COBRA Assistance Won't Be There For The Disabled

I had earlier wondered whether the COBRA health care insurance continuation assistance now available for laid off workers would extend to those forced to leave work due to illness, on the theory that their departure from work was also "involuntary."

Unfortunately, it was the Internal Revenue Service rather than the Department of Labor (where separations from employment due to illness have long been held to be involuntary for purposes of unemployment insurance) doing the interpreting. IRS Notice 2009-27 defines involuntary termination to mean a separation from employment "due to the independent exercise of the unilateral authority of the employer to terminate the employment." The notice goes on to say that "absence from work due to illness or disability" is not enough to qualify one for the COBRA assistance.

Border Patrol

From a presolicitation announcement that Social Security placed on FedBizOpps.gov:

Investigative services to be performed under contract to verify claimants' U.S. residency for the purpose of establishing eligibility and continuing eligibility for receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for the Social Security Administration (SSA). ... The service area zones are located along the Mexico-U.S. border in Texas and New Mexico. ...

SSA officials will notify the contractor of the name and address for residency verification. Upon written request, the contractor shall perform an unannounced onsite visit to the claimant's reported address to verify residency, contact one non-relative neighbor who has first hand knowledge of individual's residence and submit a written report documenting the results.

Bad Blood At Social Security

From Joe Davidson's Federal Diary column at the Washington Post (registration required):

Like married couples who are lovey-dovey in public but have a tense relationship at home, the fondness that federal union leaders express for President Obama may not always reflect what's going on between local union leaders and managers in the workplace.

The problem is the emotional baggage left over from their previous relationship. ...

Mark Roth, AFGE general counsel, said "the relationship is now venomous on both sides." Referring to a potential presidential directive calling for labor-management partnerships in federal agencies, Roth said "you just can't layer an executive order over" the bad blood that lingers from the Bush days.

"I know that our Social Security activists are not in a mood to partner with" top Social Security Administration officials, he said. "They want them gone."

Speaking of unions and the Social Security Administration, the Association of Administrative Law Judges is celebrating a victory over the agency that allows the union to represent judges who hear cases involving disability benefits.

An arbitrator, Michael A. Murphy, ordered SSA Commissioner Michael J. Astrue to "cease and desist from refusing to recognize the union" and "from displaying anti-union animus."

Understaffing Costs Money

From an audit report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG):

Our objective was to determine whether the Social Security Administration (SSA) evaluated earnings reported to the Master Earnings File (MEF) for disabled individuals receiving Title II benefits. ...

In our July 2004 report, Disabled Title II Beneficiaries with Earnings Reported on the Master Earnings File, we stated that SSA did not evaluate all earnings reported to the MEF between 1996 and 2000 for disabled individuals receiving Title II benefits as of March 2002. We estimated that approximately $1.37 billion in overpayments resulting from about 63,000 disabled beneficiaries’ work activity was not identified.

To perform our follow-up review, we identified 25,904 disabled beneficiaries (from 1 Social Security number segment) who were receiving Title II benefits as of July 2007 and had earnings reported on the MEF between 2001 and 2006 that may impact their entitlement to benefits. ...

Based on our review, we estimate that approximately $3.1 billion was overpaid to about 173,000 disabled beneficiaries because of work activity. Although the Agency identified about $1.8 billion of these overpayments to approximately 141,000 beneficiaries, we estimate about $1.3 billion in overpayments to approximately 49,000 beneficiaries went undetected by SSA. ...

We recognize SSA’s efforts to improve the work-related CDR process. In addition, we acknowledge the Agency’s limited resources with which to perform this workload. However, we believe SSA may achieve greater savings in the long-term if it could provide the resources to perform more work-related CDRs.

Should Make For Interesting Reading

Under President Obama's Memorandum of March 20 executive branch agencies receiving funds under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) may not consider the views of any lobbyist about expenditures under ARRA unless those views are expressed in writing. These written communications must be posted online within three business days. This does not prevent in-person meetings or telephone conversations in addition to the written statement, but the agency must post a summary of such conversations within three business days.

As best I can tell, Social Security is not yet in compliance with this portion of the March 20 Memorandum. This is not unusual. The Sunlight Foundation reports that few agencies are.

You can already find out online who has been lobbying Social Security, but until now you have been unable to find out what they are saying.

Stay tuned.

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Social Security To Concentrate On Hiring Disabled

From the Network to End Homelessness:

The Social Security Administration recently received funding to hire a significant number of employees throughout the country. This hiring initiative offers a unique opportunity for individuals with disabilities who may want to get a job with SSA. These jobs will be at various skill levels including a number of entry-level positions.

SSA will be holding a national teleconference on this issue specifically for Employment Networks, State Vocational Rehabilitation Staff and others who help people with disabilities go to work on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 from 1:00 to 2:30 PM EST. This session will build upon an earlier Webinar and provide more details regarding the initiative. A guest speaker from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission will also discuss the Schedule A Hiring Authority. Please visit www.cessi.net/ttw to register for the teleconference. ...

In particular, the Agency is reaching out to Ticket to Work Ticket Holders who are trying to return to work, veterans with disabilities through programs such as the Wounded Warrior transitional program, and students with disabilities. Many individuals with disabilities will qualify for consideration under a special placement authority called “Schedule A.”

New ALJ In Wyoming

From the Casper Journal:

Administrative Law Judge Patricia Henry only has been in the state since January, but she's already making a difference for those in Wyoming who were denied Social Security benefits.

With 42 hearings a month, she's whittling away at a case load that includes 634 pending cases. Her goal is to decide 500 cases a year to try to cut down the time claimants have to wait for a decision to less than a year.

Henry is a native Texan who comes to Wyoming from an administrative law judge position in Pennsylvania.