Employment Levels At Social Security

The Office of Personnel Management has released figures showing the number of employees at federal agencies as of June 2008. Below is the June 2008 figure for Social Security with the numbers from earlier dates for comparison. Note that the number of employees at Social Security went up by 5.2% between March and June of this year and are back to the same level they were when Democrats became the majority party in Congress.

• June 2008 63,622
  
• March 2008 60,465
  
• December 2007 61,822
• September 2007 62,407
• June 2007 62,530
• March 2007 61,867
• December 2006 63,410
• September 2006 63,647
• September 2005 66,147
• September 2004 65,258
• September 2003 64,903
• September 2002 64,648
• September 2001 65,377
• September 2000 64,521
• September 1999 63,957
• September 1998 65,629

Continuing Funding Bill Passes House Of Representatives

The House of Representatives has passed a Continuing Resolution (CR) to keep the government operating until appropriations bills can be passed. This will allow government agencies to spend money at the same rate as under the 2008 appropriations acts, which expire on September 30. until March 6, 2009. There had been hope that Social Security would be allowed to spend money at a higher rate than that, but, as best I can tell, Social Security did not receive such a dispensation from the House of Representatives.

My Thoughts About NPRM On Representation -- Part II, Mandatory Direct Deposit

I am still wading through Social Security's Notice of Proposed Rule-Making (NPRM) on the representation of claimants. I see many problems. Here is my second installment on this subject.

The proposal would make direct deposit of fees for representing claimants mandatory. Most attorneys I know would be delighted to receive their fees by direct deposit, except for one problem. How would they know which direct deposit goes with which client? The Department of the Treasury is not sending enough information with direct deposits to allow identification of the client involved. This is already a pain when we deal with payments under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA), but we receive far fewer of those checks. The current maximum fee, after deduction of the user fee is $5,221. If I receive a direct deposit for $5,221 I have no idea what client the fee is for. Social Security's response to this question to this point seems to have been "Uh, uh, uh, why don't you ask Treasury?" I find that attitude unhelpful.

Treasury is not the one proposing this regulation. I am not sure how much clout Social Security will have in getting Treasury to resolve this problem, but I am pretty sure that it is more clout than I and others who represent Social Security claimants will have with Treasury. Social Security needs to get this resolved before they make direct deposit of fees for representing claimants mandatory.

You may comment on this proposal online and I encourage you to do so. This is a major proposal. Everyone who represents Social Security claimants needs to be studying it carefully and submitting comments.

Totalization Agreement With Denmark To Go Into Effect

Social Security is publishing a notice in the Federal Register tomorrow that a totalization agreement with Denmark goes into effect on October 1, 2008.

Update. It has not been published in the Federal Register.

Social Security And Voter Registration

Social Security is planning to take its Social Security number database offline for routine maintenance from October 10 to 13. This is a matter of concern to the California Secretary of State because California is using the database to verify voter registration. Apparently, eleven other states would be similarly affected. Senator Feinstein has written to the Commissioner of Social Security to ask that the maintenance be delayed until after voter registration closes.

UNUM Trial To Begin

From a press release:

Trial begins today in federal district court in Boston against insurance giant Unum Group (NYSE: UNM - News) on whether Unum is dumping tens of thousands of disability claims onto the overburdened Social Security system, costing the government millions of dollars.

The court is hearing a "qui tam" lawsuit brought by a whistleblower on behalf of the federal government involving Unum's alleged practice of requiring claimants to file first for Social Security Disability Insurance benefits even when they clearly didn't qualify. If they didn't apply to Social Security, Unum would cut their benefits.

Social Security has much stricter criteria for disability benefits than private insurers. To qualify for disability payments from private insurers, people must be unable to perform their current job; to qualify for Social Security benefits, a claimant needs to be unable to work at all.

"Our lawsuit exposes a practice that creates additional burden on an already overwhelmed Social Security program and also hurts taxpayers," said Colette G. Matzzie, a Washington, D.C., attorney with Phillips & Cohen LLP, which represents the whistleblower. "We're confident that the court will find merit in our case."

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Strategic Plan Released

The Social Security Administration has released its new strategic plan for fiscal years 2008 to 2013. The document shows that the agency's workload will increase significantly in coming years. I see some laudable goals for improved customer service. However, I see no plan that has any hope of coping with the current workload, much less an increased workload. On the whole, this is not a plan. It is hardly a fig leaf to cover the lack of a plan.

The plan does indicate that Social Security plans to spend money to encourage people to save. That is another laudable goal, but such a program could also be used to scare people about the future of Social Security, which, probably, is the reason for the program.