Saving Millions, Wasting Billions

The Oregonian, which ran an article over the weekend on Social Security's inability to do continuing disability reviews because of lack of operating funds, has an editorial today titled "Saving Millions, Wasting Billions." The editorial is a bit overblown, but the basic premise of the editorial is accurate. The Social Security Administration is unable to conduct an adequate stewardship program because it lacks adequate operating funds. The agency is also unable to give the public even adequate service, which undermines the very concept upon which the agency was founded. Social Security is the proudest accomplishment of the Democratic Party. Restoring public confidence in Social Security should be a priority for the Obama Administration.

Proposed Regs on SSI Income And Resources

Social Security has published a Notice of Proposed Rule-Making (NPRM) in the Federal Register on Supplemental Security Income (SSI) income and resources. Here is Social Security's summary:

We propose to amend our Supplemental Security Income (SSI) regulations by making technical revisions to our rules on income and resources. Many of these revisions reflect legislative changes found in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2001, the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA), an amendment to the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968, the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000, and the Social Security Protection Act of 2004 (SSPA). We further propose to amend the SSI home exclusion rules to extend the home exclusion to individuals who, because of domestic abuse, leave a home that would otherwise be an excludable resource. Finally, we propose to update our "conditional- payment'' rule to eliminate the liquid resource requirement as a prerequisite to receiving conditional payments.

There was an unusual delay after this proposal was approved by President Bush's Office of Management and Budget (OMB). It is unclear whether Commissioner Astrue also ran this by the Obama transition. It is not controversial.

Forty Organizations Lobby On Social Security Budget

The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which represents 900 Social Security employees at Social Security's Office of Disability Adjudication and Review, issued a press release Monday on Social Security's budget situation. Here are some excerpts:

The nation’s largest independent union of federal employees has joined with a group of 40 organizations in urging key members of the House and Senate to support additional funding to allow the Social Security Administration (SSA) to make significant inroads in the growing and highly damaging backlog of disability appeals hearings ...

The message from NTEU and other groups comes on the heels of a similar request from House and Ways Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) and the heads of two Ways and Means subcommittees to Rep. David Obey (D-Wis.), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. ...

The organizations seek final administrative funding for SSA in fiscal 2009 of no less than the House-recommended level of $10.427 billion—which is $100 million above the president’s budget request. The administration’s budget proposal did recommend an increase in SSA administrative funds, but the groups say that proposal is insufficient. “We strongly believe” funding of less than $10.427 billion “would exacerbate the massive backlog” of disability appeals hearings, they wrote.

It is unfortunate that these groups feel that they must still fight for an appropriation for Social Security for the current fiscal year that is only $100 million above President Bush's inadequate budget recommendation. The contrast with the bailouts is obvious. We must hope for much better for the next fiscal year which will begin on October 1, 2009.

I have reproduced on the separate Social Security Perspectives blog the letter that this forty organization coalition sent to the relevant Congressional committees.

Transition Meeting On Social Security Coming Up

From the December 8 Capitol Insider put out by the Disability Policy Collaboration (DPC):

DPC staff will meet this week with members of the Obama Transition teams to discuss high priority disability agenda issues and the Social Security Administration. The purpose of these meetings is to educate and inform the transition team about major disability policy issues. In addition, some meetings are targeted to specific federal agencies as the transition team conducts its reviews.

New Federal Judges

"What I do want is a judge who is sympathetic enough to those who are on the outside, those who are vulnerable, those who are powerless, those who can't have access to political power and as a consequence can't protect themselves from being . . . dealt with sometimes unfairly"

-- Barack Obama in May 2008.

The federal courts have had relatively little impact on Social Security in recent years. This may change as the composition of the courts changes over the next four or eight years as a result of Barack Obama's appointments. A Washington Post article reports that 56% of the judges on the Courts of Appeals are now Republicans. Congress seems likely to approve a bill to add 14 judges to the Courts of Appeals and 52 District Court judges.

The most dramatic change will occur at the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. Republicans have a 6-5 majority on the court, but there are four vacancies on the Court.

My advice in recent years on appealing to the 4th Circuit has been to not appeal, no matter how strong the case or how egregious the mistakes below may have been. It has literally been impossible to win at a Court this has become astonishingly right wing. The impression given was that the judges of the 4th Circuit did not bother to read the briefs before entering two paragraph per curiam opinions.

There will also be a change in control of the 2d and 3d Circuits as well.

Christmas At Social Security 1959

Christmas party in Equitable Building in 1959. Left to right: Victor Christgau, Terri Farina, Nell Gallagher, Leona MacKinnon, Mary Alice Bearden, Rita Pulos, Carol Boch, Gladys Sander, Clif Gross, Robert M. Ball, Jackie Ball, Doris Ball, Delphien Bjerragaard, Jack Futterman, Nancy Long. SSA History Archives.

Waiting In Illinois

From the Northwest Herald in McHenry County in Illinois:

LuAnn McAuliffe ... realized that she couldn’t work anymore, so in summer 2005 she filed an online application for Social Security Disability Insurance.

It wasn’t until January 2008 that McAuliffe started receiving payments. ...

But industry experts say that’s not the only reason the system is so backlogged.

Many people are being denied after a first or second application because they don’t know how to complete the paperwork.

“If you don’t do this every day, you’re not going to be an expert,” said Rebecca Ray, corporate communication manager for Allsup, an SSDI representation company.

I am glad that Allsup is generating this sort of article. I do not mind them getting the publicity. I have been quoted in the press before and I never got much business out of it. Allsup probably does not either. But telling claimants that the problem is that they did not fill out their paperwork properly? Come on, that is a typical claimant misconception. Do not mislead people that way. The problem is not that simple and Allsup knows it.

$2.4 Billion More Needed Just To Get Current On Continuing Disability Reviews

From The Oregonian:

The Social Security Administration has fallen behind in reviewing the medical conditions of 1.7 million Americans on its disability rolls, potentially paying up to $11 billion in benefits to people who are no longer disabled.

The agency's failure to tackle those pending disability reviews allows tens of thousands of undeserving people to bleed government funds that Americans count on when they become too sick or injured to work, The Oregonian found in an ongoing investigation of Social Security.

"It's lost money to taxpayers," said Rick Warsinskey, past president of the association representing Social Security's field managers. "There's going to be less money available to pay people their Social Security. We're setting aside money for them. ... It's going to be spent." ...

The reviews have a phenomenal rate of return, last year saving $11.74 for every $1 spent, according to agency records. But Social Security's leaders have pushed those potential savings aside to confront another embarrassing backlog -- 766,905 people waiting to plead cases for benefits before the agency's corps of judges.

Social Security's chief priorities -- speeding up disability claims and serving customers -- leave the agency scarce funds to conduct disability reviews. The agency processed about one in three that came due last year, says Kelly Croft, the agency's deputy commissioner for quality performance....

Officials at Social Security's Baltimore headquarters say 1.7 million medical disability reviews are now overdue. Another 1.7 million of them will come due next year, but the agency says that it expects only enough funding to process 1 million. ...

Astrue, confirmed as commissioner in early 2007, declined through a spokesman to be interviewed about the disability review problem, saying he was too focused on the agency's budget and backlog of disability claims. ...

Astrue's budget officers now estimate that Congress would have to make special appropriations of $2.4 billion just to get current with medical disability reviews and return the agency to its historic volumes of SSI eligibility reviews. And they estimate, even with that funding, it would take until 2013.

Agency officials acknowledge that the Bush administration hasn't sought nearly enough money from Congress to fix the disability review problem.

If $2.4 billion is how much is needed to get up to speed on continuing disability reviews (CDRs), how much is needed to get up to speed on holding hearings for disability claimants and answering the telephones at Social Security?