But Wait, There's More!

There is another article in The Oregonian entitled Sick And Homeless, Man Gets SSI Benefits Days Before Dying. The final two sentences of the article:

But four days after his check arrived, a friend found Rutherford dead in his Gospel Mission bed. He was 58.

Social Security officials identified no next of kin to whom to award his benefits. The agency kept his money.

Staff Instructions On Informal Remands

Social Security has finally gotten around to issuing staff instructions on the "informal remand" process, also known as re-recon. After a request for a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) some cases are sent back for what amounts to a new review at the reconsideration level. My understanding that only fully favorable decisions could be issued on re-recon is confirmed.

Oregonian To Run Piece On Social Security Backlogs

The Oregonian is planning to run a story on Monday on Social Security's backlog situation. The story is supposed to be on the paper's website already, but I have been unable to find it. Anyway, here are some excerpts from a copy that was sent to me:

Anyone who stands in line for Social Security disability benefits learns certain truths. The system is slow. It's wasteful.And it's often cruel.

Those who have tried to fix the system's immense backlog of claims know why: Congress and the White House have tried to run the agency on the cheap, starving a bureaucracy that must process 2.5 million disability applications a year.

Hundreds of thousands of American workers whose disabilities have pushed them out of the labor force wait in line for years before getting benefits -- if they live that long.

And in the Portland area, where Social Security runs one of the nation's slowest hearings offices, they'll wait even longer.

"It's hard to escape the conclusion that a system that's supposed to help people who are hurting works instead to wear them down and outlast them," says Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., who has worked to fix problems in the local office. ...

Social Security has spent much of the last decade trying to streamline the way it evaluates and winnows cases.

But the plans have scarcely made a dent and sometimes made matters worse ...

The man who heads Social Security, Commissioner Michael J. Astrue, says he's optimistic about a computer program now in place that sifts through claims, identifies clearly disabled applicants and moves them into a pool for quick approval. He's also pushing another fast-track measure that will -- as it rolls out this fall -- speed cases for people suffering any of 25 rare diseases or conditions. ...

The commissioner says he hopes the average claim that reaches the agency's judges can be completed -- from claim to decision -- in about 15 months by the time his term expires.

In 2013.

Update: Here is the link to The Oregonian article.

Major Set Of Articles In Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is running three stories on Sunday regarding the backlogs and other problems at Social Security. You can read them today.

Here is some excerpts from Atlanta's Disabled Often Wait Years For Aid:

Atlanta is arguably the worst place in the country to live if you are too sick or injured to work and have to rely on the government for help.

While Social Security hearing offices nationwide are clogged with claims from severely disabled individuals seeking benefits, the two Atlanta locations are known as "the backlog capital of the country."

The Downtown hearing office at Peachtree Center takes 769 days on average — more than two years — to resolve a claim. It has 9,145 claims pending.

The Atlanta North office on Clairmont Road is even worse, with a backlog of 12,497 claims and an average wait of 793 days, according to Social Security figures. Month after month, the two offices consistently rank among the slowest in the country for resolving claims.

The physical and financial health of many of people waiting will deteriorate.

Some will lose their homes and declare bankruptcy. Others will die. ...

"Over the last several months, the Downtown hearing office has gone hog wild on scheduling," said Robert Hughes, an attorney who specializes in Social Security cases. "I've gone from five hearings a month to five a day." ...

"It used to be very uncommon that you would have a claim where someone would die while their appeal was pending," [Rick] Waitsman [an Administrative Law Judge] said. "Unfortunately, that is becoming much more common. People are dying from what they are complaining of." ...

Astrue said he can't explain why Atlanta received less financial support, given the level of filings here. "All I know is it is a very bad practice and we have moved as quickly as we can to provide redress," he said.

He is pushing Congress for more money to open a third hearing office in suburban Atlanta.

Astrue pushing for more money for his agency? He has been lobbying for President Bush's budget for Social Security, which is less than what Congress has wanted to appropriate!

The other two articles in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution are MS Forces Woman to Go From Employee Of The Year To Living With A Friend and Unable To Work, Social Security Has Rejected Benefits For Woman.

Social Security Managers Newsletter

The National Council of Social Security Management Associations (NCSSMA), an organization of Social Security management personnel, has issued its July 2008 newsletter. One article title of interest: "Stop the eServices Bandwagon -- I Want To Get Off." There is also an article about video service -- not for hearings but for field office service delivery. The pilots are in Riverton and Cody, WY.

By the way, the newsletter contains a link to an organization that I had not heard of before, the Social Security Employees Activities Association. Did you know that there is a Social Security chorus? A Social Security band? A Social Security basketball league?

OPM Stops Taking ALJ Applications

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) started taking applications for Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) positions on Wednesday, July 30. The announcement said that they would take applications only until midnight of the day upon which they received the 600th application. It only too about a day and a half for them to get to 600. They stopped taking applications last night.

Shutdown Fears

I hate to worry people (and government employees seem to have an incredibly visceral fear of job instability, which may be why they were interested in working for the government to begin with), but here is some news. From The Hill:

The prospect of a September government shutdown loomed over the Capitol on Wednesday as the two parties fought over rising energy prices.

It’s a fight some members of either party are willing to have, but others worry about who will get blamed for a repeat of the 1995 shutdown that President Clinton pinned on a Republican Congress. ...

Senate Republicans debated strategy at a party lunch Wednesday, discussing whether they should block a continuing resolution (CR) that must pass in September if the government is to continue functioning, according to lawmakers who attended.

The moratorium on drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) has been renewed annually for decades in spending bills by Republican and Democratic presidents and Congresses.

Since Democratic leaders this year are not planning to pass most of the individual spending bills, Congress will have to pass a CR to keep government functioning past Sept. 30.

Usually, such resolutions pass easily. But this year, soaring gas prices have changed the political calculus and Republicans have decided the issue might rescue them at the polls. Republican leaders say Congress should not leave for the August recess without taking a vote on drilling.

Republicans would likely have to make the first move by filibustering a bill, or by President Bush vetoing a spending bill. ...

A shutdown fight holds allure for Republicans, who have seen Congress’s favorability ratings slide to record lows with little political consequence for the Democrats in control. Though Republicans tried to tag Democrats with the “Pelosi premium,” polling has shown that Bush is taking far more blame for gas prices than are Democrats.

“It depends on whether the White House wants this fight,” said a Republican aide. “A lot has to be gamed out on both sides.”

Backlogs Keep Getting Worse

I have been paying attention to the overall track of the backlog of claims awaiting a hearing before Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) using the numbers provided by Social Security to the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR). Here are the updated numbers on the state of the backlog at certain points over about the last year and a half:

• January 25, 2007 -- 508 days
• May 25, 2007 -- 523 days
• July 28, 2007 -- 528 days
• August 31, 2007 -- 523 days
• November 30, 2007 -- 500 days
• February 29, 2008 -- 511 days
• May 30, 2008 -- 523 days
• June 27, 2008 -- 529 days
  

This makes one wonder how Social Security can claim with a straight face that it has a Plan to Eliminative the Hearing Backlog and Prevent Its Recurrence.