic search SEO [Search Engine Optimization] project. The PPC campaign is designed to help increase traffic and visibility to the website for competitive high traffic keywords. A parallel link building project is being implemented to help gain natural search visibility within Google, Yahoo and MSN for significant Social Security law keywords.

"Berry and Associates has helped thousands of disabled people win Social Security Disability benefits. Our team is committed to helping the disabled receive SSDI and SSI benefits," explains Matt Berry, Founder and Principal of Berry and Associates. "We understand the Social Security Disability process can be frustrating and time consuming. Recently we have committed additional resources to further educate and help disabled consumers with SSDI and SSI Disability cases."

Unscientific Poll Results

Political Party AffiliatioDo you consider yourself ... ?

A Democrat (48)	52%
A Republican (18)	19%
An Independent (27)	29%

Total Votes: 93

Three Parter On Backlogs In Ohio Newspaper

The Crescent News of Defiance, Ohio has put out a three part story on the struggles that disabled people face while waiting for the Social Security Administration to adjudicate their cases. Note that this is a three part story in a small local paper! Here are the links:

• Struggling to Survive
• There's Only So Much Agencies Can Do
• Filings Up, Staff Down Have Not Made A Good Mix

That's A Relief

I have heard through the grapevine that Lisa De Soto misspoke in saying that there was a 140,000 increase in the number of new requests for hearing filed this year. There are several hundred people who can attest that this is what she said on Thursday at the conference of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) in Miami Beach, but it appears that that is not what she meant to say. Exactly what the 140,000 figure she mentioned represents is unclear, but apparently that number refers to the next several years rather than just this year.

This does not mean that all is well at Social Security. It just means that we are facing the emergency that we all are all familiar with, rather than that emergency plus an additional unexpected emergency.