Things Are Very Different At The RRB

The New York Times is reporting that the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) is approving 98% of the disability claims they review. The definition of disability is different, but still, that is stunning. I guess that is why I virtually never get a call asking for representation on an RRB case.

Benefit Eligibility Screening Tool

The Social Security Administration has created an online benefit eligibility screening tool. I have not checked it out exhaustively, but it was able to identify the possibility of a disabled adult child claim for an older widow or widower, a possibility that would be missed by the average Social Security employee (no offense, guys -- I was looking for something that would be hard to catch).

SSI Stats Released

The Social Security Administration has released its monthly statistical package for the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program.

Obama Ad On Social Security

Congress Passes ADA Restoration Act

The New York Times reports that Congress has passed and sent to the President the Americans with Disability Act (ADA) Restoration Act. The Act explicitly overturns several Supreme Court decisions. The Act says that "Nothing in this Act alters the standards for determining eligibility for benefits under State worker’s compensation laws or under State and Federal disability benefit programs." I remain concerned about the long term effects of the ADARestoration Act upon the Social Security disability programs, particularly when the Social Security Administration finally deals with the obsolesence of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT). There may be an effect even if all involved deny that there was an effect. There is a fair amount of hypocrisy in the world and even more self-delusion.

Pressure Works

From the St. Petersburg (FL) Times:

The head of the Social Security Administration has announced new steps to reduce the backlog of disability claims cases in the Tampa Bay area.

The South Florida office will serve some areas formerly handled by Tampa but are closer to Fort Lauderdale. In-person and video hearings will continue to be offered at the agency's Fort Myers and West Palm Beach remote sites.

Social Security Commissioner Michael J. Astrue outlined the new procedures in a letter to Rep. Kathy Castor, a Tampa Democrat who introduced a bill on July 14 to address the national backlog of disability claims.

The bill would require that a hearing be held within 60 and 75 days from the date of the request, and that a final verdict be given no more than 15 days after a hearing. Rep. C.W. Bill Young is among the co-sponsors.

Indecent Exposure At Social Security Office

From the Rocky Mountain News:

Federal security officers responding to reports of a man exposing himself to a woman and her daughter in a Social Security office in Denver on Wednesday arrested an ex-convict on parole for attempted murder.

Federal Protective Service officers were alerted at the Social Security office near 16th and Champa streets about 1:05 p.m., said Carl Rusnok, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE oversees the protective service.

Officers took into custody Herbert L. Towery, 67, for investigation of indecent exposure, Rusnok said.

Errors In Workers Compensation Offsets

A recent report from Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) on workers compensation offset computations will come as no surprise to attorneys who represent Social Security claimants -- or to any Social Security employee who regularly deals with workers compensation issues. The computations are complex and Social Security makes plenty of mistakes. Some excerpts from the OIG report:

Workers injured on the job may qualify for DI [Disability Insurance] benefits in addition to benefits under Federal and State workers' compensation (WC) programs. However, combined DI and WC benefits could result in workers receiving more in disability payments than they earned before they became disabled. To prevent this, Congress enacted the WC offset provision under section 224 of the Act, which requires that SSA adjust DI benefits based on an offset formula set forth in that provision of the Act.

While SSA adjusts DI benefits based on an offset calculation, to protect DI beneficiaries with a continuous WC offset against inflation, SSA is required to re-compute the beneficiary's average current earnings (ACE) [a figure used in computing the workers compensation offset] on a triennial basis. This recalculation is known as a triennial redetermination (REDET). A REDET may result in increased benefits ...

In 2006, SSA identified 36,177 DI claims that required a REDET. As of June 30, 2007, SSA had completed 21,976 REDETs, from which we selected a random sample of 250 DI claims for review. To determine whether the REDETs were accurate, we

• reviewed all available documentation for independent proof of current WC rates,
• calculated the WC offset based on the current proven WC benefits data,
• compared the total benefits paid to the total benefits owed, and
• obtained SSA's review and comments for each payment error. ...
  

SSA did not always accurately process and calculate the 2006 REDETs in our sample. In total, 24 (9.6 percent) of the 250 sampled DI claims we reviewed had payment errors. Of the 24 claims, 19 had payment errors totaling $219,610 related to the WC offset calculation. Based on this error rate, for the 21,976 REDETs in our population, we estimate approximately 1,670 DI claims totaling about $19.3 million had payment errors related to the WC offset calculation. The five remaining claims, totaling $53,320, had DI processing errors unrelated to the WC offset calculation.

Also, 16 of the 24 REDET claims had payment errors that continued after August 31, 2007. Fourteen of these errors were related to the WC offset calculation, and the remaining two were unrelated to this calculation. Based on the number of continuing errors, we estimate that for the 12 months following our audit period, approximately 1,406 claims had payment errors totaling about $4.8 million.