Updated Fee Payment Information

Below is a table showing the payments of fees to attorneys and others for representing Social Security claimants last year. These statistics are a useful analogue for how quickly or slowly Social Security is paying benefits to disabled claimants after a favorable decision. Notice the unevenness in the payments.

Fee Payments
Month/Year	Volume	Amount
Jan-08	20,559	$75,368,163.45
Feb-08	26,570	$95,228,284.32
Mar-08	23,088	$83,166,027.02
Apr-08	27,296	$98,616,579.78
May-08	29,305	$104,283,373.35
June-08	25,243	$89,786,459.83
July-08	22,238	$77,346,266.77
Aug-08	33,834	$120,819,791.05
Sept-08	25,239	$89,167,725.69
Oct-08	31,296	$111,938,127.61
Nov-08	24,502	$86,982,432.57
Dec-08	23,919	$86,047,403.74

Congressmen Call For Crackdown

The Oregonian newspaper reports that Congressman Kevin Brady of Texas and three other Republican members of the House Social Security Subcommittee, is calling for a crackdown on those who collect disability checks from Social Security but who are no longer disabled.

Of course, Social Security could have been doing a better job of cutting off benefits to those who were no longer disabled if Republicans had just given the agency more operating funds over the last eight years.

Astrue Press Release Thanks Obama

Commissioner Astrue did not bother to issue a press release thanking President-elect Obama for adding $900 million to the economic stimulus bill for Social Security, but he has just sent out a press release welcoming the President-elect's call for discussion on the future of Social Security. Will Astrue be pleased if the Obama plan to insure the future of Social Security is to take the cap off the F.I.C.A. tax?

A Man With A Plan: Dr. Harvey Is Ready To Replace The DOT

Social Security has appointed an Occupational Information Development Advisory Panel to consider what to do about the fact that the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) is obsolete. The DOT has been an important foundation stone for disability determination at Social Security for more than 30 years.

I can only find the name of the panel chairman, Dr. Robert J. Harvey of Virginia Tech. Dr. Harvey appears to have strongly held views. If you are familiar with the DOT issues at Social Security, take a look at these power points, apparently created by Dr. Harvey. Keep reading. They get more and more interesting. Dr. Harvey has a plan. You cannot tell exactly what the plan is from these power points but it involves something called the Common-Metric Questionnaire (CMQ).

I hope that Social Security will remember the Data Quality Act as they go ahead with this. There had better be others beyond Dr. Harvey who think that CMQ is reliable.

Update: Here is Dr. Harvey's curriculum vita. It appears that he has had no problem with the "publish or perish" part of academic life.

Further update: A 2002 study by the Disability Research Institute, paid for by the Social Security Administration, while commending the CMQ in many ways, still recommended that Social Security not adopt Dr. Harvey's CMQ.

Once Again, What Does This Mean?

From the Washington Post:

President-elect Barack Obama pledged yesterday to shape a new Social Security and Medicare "bargain" with the American people, saying that the nation's long-term economic recovery cannot be attained unless the government finally gets control over its most costly entitlement programs.

That discussion will begin next month, Obama said, when he convenes a "fiscal responsibility summit" before delivering his first budget to Congress. He said his administration will begin confronting the issues of entitlement reform and long-term budget deficits soon after it jump-starts job growth and the stock market.

"What we have done is kicked this can down the road. We are now at the end of the road and are not in a position to kick it any further," he said. "We have to signal seriousness in this by making sure some of the hard decisions are made under my watch, not someone else's." ...

Five days before taking office, Obama was careful not to outline specific fixes for Social Security and Medicare, refusing to endorse either a new blue-ribbon commission or the concept of submitting an overhaul plan to Congress that would be subject only to an up-or-down vote, similar to the one used to reach agreement on the closure of military bases.

But the president-elect exuded confidence that his economic team will succeed where others have not.

"Social Security, we can solve," he said, waving his left hand.

Economic Stimulus Bill Has $900 Million For Social Security And Bonus For SSI Recipients

Talking Points Memo has a detailed summary of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the economic stimulus bill that is being proposed by the incoming Obama Administration. Here are the Social Security items:

• Social Security Administration Modernization: $400 million to replace the 30 year old Social Security Administration's National Computer Center to meet growing needs for processing retirement and disability claims and records storage.
• Social Security Administration Disability Backlog and Claims Processing: $500 million to help the Social Security Administration process a steep rise in disability and retirement claims, getting people their benefits faster, and preventing existing backlogs from getting worse. Within this total, $40 million will help SSI upgrade health information technology.
• Payments to Disabled and Elderly: $4.2 billion to help 7.5 million low-income disabled and elderly individuals with rising costs by providing an additional SSI payment in 2009 equal to the average monthly federal payment under the program (approximately $450 for an individual and $630 for a couple). This one-time payment will serve as an immediate economic stimulus as half of SSI recipients have no other form of income and the other half average outside income of less than $450 per month.

This is money to be spent in the next nine months!

Update: Here is a link to the draft bill. The Social Security appropriations part is on page 205.

Social Security Scores Well On President Bush's Management Scorecard

Social Security scored exceptionally well on President Bush's last Management Scorecard, being one of only two agencies with "green" across the main board. The categories are Human Capital, Commercial Services Management, Financial Performance, E-Government, and Performance Improvement. Not all was quite so good. Social Security got only a Yellow in Eliminating Improper Payments, which is a little weird, since Social Security is almost certainly making vastly more improper payments than any other agency. What does it take to get a red?

How Will Deputy Commissioner Be Selected?

From Alexis Simendinger at the Lost in Transition blog:

Obama transition officials are making it clear to incoming Cabinet secretaries and agency heads that they'll be handed a slate of perhaps five or six pre-screened candidates for the top jobs in their departments and encouraged to interview and hire from among those candidates. If the secretaries want to reach outside those lists to make their own hires, they will be required to justify their picks to the president-elect's top advisers, some of whom are headed for the offices of the White House Counsel and White House personnel.

What will the process be for selecting a new Deputy Commissioner for Social Security? Does Michael Astrue, a Bush appointee, get the same consideration as an Obama appointee?

By the way, the blog says the process for Obama will be much like what President Bush followed. Does this mean that Michael Astrue chose Andrew Biggs to be his Deputy Commissioner from a list of several eligibles? I find that hard to believe.