Pikeville Office Honored

From WYMT:

The Pikeville [KY] Social Security office received special honors in an awards ceremony.

The office was selected as the Social Security Administration's best level two office in the Atlanta region, which is one of the highest honors an office can receive.It's an indication of how well they work together. It's an indication of how much they care about people in this service area and I'm just really proud of the staff of this office,” Paul Barnes said.

The office was selected from more than 250 facilities in the Atlanta region, which includes seven other states.

McPaper Says Sky Falling

From the USA Today editorial page:

Preliminary damage estimates by the Congressional Budget Office aren't pretty. Projected Social Security surpluses over the next decade have all but disappeared. Next year's operating surplus, previously estimated at $86 billion, is now $3 billion. Ten years of cumulative surpluses, once seen at about $703 billion, are now projected at $83 billion. ...

Each year that the U.S. government fails to address its massive retirement and health care obligations raises the prospects of it defaulting on its debts, inflating its way out of them, or imposing punitive taxes to pay them off — any of which would cause greater misery than the changes needed to stabilize the system. A commitment to shore up Social Security would serve as a clarion statement that the U.S. economy is a sound long-term investment. ...

For all the talk about "trust funds," Social Security essentially operates on a cash-in, cash-out basis. And once the amount being paid out in benefits exceeds the amount coming in — now expected in 2017 — the government will have to borrow billions of dollars to cover the difference. ...

Preserving Social Security for the long term isn't that complicated. It can be done by gradually raising the retirement age for able-bodied workers, curbing growth in benefits and making high-income workers pay more payroll taxes. The longer a solution is delayed, the more painful it will become.

Just a couple of errors here. First, we do not have to start borrowing money to pay Social Security benefits once more money starts flowing out of the trust funds than comes in. The trust funds are still large and can support net outflows for decades. Second, making high income workers pay FICA, the Social Security tax, on all their wages will pretty much solve the problem all by itself without raising the retirement age or cutting back on cost of living adjustments.

Update: USA Today also published another editorial with the title "Hands Off Social Security" offering an opposing viewpoint, although it does not mention raising or eliminating the ceiling on FICA.

Backlog Growing

This is from the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) Forum. Click on the image to view it full size. Note that despite increasing productivity and considerable overtime there appears to be no sign of progress on reducing the backlogs. Depending upon how you look at it, the backlog may be growing.

Processing Time Per Hearing Office

From the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) Forum. Click on each page to see it full size.

Compare the average processing time as it has changed over time:

• January 25, 2007 -- 508 days
• May 25, 2007 -- 523 days
• July 28, 2007 -- 528 days
• August 31, 2007 -- 523 days
• November 30, 2007 -- 500 days
• February 29, 2008 -- 511 days
• May 30, 2008 -- 523 days
• June 27, 2008 -- 529 days
• July 31, 2008 -- 530 days
  
• September 3, 2008 -- 532 days
• November 5, 2008 -- 476 days
  
• December 3, 2008 -- 480 days
• March 8, 2009 -- 499 days
  

Social Security's ARRA Plans

The Social Security Administration is now releasing weekly reports on what it is doing with the extra funding provided the agency under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the President's economic recovery plan. Here are a few points from the most recent report:

• Trying to submit a plan to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) by April 10;
• Plans to send out a mailer late in April to those eligible for the $250 payments under ARRA;
• Plans to schedule a call with OMB to discuss a draft disability and retirement workload plan.

Interestingly, an earlier report mentioned a plan to post job openings under ARRA competitively using the USAJobs website. If this is being done, Social Security is doing almost no hiring under ARRA. However, it is clear from the reports that it is full speed ahead on the National Computer Center.

Fee Payment Stats

The Social Security Administration has released updated statistics on payments of fees to attorneys and others for representing Social Security claimants:

Fee Payments
Month/Year	Volume	Amount
Jan-09	28,423	$101,128,880.69
Feb-09	31,352	$112,791,207.17
Mar-09	29,199	$104,155,187.96

How Much Hiring Is Social Security Doing?

The Social Security Administration currently has 26 job openings listed on USAJobs. Alyssa Rosenburg on Fedblog reports that as of Friday 46,990 job openings were listed on USAJobs for all federal agencies. USAJobs is not the only way that the Social Security Administration or other agencies announces job openings. Still, it looks like there may be some differences in approach between Social Security and other agencies. How much hiring is Social Security doing? How many job openings does Social Security have? Does anyone know?

Good News For One Claimant

From the Lake County News-Sun:

Erma Graham worked when she was able to work, even after she was diagnosed with manic depression, even with chronic back pain, even after uterine fibroids caused her to hemorrhage every day as she stood deep-frying chicken in hot restaurant kitchens.

... [T]he day came when she was just too weak to work as a fast-food cook and home health-care aide. That's the day, in October 2004, that she first filed for Social Security disability benefits. Her claim was quickly denied. She applied again in 2005 and again in 2006. ...

Graham persevered, with a friend's encouragement, even after an attorney suggested her case was unwinnable. Acting on her own in 2007, she filed an appeal. Last October, four years after she first asked for help, a hearing office in Evanston finally heard her case ... She received word of a favorable ruling in November. In January, she received her first disability check.

Graham is one of more than 13 million Social Security disability beneficiaries across the nation. While the federal government pays $12 billion in disability benefits each month, it fails to pay millions more because of huge appeal backlogs. The Chicago region has an average of 776 cases pending per ALJ, the second-highest pending caseload nationally, according to the National Organization of Social Security Claimants' Representatives.

But the waits are shorter for Evanston, where all northern Chicagoland and Lake and McHenry county claims are heard. That office ranks 13 out of 143 hearing offices nationwide in turnaround time. Its average processing time is 463 days. ...

But Evanston's efficiency received an odd pat on the back from the federal government, which sent Evanston's 10 judges 2,000 more cases from backlogged Flint, Mich., the slowest hearing office in the nation.