OMB Clears Proposed Regs On Representation

On August 27, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) cleared "with change" proposed regulations it had received from Social Security to "recognize entities as representatives, mandate the use of Form 1696 to appoint or revoke the appointment of a representative, define the roles of a principal representative and a professional representative, require professional representatives to file Form 1696 electronically, and require a representative to keep paper copies of certain documents ..."

Normally, proposed regulations appear in the Federal Register within a few days after OMB clears them, although the proposed new mental impairment listings were cleared by OMB on July 9 and have still not yet appeared in the Federal Register.

In Kind Support And Maintenance: Loans To Minors

I am not even going to try to explain why this matters. Those who know, know, and those who don't, probably aren't interested. From an opinion by Social Security's Acting Regional Chief Counsel for Region VII:

State law generally provides that a minor may enter into a bona fide loan agreement with an adult, but the minor maintains the right to disaffirm the agreement upon reaching the age of majority, absent factors such as the minor's own misrepresentations concerning his or her age and good cause reliance by the adult, or emancipation by marriage.

State law provides parents have a legal obligation to support their children. Therefore, a parent may not loan an apportioned share of household expenses to a child he or she is already legally obligated to support. Guardianship and foster care cases must be reviewed on a case-by-case basis to determine if an in kind loan is proper.

Good News For One More

From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

Here's a good news update on one of our stories from last week.

A man who's been waiting more than three-and-a-half years for a hearing to determine if he'll get disability payments is finally scheduled to see a judge next month. Since David Hintz first applied for disability three-and-a-half years ago, Social Security has lost his file, transferred it around the state or just let it sit idle, according to Hintz and his attorney. ...

Here's what happened to Hintz: at the end of July, the Social Security Administration called Hintz's attorney to schedule a hearing. A judge would finally determine if the 39-year-old man was eligible for disability payments.

I am glad these people are finally getting relief, but is it all accidental that things happen for them just after their names are in the paper?

New Regulation Proposed -- And Others Still Hanging

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which is part of the White House, must approve all proposed regulations before they are published in the Federal Register. The Social Security Administration just filed the following proposal with OMB:

We proposed to improve the operational efficiency of field offices by reducing the number of individuals who must be interviewed, face-to-face, in the office. Specifically, we will eliminate the requirement to re-interview individuals who became a representative payee (rep payee) for more than one beneficiary. Current policy requires a face-to-face interview for all proposed rep payees. This regulation will eliminate the requirement for that interview where an individual is already serving as a rep payee for another beneficiary.

Let me add a couple of "by the ways" which are probably more important. First, OMB cleared -- with changes -- new proposed mental impairment listings on July 9, 2008. Normally, once OMB clears a Notice of Proposed Rule-Making (NPRM), it appears in the Federal Register within a few days, but not this one. I wish I knew why. Second, another NPRM to "recognize entities as representatives, mandate the use of Form 1696 to appoint or revoke the appointment of a representative, define the roles of a principal representative and a professional representative, require professional representatives to file Form 1696 electronically, and require a representative to keep paper copies of certain documents that we may require" has been pending at OMB since May 30, 2008. The OMB's own rules require that they take action on this within 90 days. The 90 days are up tomorrow.

Woman Thrown Out Of Social Security Office Because Of T-Shirt

From the Los Angeles Daily News:

A routine trip to the Social Security office Monday turned into 30 minutes of shock, disbelief and irritation for Lapriss Gilbert, who was forced to leave the federal building by a guard who objected to her "lesbian.com" T-shirt.

As she headed for a line to pick up a Social Security card for her son, Gilbert was stopped by a guard who said her T-shirt, naming an educational and resource Web site for gay women, was offensive.

She said the guard, who works for a private company hired by the Department of Homeland Security, demanded that she leave the building or face arrest. ...

Lori Haley, a federal spokeswoman for the office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement - which is under the Homeland Security umbrella - said the guard was out of line.

"We believe that the actions of the contract security guard were inappropriate and unacceptable - we have notified his company, Paragon, of our position in the matter," Haley said.

Good News For Three More

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that three disability claimants who were the subject of an article that the paper ran on backlogs at Social Security have been approved.

Good News For One Claimant

I posted a couple of weeks ago about a report on WSPA-TV in South Carolina about Social Security backlogs. WSPA's "7 On Your Side" now reports that Jennifer Satterfield, who was the subject of the report, has now been approved for Social Security disability benefits.

OK, that is one down. Now, how many hundreds of thousands of other claimants are waiting for their decisions?

Proposed Regulations On ALJ Hearings Withdrawn

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which is part of the White House, must approve most proposed regulations before they are published in the Federal Register. Yesterday, OMB posted a notice that proposed Social Security regulations described as follows were withdrawn.

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.

Does anyone know what happened here?